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Smith strong second half sends Pistons over Wizards

Jan 19, 2014 - 5:12 AM Washington, DC (SportsNetwork.com) - Josh Smith scored 20 of his 22 points in the second half to lead the Detroit Pistons to a 104-98 win over the Washington Wizards from Verizon Center.

Rodney Stuckey scored 20 points off the bench in Detroit's third win in its last four games.

Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond each deposited double-doubles with Monroe netting 12 points with 10 rebounds and Drummond scoring 10 points with 13 boards.

"We wanted to be able to come in and give as much energy as possible," said Smith. "They have been winning as of late. We wanted to come in here and match their intensity."

John Wall poured in 34 points with six assists for Washington, which had its three-game winning streak snapped. Martell Webster chipped in 15 points as a reserve, Nene added 14 points, and Marcin Gortat contributed a 10-point, 12- rebound double-double in defeat.

Wall made a layup early in the third to stake the Wizards to a 60-50 lead before the Pistons used a 16-4 run to grab the lead. Smith scored six points during the surge and Kyle Singler capped it with a three just past the midway point of the quarter.

Detroit led 79-76 heading into the fourth and were in front for a majority of the frame until Nene knocked down a pair of free throws to tie the game at 88-88.

Stuckey followed with a three-point play to jumpstart a 9-2 sprint that he closed with a jumper at 2:30. Wall's driving layup with 22.9 seconds left cut the deficit to 101-98, but Brandon Jennings, who finished with 14 points and eight assists, made 3-of-4 from the line to seal it for the visitors.

Washington led 29-22 after one quarter of play and pushed the lead to 54-46 at the break.

"We got to do a better job playing defense," said Wall. "Josh Smith kind of got hot for a little bit. We didn't make free throws and they were killing us on the offensive boards so we give them a lot of credit for coming out and executing their gameplan."

Game Notes

The Pistons tied the season series at 2-2 in the final game between both teams. Detroit hasn't lost a season series to Washington since 2005-06 ... Entering the game, Wall averaged 23 points in the previous three contests against Detroit this season ... Washington failed to go above the .500 mark which would have marked the first time doing so since the team was 2-1 on Oct. 31, 2009 -- the season before it selected Wall first overall out of Kentucky ... Detroit outrebounded the Wizards 44-35 ... Singler had 14 points as a reserve ... Bradley Beal and Trevor Ariza combined for 14 points on 3-of-21 shooting for Washington.