A single victory, and they secure their place. This was the key point for the Detroit Pistons as they prepared for their away game against the Toronto Raptors on Friday evening. By winning this match, the Pistons would guarantee themselves a position in the 2025 NBA Playoffs.
Earlier this week, the Pistons had an opportunity to secure their spot with a victory against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Sadly, they found themselves struggling against the surging Thunder squad despite being short-handed.
If the Orlando Magic had lost on Thursday night, it would have achieved the same result, but the driven Magic managed to secure their win, pushing the Pistons' playoff clinch date further into the future.
On Friday evening, the Pistons defeated the Toronto Raptors with an impressive score of 117-105 despite being understaffed. Leading the charge for the team was Tim Hardaway Jr., who racked up 23 points over his 38 minutes on the court. Supporting him were Malik Beasley and Jalen Duren, both scoring 21 points apiece, which helped the depleted squad secure their victory.
This season’s transformation of the Pistons has been truly astounding. In each of the last two years, Detroit managed to secure fewer than 20 victories. They had an abysmal performance last year with a 14-68 record, which was the worst in the league. These significant challenges led to substantial overhauls within both their coaching team and management ranks.
Troy Weaver transitioned into Trajan Langdon, and Monty Williams was succeeded byJB Bickerstaff as the coach. As they approached the 2024-2025 NBA season, the Pistons looked forward to making progress without putting all their pressure on immediate success. Surprisingly enough, Detroit performed far beyond everyone's expectations heading into the new campaign.
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 job isn't finished just yet. Given that both the Milwaukee Bucks and the Indiana Pacers remain close behind, the positions for the fourth, fifth, and sixth seed spots might still shift as we approach the end of the season. At this point, the Detroit Pistons seem headed towards a potential opening round matchup with either the New York Knicks or the Pacers.
In either case, they'll be eager to lead the organization back to the postseason for the first time since 2019.
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The article was initially posted on www.si.com/nba/pistons as Detroit Pistons Secure Their Place in the 2025 NBA Playoffs .
