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San Antonio Spurs 80, Detroit Pistons 77
San Antonio, TX Dec. 3 / Brett Dvorak --
Chauncey Billups missed one shot the entire fourth quarter, but with the game on the line, the Pistons couldn’t get him the
ball. Malik Rose steals the inbounds pass and the Spurs barely hang on for an 80-77 win.
There's a reason that the Detroit Pistons are the reigning World Champions. How does the saying go? Defense wins
championships. Down twenty-one points late in the third quarter the Pistons started playing some defense, forcing the Spurs
into bad shots and turnovers. Then throw in a hot shooter like Billups, who scored all eighteen of his points in the final
quarter, and it’s easy to see why this game came down to it’s final seconds, but the Spurs did win.
"Our defense was really good, but we had twenty-three turnovers," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said afterwards. "You just
feel bad for a group that works that hard and does that well defensively and not value the ball on the other end of the
court. It’s the area that we have to improve on the most."
This one looked as good as over. After taking a nine-point lead to the locker room, the Spurs started the second half
showing a little defense of their own. A Manu Ginobili three pointer started a 9-0 run that gave the Spurs a 55-37 lead. As
good as the offense was, the defense was even better holding the Pistons without a point until a Tayshaun Prince free throw
with 5:33 left in the quarter. Detroit missed their first eleven shots of the quarter allowing the Spurs to increase their
lead. When Tony Parker faked out Billups with a spinning reverse lay up, the Spurs held their largest lead of the game
(63-42).
Despite making just two of eighteen shots in the quarter (11%), the Pistons managed to score the final six points of the
quarter, trimming the deficit to a manageable fifteen points (63-48) heading into the final quarter.
In a game matching the last two NBA Champions, it was last year's finals MVP that brought the visitors back. Billups scored
his first points of the night on a three pointer with just under a minute elapsed in the final quarter. It was the start of
what would be an electric quarter for the former Colorado standout. Billups connected on his first seven shots of the
quarter, including three from long range as the lead continued to dwindle.
For two and a half quarters the Spurs used deft ball movement to build their lead. As the Pistons drew closer, the Spurs
began to stand around waiting for Tim Duncan to take over. However, Detroit is one of the few teams in the league that can
match the imposing front line of the Spurs. The Wallace duo, Ben and Rasheed, continually harassed Duncan in the low post,
forcing the ball out of his hands, usually with the shot clock winding down. The result was as many turnovers (four) as
shots made in the quarter.
Ginobili was asked if the offensive struggles in the fourth quarter were because of Ben Wallace. "They are a great
defensive team without Ben Wallace, so with him they kick it up a little more. They are very dangerous. Then with a guy like
Chauncey Billups, you know that in the last quarter he’s going to step out and make big shots and he did tonight."
When Billups scored his final points of the night, an off balance three pointer over a charging Parker, the Pistons had cut
the lead to one point with 7.9 seconds to play. After a Spurs timeout, Brent Barry was inserted into the game. Barry, one of
the better free throw shooters in the league, was fouled and made both free throws with 4.9 second to play. The free throws
were the only two points of the night for Barry.
Duncan talked about how tough the free throws for Barry were. "That's tough to come in like that. He's stone cold."
After a Detroit timeout, the Pistons were unable to get the ball to Billups and Prince forced a pass that was stolen by
Malik Rose, who was fouled with 2.9 to play. However, Rose missed both free throws allowing one final desperation heave by
Rasheed Wallace that hit the shot clock as time expired.
San Antonio started this one strong, getting eight early points as the Spurs built an 18-7 lead. The Pistons seemed to be
having a hard time adjusting to the return of Ben Wallace, who had missed the previous six games after the fight two weeks
ago against Indiana.
With Billups picking up a pair of quick fouls, Pistons coach inserted rookie Carlos Delfino looking for a spark. Delfino was
a former teammate of Ginobili on the Argentinean Olympic team, started bringing the Pistons back, scoring five points as
Detroit trailed 22-16 after one quarter.
Detroit's bench continued the run in the second quarter as Antonio McDyess chipped in a pair of baskets, as did Lindsey
Hunter. Detroit managed to get to within 34-33, but then the Spurs took over.
Rose scored all seven of his points during a 9-2 run that reestablished the Spurs lead, and when Duncan nailed his first
three pointer of the year as time expired in the half, the Spurs took a 46-37 lead to the locker room. It was a solid half
for Duncan managed to gain his league leading fifteenth double double by the half (12 points and 10 rebounds).
Parker led all scorers in the game with 20 points, while Duncan chipped in 18 points and 18 rebounds. Ginobili was the only
other Spur in double figures, scoring eighteen points as well. In addition to the eighteen points of Billups, Detroit got
double figures from Rasheed Wallace (10 points and 10 rebounds), Prince (10 points), and McDyess (13 points and 9 rebounds)
as well. Unfortunately for Detroit, McDyess appeared to re-injure his left knee in the third quarter and did not return.
"I'm proud of the way we fought back, but the loss hurts," said coach Brown. "To beat this team, coming back from so far
down on their home court would have been huge."
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