Bibby made 9-of-13 shots and added seven assists as he equaled his best scoring output of the season. He also scored 25 points in a win over Portland on November 21.
"Things were going great tonight; the shot was falling, we played hard," said Bibby, who had 14 points and five assists in the first half. "It's going to happen some days like that, and there are going to be those days when it doesn't. We are happy that we came out with the win tonight."
 Mike Bibby was open and on against the Pistons. Rocky Widner NBAE/Getty Images |
"I didn't shoot the ball well, but Mike did a pretty good job of shooting the ball," Stojakovic said. "We had a couple of open looks and overall it was a good win for us, but we need to play better in the future."
Chris Webber contributed 19 points and 14 rebounds for Sacramento, which led through out the second half en route to its sixth straight victory over Detroit. The Kings also have won five in a row vs. the Pistons at Arco Arena.
"It was a good win," Sacramento coach Rick Adelman said. "Detroit is a good team. They shoot the ball well. They are very consistent with the way they play; they stay in games because of that. Overall, I was very pleased to get this win."
Jerry Stackhouse scored 29 of his 35 points after intermission but it was not enough to stop Detroit from dropping to 1-1 on its five-game road trip.
"It's a tough loss," Stackhouse said. "We played OK but we always play with a cushion and we needed to get over the hump and take the lead late. We had opportunities but we didn't take advantage of them."
Trying to overcome a 10-point deficit, the Pistons moved within 96-93 on an acrobatic three-point play by Stackhouse with one minute remaining. But former King Jon Barry missed a free throw that could have made it a one-point game with 22 seconds left.
Although Ben Wallace and Barry hit late baskets, Doug Christie and Stojakovic converted six free throws down the stretch as the Kings won for the ninth time in 12 games.
"They made more plays than we did," Stackhouse said. "We didn't really get good stops until the last six minutes of the game, and they had enough cushion throughout the game. We come down and we had some opportunities to tie the game up and then we made some mistakes and some costly turnovers. We were right there at the end of the game and that is all you can ask."
Stackhouse received little help from his fellow starters as Clifford Robinson scored just seven points and Wallace had four. Dana Barros, who missed the Pistons' previous two games with a pulled left hamstring, contributed 10.
"Certain guys were having some trouble," Pistons coach Rick Carlisle said. "It's a tough situation to play (Stackhouse) the whole second half when we have another game tomorrow."
Bibby's free throw with 60 seconds left in the first quarter started a 7-0 run that gave Sacramento a 25-19 advantage with 44 seconds left.
The Pistons came back in the second quarter behind the play of their bench as Chucky Atkins scored eight points in the period and rookie Zeljko Rebraca added seven.
Detroit's bench outscored Sacramento's, 40-19, including 22 of the Pistons' 26 second-quarter points.
Stackhouse's two free throws gave the Pistons a 39-35 lead with 5:54 left, but the Kings scored the next eight points to gain control.
Barros, who missed the Pistons' previous two games with a pulled left hamstring, tied the game at 55-55 with a jumper with 9:15 remaining in the third quarter. Sacramento took a 10-point advantage with a 14-4 run, capped by a 19-foot jump shot by Bibby with 4:11 to go.
"There were times when we let them get back into the game, when we got up by 10, we should have kept it that way," Bibby said.