 Shareef Abdur-Rahim scored 18 of his league-high 50 points in the third quarter. Scott Cunningham/NBAE/Getty Images 56k | 300k |
In five high-scoring seasons in Vancouver, Abdur-Rahim never had scored more than the 39 points he had vs. Boston on February 17, 1999. But he exploded in this one, reaching 40 by the end of the third quarter.
"You get in rhythms like these sometimes," Abdur-Rahim said. "To do this in front of my family and friends is beautiful. If anything is special, other than the fact that we won the game, it's that it was the day after Thanksgiving and I had extra family here."
The forward shot 21-of-30 from the field en route to a Philips Arena record for points. It was the first time a Hawk scored 50 points since Dominique Wilkins had 52 on December 7, 1991.
"We all hung in there and fought," Abdur-Rahim said. "We got on each other at halftime for the effort that we were giving. We came out and fought as a team. It's not about Shareef. It's about the whole Atlanta Hawks organization. The coaches coached. The players played hard. We dug in all the way until the end."
The Pistons held a 92-81 lead with 7:52 remaining before the Hawks came back behind Abdur-Rahim and Jason Terry. Atlanta took a 100-99 lead on two free throws by Terry with 2:01 left and shut out Detroit thereafter.
"I wouldn't say it was a great game," Terry said. "It was a great second half. It was a great invididual performance by Shareef. He came out and just dominated the paint. We got off to a very shaky start. Maybe we had too much turkey in our stomachs. But we kind of revived ourselves in the second half and got after it defensively."
The win snapped Atlanta's six-game losing streak in the series dating to December 1999. The victory was the second in a row for the Hawks, who broke a 21-game road losing skid against Boston two days ago.
"I didn't think one of them would go for 50," Detroit coach Rick Carlisle said. "You have to take your hat off to him. He had one sensational game. We've got a couple of forwards who are really fine defensive forwards, but he just rose to a different level. I'm disappointed that we lost, but he was sensational."
Terry was 3-of-3 from 3-point range -- all in the fourth quarter -- and finished with 15 points. Dion Glover added 14 and Jacque Vaughn 12 on 6-of-8 shooting for the Hawks.
Detroit dropped its second straight game as it played without leading scorer Jerry Stackhouse, who injured his groin in the third quarter in Wednesday's loss at Philadelphia.
Jon Barry started for Stackhouse and scored a career-high 25 points, making 6-of-7 3-pointers.
"They gave us a three-quarters press that got us out of our rhythm," Barry said. "We let the pressure get to us and didn't execute at the end. We played timid and let them get back in it."
Five other Pistons scored in double figures. Ben Wallace had 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting with 10 rebounds and Clifford Robinson contributed 14 and 10. Wallace has tied or led the team in rebounds every game this season.
Neither team played particularly good defense. Atlanta shot 55 percent (43-of-78) and Detroit shot 51 percent (39-of-76).
"It's so nice to see an effort like that coincide with a win," Atlanta coach Lon Kruger said. "It would have been a lot more empty, I know for Shareef, if it wouldn't have ultimately resulted in a team victory. It's good to get the win, but it's nice to see Shareef's effort recognized."