• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Duncan, Spurs snap Pistons' seven-game win streak

Feb 15, 2007 - 5:33 AM AUBURN HILLS, Michigan (Ticker) -- Uncharacteristically, Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs sped up the pace to slow down the red-hot Detroit Pistons.

Establishing his offensive game early, Duncan had 23 points and eight rebounds and Francisco Elson added 12 and a season-high 18 as the Spurs complemented their low-post star with an effective transition game to snap the Pistons' seven-game winning streak with a 90-81 victory.

Manu Ginobili scored 20 points for San Antonio, which finished its annual eight-game road trip at 4-4. The Spurs vacate the At&T Center for a prolonged period each year when the rodeo is in town.

"We had to be ready for this game, especially with the way we have been playing on the trip," Ginobili said. "This gave us a tremendous opportunity to get something good going."

San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich finally was happy with his squad.

We've been inconsistent all season, so it was nice to put together 48 good minutes tonight," Popovich said.

Clicking on all cylinders after the addition of forward Chris Webber, Detroit was taken out of its game on Wednesday. One of the most efficient half-court teams in the NBA, the Pistons are known for the ability to run sets and score off screens and post-ups.

"Give them credit, they controlled the tempo of the game," Detroit coach Flip Saunders said. "For one of the few times in the last three or four weeks, usually when things are bad we have one guy who can kind of carry us. We had some guys try in the second quarter to get us going.

"The only guy who really carried us for a little bit was Lindsey (Hunter), he made a couple shots."

However, San Antonio sped up the contest, relying on lightning-quick guard Tony Parker, who had 16 points and eight assists but made his biggest impact in setting up the secondary fast break. Parker got his team into their offense quickly and was able to ignite San Antonio, which shot 51 percent (36-of-71).

One of the game's premier big men, Duncan shot 9-of-18 from the field and Elson was an efficient 6-of-8.

"(Elson) was huge," Duncan said. "We've been lacking that kind of effort on the boards, but he was also running the floor and flattening out their defense. He only got a couple layups out of it but he made them hustle back all night.

"It wasn't tough at all to get up for this game because we aren't playing very well right now and we really needed to play a good game before the break. We moved the ball well and we hit open shots against a great defense."

Richard Hamilton scored 20 points and Chauncey Billups added 19 for the Pistons, who shot just 41 percent (32-of-78).