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Washington’s big three of Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison – who scored the game’s first two points after torching them for 35 at The Palace four days ago, but twisted a knee shortly thereafter and never returned – combined for 51 points, 19 below their average.
But the likes of DeShawn Stevenson, Etan Thomas, Calvin Booth, Jarvis Hayes, Brendan Haywood and Antonio Daniels picked up the slack for the Wizards, who also beat the Pistons at The Palace four nights earlier. Everybody outside the big three combines to average 37 points a game for Washington, but they accounted for 30 of the Wizards’ 55 first-half points and finished with 53. Stevenson, who averages nine a game, made 7 of 8 shots and finished with 15.
“Stevenson had a great game, Hayes made some big shots down the stretch, Booth hit some shots for them,” Pistons coach Flip Saunders said. “There are no bad players. Given the opportunity, guys can step up and rise to the occasion. They had some guys who rose to the occasion and played well.”
“Antawn, he really gave it to them down in Detroit,” Butler said. “Guys had to pick it up. DeShawn did a great job making shots, Gilbert carried the load and everybody else fell in line.”
Washington built a 19-point lead midway through the second quarter and saw the Pistons whack it down to seven on two junctures of the fourth quarter. But by the time Detroit got closer than that it was the final minute and there was never much doubt about the outcome by then – although it would have gotten interesting had Tayshaun Prince’s triple from the corner with 20 seconds left fallen to cut the lead to two.
Arenas finished with 36 points and 11 assists and Butler added 13. Even their combined 49 was below their norm, never mind Jamison’s abbreviated two-point night. It was Stevenson’s 15, the nine apiece from the center combination of Haywood and Thomas and the eight apiece from Daniels and Hayes, who made three baskets early in the fourth quarter when the Pistons appeared poised to make their push, that carried the Wizards.
“It’s frustrating to lose these games,” Chauncey Billups said, “but that is a good team over there. I get a lot more frustrated when we come out and play teams that really should not beat us. That team is capable of beating us. They have a lot of good scorers. Jamison went down and that was a plus for us because then we could focus on Caron and Gilbert. Gilbert hit some tough shots with hands in his face and kept their runs going.”
The Pistons, who fell to 25-18, would have overtaken the Wizards for best record in the East with a win, and now they have a tough game at New Jersey on Wednesday against a Nets team that was off Tuesday.
“A lot of times what happens, when a team – boom, boom – hits a couple of shots, it’s like a knockout punch early and you’re staggered,” Saunders said. “We didn’t react very well to that right away. I told our guys if we can just turn it up and get our passion going and make some plays and get some defensive stops, we’ll be OK. I thought our half-court trap got us back in the fourth quarter, but too little, too late.”
“We let one slip away tonight,” said Rip Hamilton, limited to 29 minutes by foul trouble. “They had us down 10 early, so we had an uphill battle the whole game. We just have to come out better (Wednesday).”
Saunders had to burn a timeout two minutes into the game after the Wizards had scored on their first four possessions – all off of Arenas assists – that wouldn’t have exhausted the 24-second shot clock had they been strung end to end. The Pistons didn’t get blown out early only because Prince was mostly brilliant, stroking a desperation 3-pointer to get the Pistons on the board and scoring their first seven points, finishing with 19. Billups led Detroit with 24, while Hamilton and Rasheed Wallace added 15 each.
The Wizards made 10 of their first 12 shots, getting scores from Haywood, Stevenson and even Booth, the offensively challenged backup big man who came on for Jamison. Stevenson made his first four shots within the first nine minutes and the Pistons ended the quarter down 30-18.
Hamilton picked up his third foul less than two minutes into the second quarter and spent the rest of the half on the bench, compounding matters by picking up a technical foul for arguing the call. That prompted Saunders, who picked up a technical himself when Lindsey Hunter was called for a block on Arenas, to summon Flip Murray for the first time in four games.
Billups, who made it a hat trick of technicals for the Pistons when he drew one in the fourth quarter, cut Washington’s lead to 10 twice with 3-pointers on consecutive possessions late in the third quarter sandwiched around a Stevenson triple. The Pistons had chances to get the deficit below double digits twice, but Prince and Chris Webber missed from close on their next two trips and the third ended with Washington still sitting on a 10-point lead.
The Pistons got it to seven early in the fourth when Antonio McDyess, taking advantage of a mismatch against Butler, scored seven quick points. Consecutive triples by Arenas midway through the fourth bumped Washington’s lead back to 14, but a 7-0 Pistons run again sliced it to seven inside of five minutes.
But Saunders had it right: Too little, too late.
