Raptors 110, Pistons 99

Ben Gordon scores 30 as Pistons rally but run out of steam

Ted Kulfan / The Detroit News

Toronto -- Sometimes a team can fall behind early, but have enough energy at the end to rally and steal a win.

But, more often than not, the team that falls behind simply exerts too much energy just coming back.

That was the case with the Pistons Wednesday in Toronto.

A disastrous second quarter put them in a hole from which they could not totally escape, losing 110-99.

"That's where we dug ourselves a hole," coach John Kuester said of a second quarter in which Toronto scored 44 points to take a 68-56 lead into halftime.

Toronto stretched the lead to 17 points in the third quarter, but the Pistons rallied and eventually grabbed a 91-90 lead on Will Bynum's lay-up with 7 minutes, 39 seconds left in the game.

But Toronto's Jose Calderon sank a 3-pointer to regain the lead and the Raptors gradually pulled away again.

"We fought back and that was encouraging to see," Kuester said. "Our guys had a tremendous amount of fight."

But, oh, that second quarter.

"That killed us right there," Rodney Stuckey said. "Other than that, we would have won the game."

Said Ben Gordon: "They had 44 points and needless to say, when a team scores that many points in this league, it's going to be tough to counter that."

Gordon scored 30 and Bynum and Charlie Villanueva scored 16 each. Rodney Stuckey had 13 points and a career-high 10 rebounds.

Chris Bosh had 25 points (including 15-of-20 from the free throw line) and Andrea Bargnani 22 for Toronto (2-2). Hedo Turkoglu had 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists.

The Raptors were 36-for-47 from the free-throw line; the Pistons 17-for-25.

Giving the Raptors that many opportunities from the line wasn't particularly appealing, either.

"Every possession seemed like they had a good shot or got to the free throw line, and it's tough to win like that," Gordon said. "You're not really stopping them at all and they're getting good looks (for shots)."

Said Kuester: "We have to get people off the foul line. We did a good job of holding them to 43 percent (shooting from the field), but we'll improve in that area. It's another situation where we just can't dig ourselves a hole and fight and exert so much energy out of it."

Toronto's bench ignited the second-quarter barrage with guard Jarrett Jack's penetration and the outside shooting of Marco Belinelli and Antoine Wright keying the Raptors.

"Our bench was outstanding," Raptors coach Jay Triano said. "They came in, gave us energy, ran up and down the floor and got us stops and deflections. That was some of the best basketball that group has played."

ted.kulfan@detnews.com (313) 223-4606