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The story of the game in Pistons red, white and blue
– Whatever was in the IV fluids Rodney Stuckey needed to hydrate himself after dragging his body through Friday’s overtime win over New Orleans, he ought to consider patent and franchise opportunities. Stuckey attacked the basket aggressively from the start, finishing with 20 points. He did most of his damage in the first half, racking up 15 points, four assists and three steals and getting into the lane for eight of his 11 shot attempts. Stuckey took three bags of IV fluids and didn’t get home until 4 a.m. “I will just fight through it,” he said. “When (Ben Gordon) and Will (Bynum) get back, maybe I’ll get some rest. But for now, I have to keep fighting.”
BLUE COLLAR – Split the ballot: Jason Maxiell for the defense he threw at David Lee after Lee’s 16-point first quarter and Chris Wilcox for his offense. It was Wilcox’s most productive game as a Piston, finishing with 14 points and 10 boards. The Knicks tried guarding both Pistons power forwards, Wilcox and Charlie Villanueva, with swingman Wilson Chandler and they overpowered him in the post. “I just wanted to come out and be aggressive,” Wilcox said. “Me and coach talked before the last game and I told him I was going to try to bring more energy.” But Wilcox was plagued by foul trouble all night against New Orleans, limiting him to just 12 minutes. “Tonight I just came out from the beginning and tried to play hard.”
RED FLAG – The win was critical, but with a rematch looming less than 48 hours away in a Monday holiday matinee at Madison Square Garden, did the Pistons give the Knicks the impetus they need to win a game that would do real damage to their playoff ambitions? “The thing that’s going to scare us is the fact they had that big run in the fourth quarter,” Chucky Atkins said. “Those guys are going to come out at home really confident.”
They grabbed an overtime win Friday, and as precious as it was, the fear was the toll it exacted would sap their resolve to come back 24 hours later, especially given the minutes logged by veterans Rip Hamilton and Ben Wallace.
But a 12-0 run late in the first half gave them a cushion, and a 9-0 run early in the third quarter expanded the lead to 21 – which was just enough to withstand a Knicks rally to within two points with 18 seconds left. The 94-90 win gives the Pistons a three-game winning streak on the heels of the injury-induced 13-game losing streak, keeping them within contact of the crowded playoff field ahead of them.
John Kuester said after Friday’s win that had the Pistons not come out on top, “it would have been a tough pill to swallow.” Had they lost to the Knicks – considering the size of their lead and the ramifications of losing to one of the teams they’re chasing – it would have been like trying to digest a bowling ball.
“We came out and played well for three quarters – we were trying to share the ball, we were defending extremely well – and the fourth quarter, I thought we looked at the scoreboard and kept thinking the time was going to fly off,” Kuester said. “Unfortunately, in the NBA, it doesn’t.”
The Pistons saw clear signs of fatigue from Hamilton and Wallace early. Hamilton missed five of his first six shots. Wallace didn’t grab a rebound in a seven-minute stint to start the game and David Lee terrorized the Pistons – as he had in a Dec. 29 Knicks win at The Palace when he went for 30 points and 12 boards – with 16 points in the first quarter en route to a near triple-double: 26 points, 17 boards, nine assists.
But the Pistons got him under control, thanks in large measure to Jason Maxiell, and only Danilo Gallinari (25 points) and a late spurt from Nate Robinson – who drained three 3-pointers in the last 5:14 – provided much in the way of scoring for the Knicks.
The Pistons got a little bit of offense from a lot of sources, the residue of better ball movement that’s helped spark their mini-renaissance. Chris Wilcox (14 points, 10 boards) helped them get off to a good start, Rodney Stuckey (20 points, four rebounds, four assists) was terrific in the first half one night after laboring through a game while dehydrated and taking IV fluids at a hospital afterward, Charlie Villanueva (19 points, 10 boards) punished the Knicks for trying to guard him with swingman Wilson Chandler and Chucky Atkins was again solid in 24 minutes.
It was Atkins who pretty much iced the win, coming off the bench to nail two free throws with nine seconds left after Danilo Gallinaro took advantage of a Jonas Jerebko gaffe – fouling him while shooting a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left and the Pistons ahead by five.
Before sinking the pressure-packed free throws, Atkins first had to chase down Jerebko’s inbounds pass – a bounce pass that seemed to hang in the air forever and was nearly reached first by Robinson.
“I was trying to stay out of Nate Robinson’s eyesight,” Atkins said. “I knew he was looking at me and playing for the steal. I saw he didn’t really have his eyes on me, so I tried to make a back cut. Jonas put the ball out there and I wanted to make sure I ran it down. Fortunately for us, I ran it down, got fouled and stepped up and made the two free throws.”
So how big was that win? Well, it lifted the Pistons to 14-25 and allowed them to leapfrog Indiana, a loser at home to New Orleans, while creeping a game closer to the Knicks, now 16-24. They remain five games in the loss column behind the Nos. 6 and 8 playoff seeds, Toronto and Chicago. It’s not an ideal situation, but it’s not nearly as bleak as it appeared after losing at Chicago five nights earlier to extend the losing streak to 13.
“Guys are having fun,” Villanueva said. “Starting to see a little bit of chemistry out there and guys are kind of gelling together. We’ve got to keep it going.”
“Things can change quickly,” Atkins said. “One game can lead to a streak. With us, it was important to get that confidence. As you can see now, guys are sharing the ball and it’s a lot more fun to play now. And I think, because we’re sharing the ball and so many guys are contributing, the other team can’t really key on one guy. It’s real fun out there right now. We’ve got to keep this thing rolling and continue to improve.”
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