Just as one key member of the Detroit Pistons’ vaunted defense returned to the lineup, another made their departure against the Toronto Raptors. 

On Sunday afternoon, third-year forward Ausar Thompson rejoined the Pistons’ starting rotation after sitting out five games due to a sprained right ankle, but Detroit entered the game without the interior presence of Isaiah Stewart, who had been battling a calf injury for multiple games. 

According to Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, Stewart grinded out a physical 16-point win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday with 10 points and four rebounds to his credit, but Beef Stew was laboring by the end of the contest. The Grizzlies were missing several of their key big men for the game, so a semi-healthy Stewart was enough to secure a 126-110 victory for the Pistons. 

But as a result of compounding stress on his left calf, Stewart was held out of Detroit’s loss to the Raptors, and he’s going to miss some time while that injury heals up before the postseason. 

“It’s something he’s been dealing with,” Bickerstaff told Omari Sankofa of the Detroit Free Press before the Raptors game. “It had just been getting worse. He gutted it out last game, and I think you can see he was favoring it late.”

Stewart played 20 minutes against Memphis despite the ailment, but the Pistons are opting to shut down the issue before it grows into a more serious injury when the playoffs arrive. 

“It’s something we’re going to take time with,” Bickerstaff added. 

Subsequently, Stewart’s chances of making the NBA’s All-Defense first or second teams also vanished with this calf injury considering Beef Stew was delicately tip-toeing the eligibility line prior to the injury. The NBA requires 65 games played of at least 20 minutes per contest to qualify (with two games allotted as near misses), but Stewart has no chance for the end-of-year honor. 

With Stewart sidelined for last night’s Eastern Conference affair, the Pistons were outworked on the glass and finished the game with a 48-39 deficit in the rebounding department. The Raptors grabbed 20 rebounds in a relentless pursuit of second-chance opportunities, and their persistence in attacking the boards helped make the difference for Toronto over the weekend. 

“Just not enough physicality,” Bickerstaff said after the game. “We didn’t dictate well enough on that end of the floor and then gave them second and third opportunities. It’s going to be hard to survive. If you’re not controlling the basketball, your big guy has to go help. Chain of events now with that size that they have in Poeltl doing a great job of finding that position to get on the offensive glass, but we just didn’t dictate enough defensively and we’ve got to be better.”

Since Stewart was unable to help restore order for Detroit in the paint last night, the Pistons went with a Jalen Duren / Paul Reed rotation that has served the team well up to this point. But as Bickerstaff alluded to, the Raptors’ big men, primarily Jakob Poeltl, were more aggressive in tracking down 50-50 balls, and that weakness hurt the Pistons on Sunday. 

“The ball got loose so our bigs had to help a lot, but give [Toronto] credit, I thought they were quicker to the ball,” Bickerstaff said. “They had multiple guys that were going to attack it. You know it coming in as part of the game plan, part of what they do, and I just thought they did a better job than us tonight.”

Without Beef Stew, the Pistons were outworked in the trenches by a Raptors squad that they might see during the playoffs. So, to make sure that doesn’t happen again during the postseason, Detroit must make sure Stewart is back at full capacity before working the rim-protecting big man back into the lineup. 

Next up, the Pistons travel to Washington D.C. for a 7 pm tip-off against the Wizards tomorrow night. 

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