Toronto @ Detroit preview

Last Meeting ( Oct 30, 2019 ) Detroit 113, Toronto 125

Pascal Siakam and Kyle Lowry playing well and getting some help is a decent recipe for success for the Toronto Raptors, who will try to push their winning streak to three in a row when they visit the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday. Siakam and Lowry are getting plenty of support recently from Norm Powell, who is budding into a star for the team.

Siakam scored 33 points and Lowry collected 20 points and 11 assists in Monday's 133-113 triumph over Cleveland but the best player on the floor may have been Powell, who breezed to 26 points on 11-of-15 shooting in 36 minutes. "I'm just being able to read what the defense is doing, how they're playing, where their bigs are at, whether it is a finish or a kick-out or a drop-off to the bigs, just taking what the defense is giving me and being aggressive and thinking try to go up there and dunk the ball, even if I'm not dunking it," Powell told reporters. Trying to stop Powell and company on Wednesday will be a banged-up Pistons squad that was without its starting frontcourt tandem of Blake Griffin (knee) and Andre Drummond (eye) during a 133-119 loss to the Washington Wizards on Monday. "Our margin for error to win in this league is very small and you take out two guys like Blake and (Drummond), whoever's out there has got to do his job," Detroit coach Dwane Casey told reporters. "We can give every excuse - who's here, who's not playing. Same thing happened in (a win Saturday over) Houston. Everybody's happy in Mudville then."

TV: 7 p.m. ET, TSN (Toronto), FS Detroit

ABOUT THE RAPTORS (18-8): Powell is averaging 24.3 points on 68.3 percent shooting over the last three games and is forcing Toronto coach Nick Nurse to consider keeping him in the starting lineup when Fred VanVleet (knee) returns from injury, though the role doesn't seem to matter to Powell. "I've said it before - I'll do whatever helps the team," Powell told reporters. "I'm going out there to help the team, whatever decision they make, how they feel, I'll go out and put my best foot forward. Coming off the bench or starting, it doesn't matter to me as long as we're winning. I've always been like that, and that's not gonna change." Powell is contributing at the defensive end as well and recorded a team-high four steals in Monday's win.

ABOUT THE PISTONS (11-16): Drummond and Griffin are both day-to-day and Detroit could use their presence on the defensive end after allowing the Wizards to shoot 55.7 percent from the floor on Monday. "We couldn't get stops," Pistons forward Markieff Morris told reporters. "We couldn't really get stops all game. They scored 133 points, so it just wasn't in the fourth. They figured out how to get their best players the ball. (Bradley Beal) had a great game, his teammates hit some shots in the fourth and we just couldn't figure that out." Morris started in place of Griffin and scored 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting while Thon Maker collected four points and four rebounds in place of Drummond.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Siakam recorded 30-plus points in each of the last two games - his first back-to-back 30-plus efforts since the opening two games of the season.

2. Pistons PG Derrick Rose totaled 42 points and 20 assists in the last two contests.

3. Toronto knocked off Detroit 125-113 at home on Oct. 30 while shooting 59.3 percent from the floor.

PREDICTION: Raptors 116, Pistons 104