But in losing a game, the Pistons gained a little more insight into their character and allowed John Kuester to cull a little more knowledge about some individuals that he wouldn’t have had the chance to glean without the double whammy of losing Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince to injury.

The blemish on the box score from Wednesday’s loss was the 44 points Toronto hung on the Pistons in the second quarter when their pick-and-roll defense sprung gaping leaks and they compounded their trouble with shaky offensive execution. They regrouped in the second half and had a chance to win, but the loss of two minutes-eaters like Prince and Hamilton atop the toll exacted by the fury invested in beating Orlando wore them down.

Throw out that 44-point quarter and the Pistons had Toronto on pace for an 88-point game, further evidence that the possibility of a respectable defensive team lies within them. For all their firepower, for as hot as they were in that second quarter, the Raptors wound up shooting 43 percent, killing the Pistons at the line, outscoring them there by 19.

“We’ve got to get people off the foul line,” Kuester said. “We did a good job holding them to 43 percent the way they started shooting the basketball. We just can’t dig ourselves a hole and have to fight so hard and exert so much energy to get out of it.

“They’re a high-powered basketball team offensively. We’ve faced two teams in a row in Orlando and Toronto that are outstanding offensive teams, but our guys really fought back and that’s the thing I’m proud about.”

Along the way, he also found out more about Jonas Jerebko, saw the first signs of the blossoming of Austin Daye and perhaps got another significant clue about his frontcourt rotation.

Jerebko, one night after doing a laudable job keeping Vince Carter in front of him, did very nicely in his matchup with the multiskilled Hedo Turkoglu. Daye, for the first time, lost that deer-in-the-headlights look and started flashing some of the multitude of skills that excites the Pistons.

He had two blocked shots, one while standing flat-footed when his reach took Marco Belinelli by surprise. He drained a triple and looked good shooting a few others. He took the ball end to end to set up a scoring chance.

“I was pleased with Austin,” he said. “He’s somebody that hasn’t gotten a tremendous amount of opportunities and I thought he came in and gave us a good lift. I thought he was very solid, had a nice block there, moved the ball well and had some good looks at the basket.”

And gave Kuester a little more to think about when Prince and Hamilton at last return.

Coming out of the preseason, we didn’t know much for certain about Kuester’s frontcourt rotation, either. It appeared any of six players – Ben Wallace, Kwame Brown, Charlie Villanueva, Jason Maxiell, Chris Wilcox or Jerebko – could make a push to nail down a spot.

Wallace, based on his finishing flourish to the preseason at Milwaukee, which underscored his value to the team defense Kuester had preached as the top priority since camp opened, and Villanueva, based on his clear edge as an all-around scorer, had the upper hands.

Kwame Brown, based on his size, ability to defend and rebound, and off-season work to make himself a serviceable offensive post presence, was next in line.

But No. 4 remains up for grabs, that made more clear by Tuesday’s DNP-CD for Jason Maxiell and the first extended audition of the regular season for Chris Wilcox.

But Wilcox did little to dent the box score or impact the game in his 16 minutes, registering one rebound, one foul, one turnover and two missed shots. Wilcox got first crack again Wednesday night, but again didn’t make a strong impression. Maxiell had four points and three boards in 10 minutes when he came on due to Wilcox’s foul trouble and … well, we’ll see who gets in the game first Friday night at Orlando.

The different between No. 4 and 5 in the big man rotation is huge, as Kuester admitted after the Orlando win by saying, “It’s very difficult to play five bigs and I feel comfortable playing four right now.”

Curiously enough, the return to health of Hamilton and Prince might end up sorting out Kuester’s frontcourt. Jerebko showed how competitive he can be defensively on consecutive night against two really diverse talents in Carter and Turkoglu, making him an ideal candidate to defend the proliferation of “stretch fours” now coming to prominence. Jerebko is going to hold his own as a rebounder and his ball skills also set him apart among Kuester’s big men.

So if Kuester, after honest trials for both Wilcox and Maxiell, isn’t satisfied with his No. 4 big man, he could consider Jerebko – and, in certain matchups, Daye, who played power forward against Toronto’s Andrea Bargnani – for that spot.