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Pistons edge Rockets in OT

Mar 8, 2010 - 2:53 AM AUBURN HILLS, Mich.(AP) -- Will Bynum has been waiting patiently for a chance to break back into the Detroit Pistons' rotation.

Rodney Stuckey's frightening collapse during Friday's game in Cleveland wasn't the scenario that Bynum had in mind, but he took advantage of the opportunity as Detroit snapped a six-game losing streak with Sunday's 110-107 overtime win over the Houston Rockets.

Bynum replaced Stuckey at point guard and finished with 12 points and 11 assists.

"Will did an outstanding job tonight," Pistons coach John Kuester said. "He got guys involved in the offense, and he did a nice job of staying attached to Aaron Brooks."

Stuckey is out indefinitely after falling ill on the Pistons bench Friday. He returned to Detroit on Saturday after spending the night at the Cleveland Clinic, and Kuester said the team expects to know more about his status within 48 hours.

"The most important thing tonight is that Rodney is back home and it looks like he's healthy," Bynum said. "Once we learned that, we could start worrying about trying to get a win tonight. I haven't had many chances lately, and we haven't won many games. Tonight, both happened, and it feels good."

Several of Bynum's assists went to Tayshaun Prince, who continued his resurgence with a season-high 29 points. Prince, who has struggled after the first serious injury of his career, has averaged 26 points in Detroit's past two games.

"Tay was hot, so I just kept feeding him the ball," Bynum said. "It is good to see him playing like that."

Richard Hamilton added 22 points for Detroit, while Jason Maxiell had a career-best 16 rebounds while filling in for Ben Wallace.

"Max was phenomenal," Kuester said. "He got eight offensive rebounds and eight defensive rebounds, so he was a huge factor on both ends of the floor."

Kevin Martin had 27 points for Houston, Aaron Brooks scored 25 and Luis Scola added 20. Martin and Brooks, though, both missed key 3-point attempts in the last 10 seconds of overtime.

"I liked the way our guys fought tonight," Houston coach Rick Adelman said. "They just couldn't finish the game."

The Rockets forced Detroit to miss 16 of 21 shots in one stretch, but the Pistons hit enough free throws to stay within 96-90 midway through the fourth.

Back-to-back fast-break dunks by Prince narrowed the margin to 100-96 with 2:35 left, and another one tied the game at 102 with 45.8 seconds left.

Shane Battier missed a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired, giving Detroit a chance to win in regulation, but Hamilton missed at the buzzer.

The Rockets only scored three points in the first four minutes of overtime, allowing Detroit to build a 109-105 lead. Prince, though, missed a pair of free throws with 11.3 seconds left. Brooks badly missed a go-ahead 3-pointer, but Jonas Jerebko could only make one of two from the line, leaving the Pistons ahead 110-107 with 4.8 seconds left.

This time, it was Martin who saw the tying 3-pointer bounce off the rim.

"We made some bad decisions at the end of the game, and gave them some easy baskets," Scola said. "We should have won this game, but we didn't know how to close, and that's been a problem for us. We're running out of time - we need to win some games."

The Pistons led 57-55 at the half, outshooting Houston 55 percent to 50 percent.

Houston regained the advantage in the third, getting 10 points each from Brooks and Martin, and took an 86-82 lead into the final period.

Note: Ben Wallace, who didn't play because of a sore knee, picked up a technical foul for arguing a first-half call despite being in street clothes. Hamilton got one for the same reason in the third quarter. ... Ben Gordon continued to struggle for Detroit, missing six of his seven shots. He is averaging just 8.5 points in Detroit's past six games.