The Detroit Pistons visit the Toronto Raptors on Friday night with a chance to clinch their first playoff berth since the 2018-19 season.
The Pistons (42-34) are just one win or one Orlando Magic loss away from being assured of advancing to the postseason.
The Raptors (28-49) were eliminated from play-in contention with a loss to the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday. They followed that up with a 112-103 home loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday.
The Pistons have dropped the first two contests of their three-game road trip after a 119-103 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday.
Detroit was within four points with 3:55 to play in the fourth quarter but the Thunder drew away. Each team scored 22 points in the fourth quarter.
“Those guys competed their tails off,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “We were down multiple times but kept clawing our way back into the game. We had a couple of plays in that last 3:30 that did not go our way down the stretch.
“To hold that team to 22 points in the fourth quarter, I thought we did a lot of great things defensively. We just didn’t have enough plays offensively down the stretch to get us over the top.”
Tim Hardaway Jr. led the Pistons with 23 points.
Detroit was short-handed with Cade Cunningham (calf) missing his fifth consecutive game. Ron Holland II, Marcus Sasser and Isaiah Stewart were serving suspensions that resulted from the brawl with the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday.
Auser Thompson had 13 points, eight rebounds, three blocks and three steals for Detroit.
“We definitely miss every player that we did not have,” Thompson said. “We had full belief in every player who came into the game. I know the players who were unable to play in this game believed the same thing, but we would love to have them back. We tried our best but fell short.”
The status of Toronto’s Scottie Barnes is in doubt for Friday’s game because of a persistent right hand injury. He was 2-for-8 shooting from the field on Thursday, finishing with five points and five assists in 27 minutes.
“You guys can see he’s struggling even when he’s dribbling the ball out there,” Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said. “He was giving good effort on the defensive end.”
Rajakovic said that the issue has nagged Barnes for at least two months.
Barnes missed the final 22 games last season with a broken finger on his left hand.
Jakob Poeltl and Immanuel Quickley were rested on Thursday but Barnes played after being listed as questionable.
“First part of it is, he’s really trying to go out there and play as many games as possible,” Rajakovic said. “He’s in the mindset that he’s really trying to play through as many games, and to be available, and find the rhythm to help us for the future.
“There are pluses and minuses on both sides. I also think his competitiveness and exerting his energy on the defensive end and really learning how to play deeper in the season is important for us as well, so we decided for now to go this route.”
RJ Barrett led the Raptors on Thursday with 18 points.
While the Raptors forced the Trail Blazers to make 25 turnovers leading to 28 points, they continued to make turnovers themselves with 18 leading to 17 points.
