Jerry Stackhouse scored 24 points and Corliss Williamson added 14 as the Pistons snapped a season-high seven-game losing streak with an 86-80 victory over the lowly Miami Heat, who now own the longest slide in the Eastrern Conference.
 Ben Wallace pulls down one of his 15 rebounds against the Heat. Gregory Shamus/NBAE/Getty Images |
"It's really a burden when you start out so well and then hit the skids," Detroit coach Rick Carlisle said. "It's hard to quantify everything that goes wrong during a bad skid. We knew we were going to have some tough times and we said we weren't going to overreact."
The Pistons followed their disastrous trip with two more losses for their longest skid since the 1994-95 season, when they also dropped seven straight. But they had little trouble with the futile Heat.
"It's just important we got the win," Stackhouse said. "It's almost like a clean slate starting the new year."
Detroit led for good after the first quarter and was in control before Miami bridged the second and third quarters with a 9-2 run and closed within 46-44 on a jumper by Alonzo Mourning 31 seconds into the second half.
But Stackhouse nailed a jumper to spark a 9-0 run. Williamson made consecutive layups before Clifford Robinson nailed a 3-pointer to give the Pistons a 55-44 cushion with 7:07 to go.
"It was definitely a defensive game," Miami coach Pat Riley said. "Both teams were playing strong defensively, but they turned it up a little more in the second half and we stopped making plays."
Miami scored six of the next seven points and got within 56-53 on LaPhonso Ellis' jumper with five minutes left. Chucky Atkins responded with a 3-pointer to begin a 7-0 run and Detroit started the fourth quarter with a 64-55 lead.
"We knew it was going to be a tough game," Carlisle said. "They always play defense, they always bring real force to the game. We were aware coming in, and our guys rose up and met that challenge."
Atkins scored 12 points and Ben Wallace added seven, 15 rebounds and five blocks for Detroit, which had played six of its previous seven games on the road.
Brian Grant scored a season-high 22 points and Mourning added 18 and 10 rebounds for the Heat, whose latest losing streak reached six games.
"We just didn't catch them at the right time," Riley said. "We don't have bad players, we just are playing bad basketball. We start out playing like we should, but then we revert back to selfish play. It's like we lose our focus as the game progresses."
Miami failed to score 100 points for the 28th consecutive game, one shy of the NBA record shared by the 1997-98 Orlando Magic and 1999-2000 Chicago Bulls.
The Heat shot 44 percent (32-of-72), including 4-of-15 from 3-point range, and committed 22 turnovers leading to 24 points for Detroit.
"We need to shut out the world and all the negative and just focus on what we can take care of," Grant said. "It's really frustrating. This is a good team, made up of a lot of veterans who know how to win. But for some reason, instead of being a winning team, it just is not happening. It wouldn't bother us so much if this was an organization used to losing, but this is a first-class organization used to being at the top" .