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Wallace takes over down stretch as Pistons rally from big deficit

Nov 15, 2007 - 7:33 AM OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- The Detroit Pistons weathered a first-period barrage by Baron Davis and a 22-point first-half deficit to keep the Golden State Warriors winless, 111-104, on Wednesday night.

Rasheed Wallace scored 13 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter and added nine rebounds for the Pistons, who surrendered 16 points to Davis and 40 to the Warriors in the first period before starting to buckle down.

After Detroit cut its deficit to three entering the fourth before falling behind by 10, Wallace keyed a 14-1 run with nine points.

"I just executed, that's all it was," Wallace said. "It wasn't a matter of taking over or nothing like that. We just executed and got some stops in the second half that we should've gotten in the first half and got the victory."

Wallace hit his patented turnaround jumper from the left block to tie the game at 96-96 and gave Detroit its first lead of the night with the same shot from the left block on the next possession with 5:11 left.

The talented but temperamental big man then stepped out and knocked down a 3-pointer from the right wing just under a minute later for a 101-97 lead. The Warriors closed within a point on Kelenna Azubuike's layup, but Tayshaun Prince made a hook in the lane and the Warriors didn't get any closer.

"It's pick your poison," Wallace said. "We've got Rip (Hamilton) out there on the wing, Tay (Prince) even though Chauncey (Billups) didn't play tonight, Flip (Murray) hit some big shots tonight, had a big game for us and it's pick your poison and that's pretty much how it is for us."

Prince and Hamilton finished with 22 points apiece for Detroit, which improved to 2-1 on its five-game West Coast swing.

"The biggest thing was, unlike last night, we really kept poise and we never were at a frantic situation it seemed," Detroit coach Flip Saunders said. "Early, we fell behind but, once we gained our composure, (we) just kept on executing and doing what we needed to do defensively."

With counterpart Billups sitting out with a hip injury, Davis torched the Pistons in the first period. Coming off a 37-point outing against Dallas on Thursday, Davis made all four shots from the arc while scoring all 16 in the final 5:41 of the period.

His drive with 2:21 left in the period provided an 18-point bulge and his shot from the arc at the buzzer capped the quarter with a 40-25 lead.

Golden State took a 22-point lead on a bucket by rookie Brandan Wright with 3:47 left in the half before settling for a 64-51 halftime edge. Detroit kept grinding and cut its deficit to 85-82 entering the fourth period on a jumper by Flip Murray with two seconds left in the third.

"Even though they had a big lead in the first half we knew that with the style of play that they play, we were never out of the game," Murray said. "We tried to cut the deficit to 12 going into the half, we got it to 13 so we went from there with it."

Murray, starting in place of Billups, struggled to contain Davis but scored 15 points and handed out a career-high 12 assists.

"It's a big confidence builder, not only for the players for the coaches, too," Murray said. "To know that other people can come in and be able to step up when guys are down, and they have no problems putting us in the game, but I think everybody played good tonight, everybody gave a team effort, people off the bench came off and they kept fighting. We just came back and got a great win tonight."

With the Warriors staring down a sixth straight loss to start the season, Davis picked up the offense temporarily. He followed a fast-break miss by Matt Barnes then converted a baseline dunk to provide a 94-84 edge with with 8:51 left in the game.

Davis finished with 29 points and 10 rebounds and Al Harrington added 20 points and seven rebounds.

"I feel bad about this one," Golden State coach Don Nelson said. "We weren't very good against their zone in the second half and, as a result, it costs us the game. We scored as many points in the second half as we did in the first quarter. Bottom line, not enough decision makers, passers and creators out there and it cost us the game."

With an 0-6 record, the Warriors remain the only winless team in the NBA after wins by the Seattle SuperSonics and the Minnesota on Wednesday.

"It's very frustrating," Warriors forward Matt Barnes said. "We didn't play two halves tonight, that's the bottom line. This is a game we had a chance to win but we just didn't get it done tonight."