Pistons ride their bench to 16-point comeback over the Raptors
By Ryan Love
The Detroit Pistons (26-29) overcame a 16-point deficit to stun the Raptors (33-23) in Toronto 102-101 Sunday night.
The Detroit Pistons shocked the Toronto Raptors 102-101 at Air Canada Centre Sunday night. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope buried the go-ahead 3-point shot with 13.2 seconds remaining in the game to complete the 16-point comeback.
The Pistons forced a miss from Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan as time expired to secure their first win against the Raptors in Toronto since January of 2015. This win pulls the Pistons even with the Chicago Bulls for the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference.
The Pistons trailed since early in the second quarter before finally taking back the lead late in the fourth. The bench outscored the starters 52-50, and were key in the second and fourth quarters in which the Pistons made their runs.
Here are the grades for Sunday’s win:
B+. KCP struggled on offense for most of the game, but had his hands full on defense against the likes of DeMar DeRozan and <a rel=. SG. Detroit Pistons. KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE
TOBIAS HARRIS. A-. <a rel=. PF. Detroit Pistons
C. <a rel=. C. Detroit Pistons. ANDRE DRUMMOND
SF. Detroit Pistons. MARCUS MORRIS. C+. <a rel=
A. <a rel=. PG. Detroit Pistons. ISH SMITH
Detroit Pistons. REGGIE JACKSON. F. Reggie Jackson mailed in another poor performance and lost most of his minutes to Ish Smith. Jackson scored six points in 17 minutes, and did not offer much for the Pistons on defense. He did not play any of the fourth quarter in favor of Smith.. PG
D-. <a rel=. PF. Detroit Pistons. JON LEUER
<a rel=. SF. Detroit Pistons. STANLEY JOHNSON. B+
B-. Aron Baynes played an important role in the Pistons bench that led the comeback. Baynes only had two points, but added seven rebounds and quality defense against the Raptors bigs. On nights where Drummond might struggle against more skilled bigs, Baynes has earned a significant amount of trust from Stan Van Gundy.. C. Detroit Pistons. AARON BAYNES
STAN VAN GUNDY. B+. Stan Van Gundy had to take some risks when deciding to bench most of his starters for long stretches of time. The Pistons second unit brought energy and scoring that the starters have often struggled to bring consistently. Van Gundy stuck with Ish Smith and Tobias Harris over Reggie Jackson and Jon Leuer late in the fourth quarter, and it made all the difference in the game.. Head Coach. Detroit Pistons
The Pistons will travel to Milwaukee Monday night to take on Giannis Antetoukouenmpo and the Bucks (23-30).