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Parker, Mason help Spurs beat Pistons

Jan 7, 2010 - 5:23 AM SAN ANTONIO(AP) -- The San Antonio Spurs turned up their defense to hand the Detroit Pistons an 11th straight loss.

Tony Parker scored 23 points and keyed a decisive run in the fourth quarter to help the Spurs beat the Pistons 112-92 on Wednesday night.

"We made some good plays and played some good defense in the fourth quarter," Parker said. "That was the difference in the game. When you play good defense, that translates to fast-break opportunities in transition, and we made some shots."

Baskets by Richard Jefferson and Antonio McDyess began an 11-0 spurt capped by Parker's three-point play and consecutive baskets by Roger Mason Jr.

The Pistons had tied the score at 77 on Ben Gordon's short jumper to open the quarter. But he missed a free-throw attempt that would have given the Pistons their first lead since the end of the first period, and the Spurs outscored Detroit 35-15 the rest of the way.

"I think our defensive energy turned up," said Mason, who scored seven of his 10 points in the final period. "We were able to get stops, and on the other end we shared the ball and just executed."

The win was the Spurs first at home against the Pistons since March 23, 2007.

Detroit committed eight turnovers in the fourth quarter after totaling eight in the first three. The Pistons' 11-game losing streak is their longest since Detroit dropped its final 13 games of the 1993-94 season.

"We played good for 36 minutes," said Tayshaun Prince, who had seven points and six assists. "No matter if you play a good team or a bad team, if you don't play for 48 minutes, that's what happens."

The Spurs led 59-52 after a sloppy first half. Richard Jefferson, Manu Ginobili and Parker combined for 37 first-half points, and led a 19-12 Spurs burst to end the half.

Jefferson finished with 17 points and Ginobili had 16.

"We persevered," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "A lot of guys did good jobs."

Richard Hamilton, playing in just his eighth game after battling hamstring and ankle injuries, scored 11 points in the third period. His 14-foot jumper with 26.1 seconds left in the quarter closed the Spurs' lead to 77-75 entering the fourth.

"(Ending the streak is) not going to be easy, we all know that," said Hamilton, who led all scorers with 29 points. "Nothing is going to be given to us. We just know that we're going in the right direction. The last two games we've been playing great, we just haven't been finishing it. We haven't been finishing games. We'll do better."

Charlie Villanueva gave Detroit a spark off the bench with 14 points and six offensive rebounds among his overall total of eight.

"It seemed like we collapsed in that fourth quarter," he said. "We played three solid quarters. The fourth quarter came, they made a little run and we couldn't answer."

NOTES: The game was delayed for nearly five minutes in the fourth period when one of the boards near midcourt in the AT&T Center floor broke and had to be taped down. ... The Spurs are 21-12 overall, but 8-1 against the Eastern Conference. ... The Pistons are 1-8 in the second night of back-to-back games. Detroit fell 98-93 in Dallas on Tuesday. ... Each team has just three players on its roster who played for their teams in the Spurs' seven-game NBA Finals victory in 2005. That doesn't include McDyess, who was with the Pistons for five years before joining the Spurs this season.