One win, and they’re in. That was the message the Detroit Pistons needed to hear on Friday night heading into their road matchup against the Toronto Raptors. With a win, the Pistons would officially clinch a spot in the 2025 NBA Playoffs.
Earlier this week, the Pistons could’ve punched their ticket with a win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Unfortunately, the Pistons struggled against the red-hot Thunder team while shorthanded.
An Orlando Magic loss on Thursday night would’ve done the trick as well, but the motivated Magic took care of business on their end, which pushed the Pistons’ playoff-clinching back another day.
On Friday night, the Pistons took down the Toronto Raptors with a 117-105 win while shorthanded. The team was led by Tim Hardaway Jr, who scored 23 points in 38 minutes. Malik Beasley and Jalen Duren each produced 21 points to help the shorthanded team take care of business.
The Pistons’ turnaround this year has been nothing short of remarkable. Over the past two seasons, Detroit won under 20 games. Last year, they turned in a league-worst 14-68 record. The major struggles called for big changes to the coaching staff and the front office.
Troy Weaver turned into Trajan Langdon. Monty Williams was replaced by JB Bickerstaff. Heading into the 2024-2025 NBA season, the Pistons anticipated improvements but made it clear that the season wasn’t playoffs or bust. To the league’s surprise, the Pistons were coming in much better than anybody expected.
Even a trip to the NBA Play-In Tournament would’ve been considered a success for the Pistons, considering how they’ve looked over the years, but just because they have a top-six seed doesn’t mean they are satisfied. The fact that they locked in a top-six seed just shows the positive strides they took.
The work isn’t done yet. With the Milwaukee Bucks and the Indiana Pacers within a few games, the four, five, and six seeds could change during the final stretch of the year. Right now, the Pistons are likely to land in a first-round series against the New York Knicks or the Pacers.
Either way, they’ll look forward to bringing the organization back to the postseason for the first time since 2019.
