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Too much Lowry, DeRozan as Pistons sputter from 3 in losing preseason finale

After a preseason filled with injuries from head (broken noses for Tobias Harris and Aron Baynes) to toe (Stanley Johnson’s inflamed foot), nobody got hurt in Wednesday’s preseason finale.

The Pistons shot it miserably – 1 of 16 from the 3-point line before a 4 of 7 finishing kick – and played the first bout of listless defense Stan Van Gundy saw over the course of the first three-plus weeks of training camp.

But nobody was added to the injury report and Johnson and Marcus Morris returned from leg injuries as the Pistons closed the preseason with a 103-92 loss to the team they’ll meet in next week’s regular-season opener at Toronto.

The big injury, of course, remains the one to Reggie Jackson’s knee. He won’t be available for the opener and for perhaps as many as 20 games after that. So Van Gundy will fret about getting outrebounded by 10 and sloppy, if not excessive, turnovers that allowed the Raptors to score 21 points off of miscues and, mostly, the lack of defensive intensity he knows is critical to carry the Pistons through Jackson’s absence.

“Especially where we are with Reggie out, we can’t go into games and think we’re just going to win it by outscoring people,” he said. “The defense and rebounding have got to be better and we’ve got to get more guys on the glass. That’s not going to be good enough. It’s just not.”

Van Gundy, like pretty much every NBA coach, is forever vigilant about defensive effort staying consistent for fear anything less will become habit forming. It’s become ingrained enough in his players after two-plus seasons of beating the drum that they didn’t really need to hear his concerns after the game. They’re getting pretty good at self-assessment. But they’re also happy to be rid of preseason and eager for next week’s real thing.

“We had a couple of defensive possessions tonight where we didn’t follow the game plan,” Morris said. “But that’s what preseason is for. We get the same team next week to start the season.”

Morris had missed the past three games with a bout of knee tendinitis less severe than that which required Jackson to address it with a platelet-rich plasma injection Oct. 10 that will have him idled for another five to seven weeks. He played nearly 32 minutes and finished with 14 points and seven rebounds.

“Didn’t have problems with it,” he said. “Felt good to get back out there. I told Coach I really wanted to play. He kind of left it up to me, so I told him I really wanted to play to get a little rhythm back and play with the guys a little bit.”

Johnson sounded much the same note after playing just eight minutes in Saturday’s win at Philadelphia and not at all Monday while experiencing pain in his left foot. Tests showed no structural damage, but Johnson was advised by team doctors to wear a shoe that offered more support.

“It was OK. Definitely wasn’t 100 percent, but it was good enough that I can go out there and do my job and be effective,” Johnson said. “That’s really all that matters. Every now and again when I pushed off, it kind of rose up a little bit but today was pretty mild. I had a little pad in there and I had some different shoes on, so maybe the doctors know what they’re talking about.”

Johnson had sporadic minutes in the first four preseason games as Van Gundy got looks at Darrun Hilliard, Reggie Bullock and rookie Michael Gbinije; none of them got off the bench Wednesday with Johnson getting time at shooting guard for the first time in preseason.

“It felt good, especially in the second half, got in some flow,” Johnson said. “I wish I would’ve played a couple of more games this preseason to get more flow, but I think tomorrow we’re going to scrimmage for me and Marcus. The main thing is getting more and more healthy every day.”

The other positional tinkering Van Gundy employed for the finale was extended minutes at center for Jon Leuer. With Baynes sitting out after undergoing surgery to repair his broken nose, Leuer scored 11 points in 23 minutes.

The reality is that preseason didn’t settle all Van Gundy’s questions on how he’ll set up his rotation. He’s comfortable with his frontcourt mix, but the backcourt rotation is unsettled, particularly who plays when Kentavious Caldwell-Pope sits. It could be Johnson as part of a nine-man rotation or Bullock or Hilliard if it goes to 10. There might not be a resolution on that count for weeks – and he’s as much as said it could change from game to game depending on circumstance and need.

And he needs to decide who wins the backup point guard spot, a battle between Lorenzo Brown and Ray McCallum Jr., also too close to call. But that must be settled before rosters are set early next week.

Other than that, ready or not, it’s time to play games that count. Johnson, unsurprisingly, is confident where the Pistons stand coming out of the preseason.

“We haven’t seen our full team together yet,” he said, “but I think our process has been phenomenal. I think, especially when we get Reggie back, but having me and Marcus back is going to be big for us and I think we just need to stay with what we do. If we do what we have to do, what we know how to do, I’m not sure how many teams in the league are going to compete with us on a night-to-night basis.”