Pistons avoid tying franchise's longest losing streak

By John N. Mitchell, for NBA.com
Posted Tuesday January 12, 2010 11:41PM

WASHINGTON (NBA.com exclusive) -- Between them, the Washington Wizards and the Detroit Pistons had combined to lose 31 of the last 36 games they had played. Injuries have played havoc with the Pistons' best players, and in Washington havoc has simply ruled.

And when it was over, Detroit's Richard Hamilton -- a main cog in the Pistons teams that dominated the Eastern Conference not so long ago -- summed up his team's first victory since Dec. 12 thusly:

"It was a game somebody had to win," said Hamilton, who scored 19 points in the 99-90 victory. "I'm glad it was us."

In improving to 12-25, the Pistons got a balanced effort. Charlie Villanueva -- who has been big in the Pistons' three wins against the Wizards, came off the bench to score 23 points and grab nine rebounds. Hamilton's backcourt mate, Rodney Stuckey, added 19 points and a career-high 11 assists. And rapidly improving rookie Jonas Jerebko was solid on the way to 13 points and seven rebounds.

"There's a lot of relief in getting this one," Villanueva said. "We're in a new year and we're definitely very happy to get this win. When it's this long coming you start to wonder what it's like to come back in and get the feel of a victory. It feels good tonight."

Playing their fourth consecutive game without suspended Gilbert Arenas, the Wizards were also without suspended reserve forward Andray Blatche at Verizon Center for conduct detrimental to the team.

As they dropped their 14th game in their last 19 outings, Antawn Jamison led Washington with a game-high 31 points and 10 rebounds. Randy Foye, starting in place of Arenas, finished with 20 points and 10 assists, and Caron Butler added 14 for Washington.

The Pistons were coming off a 33-point beat down at the hands of the Chicago Bulls, and another loss would have tied the franchise's longest losing streak.

But the Pistons shut the Wizards down in the second quarter when they limited them to just 4-for-21 shooting from the floor, and they closed the deal in the fourth quarter when they connected on 13 of 19 field goals and outscored the Wizards 32-26.

Wizards coach Flip Saunders warned his team not to take the Pistons lightly despite their losing streak. But as evidenced by the Pistons' 27-11 scoring advantage in the second quarter, his players tuned him out.

"We didn't have energy to start with. I called timeout two or three minutes into the game and we had two or three players who hadn't even broken a sweat yet," a frustrated Saunders said. "In the second quarter we fell behind and we just didn't have any energy at all. I told them not to be concerned with their losing streak because they are a good team that has already beaten us twice. "

The Wizards have been torn apart lately by allegations of gun play in the locker room involving Arenas. In the past few days players have been called in by Washington police in connection with an ongoing investigation of the locker room incident.

"There is a lot going on but I wouldn't blame it on that," Saunders said when asked if the team has been distracted over the last two weeks. "We told our guys going in that you have to come in and play with energy. We didn't do that tonight. We weren't mentally alert. "

There was an air of relief in Detroit's locker room following the game.

"It's so important because during this streak the players have practiced so hard and they've kept doing the things that we've asked them to do," Detroit coach John Kuester said. "They know what direction we want to head and they have understood from the beginning that we are just going to stay the course. We've had some things unfortunately that have happened to us a lot that I haven't witnessed happen in a long time in the NBA."

Kuester was referring to injuries to key players such as Tayshaun Prince and Ben Gordon, neither of whom was available last night, and to Hamilton, who was appearing in just his 11th game of the season.

• Pistons: Bynum, Prince
• Wizards: Blatche, Crittenton, Miller

• Pistons: --
• Wizards: --

• Lead Changes: 4
• Times Tied: 2

• Arena: Verizon Center, Washington, DC
• Officials: #47 Bennie Adams, #55 Bill Kennedy, #66 Haywoode Workman
• Attendance: 13544
• Duration: 2:8