TORONTO _ It was the Detroit Pistons' bench to the rescue.
With a little assistance from starter Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
Caldwell-Pope's corner 3-pointer with 13.2 seconds left was the winning basket, as the Pistons overcome a 16-point deficit to take a huge 102-101 victory at the Air Canada Center on Sunday night.
The Pistons' bench _ led by Tobias Harris (24 points) and Ish Smith (15 points) _ scored 52 points on a night the starting lineup didn't have anything. Smith went in for starter Reggie Jackson in the third quarter and never left the floor.
But the Raptors (32-23) looked safe when Kyle Lowry's lay-up with 1:23 left gave them a 101-96 lead.
An Andre Drummond free throw and a Caldwell-Pope jumper cut the deficit to two with 47 seconds remaining.
After Lowry missed a well-defended jumper, Smith rushed into the frontcourt, drove into the lane from the wing, and found Caldwell-Pope open in the corner in front of Toronto's bench.
Swish!
After a Raptors timeout, Marcus Morris forced a tough jumper from DeMar DeRozan.
He missed, and Drummond grabbed his 18th rebound of the night, setting off a wild celebration from the Pistons' bench.
DeRozan led the Raptors with 26 points (10-for-21 shooting).
Caldwell-Pope finished with 21 points on 8-for-22 shooting, including 2-for-12 from long range. Smith added five assists and five rebounds for the Pistons (26-29), who moved into a tie for the Eastern Conference's seventh playoff spot following Chicago's loss.
Similar to the season opener in Toronto, Drummond picked up two early fouls.
DeRozan started off hot, scoring 10 points in the first quarter to give the Raptors a 27-25 lead.
The Pistons' bench fueled an 11-5 run to start the second quarter and took a 37-32 lead.
But the Raptors surged the moment Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy started bringing back starters, using a 19-2 run to take a 51-39 lead.
Van Gundy went back to Harris, Stanley Johnson (11 points), Smith and Aron Baynes and closed the half on a 6-0 run to cut the deficit to 51-45.
The Pistons' starters were still sluggish to start the second half, and the Pistons quickly found themselves down 16 midway through the third quarter.
The Raptors eventually took an 82-66 lead into the fourth quarter.
Van Gundy tried a different defensive approach against the Raptors.
He put small forward Morris on shooting guard DeRozan, who scored 40 points in the season-opening victory over the Pistons. Caldwell-Pope defended point guard Lowry, hiding Jackson on DeMarre Carroll.
He also mentioned Raptors bench shooter Terrence Ross as a major threat, along with center Jonas Valanciunas.
"They've got three really talented offensive guys and Ross, to me, one of the most explosive bench guys in the league," Van Gundy said pregame. "They have a lot of weapons. There's a reason they're third in the league in offense."
