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Late surge by Pistons stops Warriors

Nov 14, 2008 - 7:39 AM By Ryan Leong PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- Once the Detroit Pistons got going, they were firing on all cylinders.

Richard Hamilton scored 24 points, Allen Iverson added 23 with nine assists and Rasheed Wallace had 19 points and 11 rebounds, including a pair of 3-point shots in a 30-second span of the fourth quarter that gave the Pistons the lead for good in a 107-102 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Thursday.

It was the second straight win since the team acquired Iverson in a trade from the Denver Nuggets. Detroit improved to 4-1 on the road.

"The most important thing is figuring out a way to win the game regardless of what happened," Iverson said. "If you get the win, then obviously you can get into practice or shootaround and correct a lot of the mistakes you made and get your chemistry right on both ends of the floor. But it's disheartening when you have to do that after a loss. We struggled at times during the game, but we got it done."

The Warriors had all five starters in double digits, but failed to win consecutive games for the first time this season. Stephen Jackson, Andris Biedrins and C.J. Watson had 17 points apiece. Biedrins also pulled down 19 rebounds for his 16th consecutive double-double, the longest current streak in the NBA.

"They were just playing with us, they felt they could win it at anytime and they did," Warriors coach Don Nelson said. "We made some mistakes down the stretch, which I have to expect, and we'll talk about them and show them and hope we don't do them a second time."

Golden State cut into Detroit's seven-point edge and after a put-back layup by Brandan Wright with 8:29 left in the fourth quarter, it was a three-point game. The lead was down to one with 6:43 remaining after Kelenna Azubuike missed a running jumper but converted the rebound.

The Warriors regained the lead when Watson missed a jumper but Biedrins was there for the tip-in with 6:09 remaining. Azubuike's pull-up 17-footer made it 89-86 Warriors, and the crowd was on its feet.

After Wallace had missed two free throws with 5:51 remaining that would've put the Pistons ahead, Wallace made a wide-open 3-pointer with 3:30 remaining and the Pistons regained a one-point edge.

Watson made the young player's mistake of committing an inbounds turnover and Wallace made the Warriors pay with another triple for a 96-92 lead with three minutes to go.

"Nobody's going to be perfect," Jackson said. "C.J.'s been playing great. We've been asking a lot from him, but he's been doing a great job on both ends of the court. I mean he made one mistake. We can't just single that out, he did a lot of great things tonight."

Wallace finished a nice fast break with a dunk to put Detroit up by seven points with 1:06 to go and the fans headed for the exits.

"I knew there were going to be other opportunities after I missed some shots," Wallace said. "That's part of the game. You're not going to make every shot. Of course I was upset with myself when I missed those foul shots, the easiest shot to make but ... coming back down, I knew I was going to have another opportunity to try to make up for it and I did."

The Warriors had pushed their advantage up to nine points early in the third quarter before Iverson nailed a triple. But Corey Maggette hit a wing jumper and the Warriors' lead was a dozen with 10:16 remaining, prompting Detroit to take a timeout.

After Biedrins blew a wide-open, two-handed slam, the Pistons began a 22-4 run that gave them a seven-point lead at the end of three.

The Warriors shot just 25 percent (5-of-20) in that third quarter.

"It's still a loss, regardless if it's tough or not, it's still a loss," Jackson said. "It's a game we should've had. We can't win if I go 6-for-20, it's going to be hard for us to win, point blank. I've got to make plays down the stretch in the fourth quarter, and I've got to hit shots and they weren't falling for me tonight.

"In order for us to win, I've got to lead this team on both ends and I did a great job on Tayshaun on defense, but on offense I wasn't there tonight."