In a battle that went all the way down to the final possession, the Toronto Raptors fell to the Detroit Pistons 110-107.
With the loss, the Raptors have been swept by the Pistons and former head coach Dwane Casey 3-0.
With the way the standings line up the Raptors could get another crack at the Pistons in the postseason, but only time will tell.
For now, here are your takeaways from tonight's contest...
The return of Fred VanVleet
After missing 12 games with a thumb injury, Fred VanVleet finally returned to the lineup for the Raptors.
Even though Kyle Lowry was out, head coach Nick Nurse elected to let VanVleet ease himself into his return by coming off of the bench, going with Jeremy Lin in the starting lineup.
VanVleet wasted no time to make his presence felt – he knocked down his first two 3-point attempts of the game and dished out a pair of assists in the first half. He got into a groove so quickly, that Nurse decided to start VanVleet in the second half with Lin moving to the bench.
The move paid off as VanVleet was terrific the entire game finishing with 17 points on 6-for-10 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 shooting from the perimeter. He also dished out four assists and grabbed one rebound in 32 minutes of play.
This sets an interesting stage for Lin, who will likely see his playing time diminish. With Lowry expected to return soon and VanVleet back to full health, Lin will slide down the depth chart as the third point guard for Toronto – a situation to monitor in the coming games.
Kawhi's 3-point shooting
It was another encouraging shooting night from Kawhi Leonard as he knocked down five triples for the second consecutive game.
Leonard was scoring with ease tonight, going for 33 points on 11-for-21 shooting from the field and 5-for-8 from long range.
Over this past week, Kawhi was money from beyond the arc shoooting 54.2 percent, making 13 of his 24 attempts.
He is now shooting 37.1 percent from 3-point land this season, inching closer and closer to his 38.3 percent career average.
Not that his confidence on his perimeter shooting has ever waivered, but if he continues to knock down the 3-ball like this he'll be even more unstoppable as a scorer than he has already been this season, posting a career-high 27.1 points per game.
Swept by Dwane Casey
We all know the story – former Raptors' head coach Dwane Casey leads Toronto to a franchise record in wins, wins Coach of the Year, then gets fired in the offseason.
He was out for revenge against his old team and for the time being, he's gotten that revenge.
With today's win, the Pistons have now swept the season series 3-0 against the Raptors. It's the first time the Pistons have swept a season series against the Raptors in 10 years (the 2008-09 season).
While it's unlikely with how well Detroit has played since the All-Star break (10-3 in that timespan), it is possible that the Raptors could meet with Casey and the Pistons in the first round. They currently hold the No. 6 seed but are just 1.0 games ahead of the No. 7 seeded Brooklyn Nets.
Should the Raptors and Pistons meet in the first round, Nick Nurse will have to bring a new strategy to the table if he is going to take out his former boss.
Also worth noting: the Pistons join the Nuggets and Rockets as the only teams to sweep the season series against the Raptors this season.
Missed opportunity to catch the Bucks
This Raptors loss doesn't change anything, but it was certainly a missed opportunity by Toronto.
Entering today, they were 3.0 games back from the Milwaukee Bucks for the No. 1 seed in the East. It did not seem likely that they would catch the Bucks, but they had a chance to cover some ground today and dropped the ball.
The Bucks fell to the Philadelphia 76ers in Milwaukee, giving the Raptors a chance to cut that deficit to 2.0 games with 12 games remaining. They were unable to take advantage of that chance and will likely end up as the No. 2 seed at the end of the year.
Unfortunately for Milwaukee, they will be without point guard Malcolm Brogdon for 6-8 weeks after suffering a minor plantar fascia tear in his right foot on Friday. The Bucks are now 3-3 without Brogdon so it's not impossible for the Raptors to catch them if they start dropping games, but it's improbable.