ORLANDO, Fla. -- Drive is the team Adonis Thomas played for last season. As a verb, it's also a characteristic of summer-league basketball that never can be underestimated.

The Detroit Pistons expect Thomas to be in their October training camp. He had a good season for their NBA Development League team, the Grand Rapids Drive, and is a player the Pistons will look at seriously this summer and fall.

He practiced well last week, and while Stanley Johnson had 13 points and Spencer Dinwiddie 14 in their first summer-league game, it was Thomas' 17 points off the bench which led the Pistons in their 87-76 loss to Orlando Magic "White" on Saturday.

"Just early, making that first impression, that's one of the things I wanted to do," Thomas said. "Even in summer league practice, just letting the staff and the front office and everybody know that I'm going to work hard.

"I'm going to make a stand to make this team."

To that end, the 6-foot-6 Thomas has dropped close to 20 pounds this offseason, and when confronted with a 0-of-4 start from the field Saturday, he kept shooting.

He finished 7 of 14, including 3 of 4 on 3-pointers.

"Kind of nervous, the jitters," Thomas said of his slow start. "You know, you always anticipate coming out here, we've been going to war with each other for so long, when you come out here, it's a different environment. Everybody's looking. So there was a couple of jitters. Everybody on the team told me to relax, the coaches told me to relax, and that's when I found my rhythm."

Johnson, the first-round pick, had a good game. The Pistons had to be pleased with him.

The best Piston on the floor just hopes to be a Piston eventually.

"I just want to go out here and be able to guard, and be able to make open shots when I'm open, and be able to make plays for my teammates, as well," Thomas said.

The Pistons were thrown off-kilter when they learned late Friday that Quincy Miller will miss four to six weeks with fractures to his nose and right eye orbital floor, suffered when he got caught by a practice elbow.

Johnson came off the bench -- Dinwiddie and second-round draft pick Darrun Hilliard were the starting guards, Drive players Thomas and Justin Harper the forwards, and Adam Kemp the center -- and the Pistons trailed 13-9 by the time he entered with 3:53 left in the first quarter.

Johnson was plus-10 in his 25 minutes of playing time. He and Thomas, along with good first-half performances from point guard Billy Baron and backup big man Jared Berggren, pushed the Pistons to a 37-24 lead by the time Johnson dunked off a Thomas lob in the second quarter.

From there, the Pistons' poor shooting (37 percent), turnovers (14, six by Dinwiddie) and indifferent defense (Orlando shot 48.5 percent, with a 42-24 paint scoring advantage) proved too weighty.

Two players with Michigan ties led the Magic. Keith Benson (Oakland University) had 19 points, four rebounds and three blocked shots. Keith Appling (Michigan State) had 17 points and four steals.

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