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Wade's second-half surge leads Heat past Pistons

Feb 25, 2009 - 7:03 AM MIAMI (Ticker) -- Dwyane Wade scored 31 points to lead the Miami Heat to a 103-91 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday.

Wade scored 21 points in the second half, including 11 in the third quarter, when the Heat outscored the Pistons, 28-17, to take an 80-68 lead.

Daequan Cook scored 16 points off the bench and Jermaine O'Neal added 14 for the Heat, who snapped a six-game skid against the Pistons.

"The last three games teams were doing a lot of scouting on me," Cook said. "Not to say that Detroit didn't scout, but they were playing a sagging zone and when Dwyane would drive, he would kick it out to me."

Allen Iverson scored 22 points for Detroit, which has lost seven straight.

Wade added 16 assists and seven rebounds while shooting 11-of-20 from the field. He got it going after the break and helped the Heat close out the third with a 22-8 run to take control of the game.

"Finally in the third quarter we made a concerted effort to make it tougher for them," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "I thought we contested a majority of their shots which helped."

"It is the best defense that we have played so far. We turned it up," Wade said.

Tayshaun Prince scored 18 points and Antonio McDyess added 17 for the Pistons (27-28), who fell below .500 this late in a season for the first time since 2000-01.

With Wade clicking on all cylinders - he scored 50 points on Sunday - Miami (30-26) has its win total from last season and is two games behind Atlanta for fourth place in the Eastern Conference.

""It's going pretty good after the break. This is the time of year to turn it up and need to win," Wade said. "Knowing that I was coming off scoring 50 points, they will be looking for you. I was just looking for my teammates."

Wade iced the game with a jumper at the two-minute mark to make it 98-87. He added a three-point play a minute later to extend the lead to 101-87.

"Our whole thing is not on the offensive end. We just cannot stop anybody," Iverson said. "With the way we are playing we are going to have to shoot 60 percent to have a chance to win a basketball game. It feels like they were scoring every time down the floor.

"We got enough scorers that we can put the ball in the basket. We have to concentrate mainly on stopping people. Until we do that, we are going to struggle."