Sonics lose to Pistons as late rally falls short
Published 11:31 pm Tuesday, March 4, 2008
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — For a quarter the Seattle SuperSonics played like one of the best teams in the league.
The other three quarters weren’t that bad either.
As they did against Minnesota on Sunday, the Sonics grabbed an early and seemed like they might sneak past a Detroit Piston team perhaps looking ahead to its titanic matchup today with fellow Eastern Conference power Boston.
However, the Pistons woke-up from an early game slumber, took a double-digit lead in the final quarter and then held off a late rally by the Sonics to earn a 100-97 win in front of an announced sell-out of 22,076 at The Palace at Auburn Hills Tuesday night.
The Sonics (16-44) shot 81.8 percent from the floor in the opening quarter (18-for-22), and led 41-28 at the end of the first, scoring the most points in the opening quarter all season.
But just as they couldn’t miss in the first quarter, the Sonics couldn’t drop the ball in the ocean in the second quater, missing their first 15 shots to open the period. The Pistons’ second unit forced Seattle to take some bad shots and methodically walked the Sonics down. Richard Hamilton’s base-line floater as the first half came to a close left Detroit only trailing 54-53. In the second quarter, the Pistons (44-16) outscored the Sonics 25-13.
“That really hurt us and we just couldn’t bounce back from that,” said Chris Wilcox, who finished with his 15th double-double on the year, totaling 20 points and 10 rebounds. “We came close, and we stayed with them the whole game, but we just couldn’t pull through at the end. We ran out of gas.”
Tayshaun Prince led Detroit with 24 points while Chauncey Billups finished with 20 points and nine assists.
The Sonics kept playing hard and managed to hold a tenuous 78-77 lead heading into the fourth quarter. But in the final quarter the Pistons pulled away as the Sonics turned the ball over offensively and Detroit repeatedly drove to the basket to score or get fouled.
Billups’ 3-pointer from the top of the circle put the Pistons up 88-80 with 6:14 to play in the game. The Pistons pushed their lead to 10 points midway through the quarter, but Seattle had one spurt left. Down 92-84, the Sonics went on a 10-4 run, punctuated by a driving shot by Earl Watson that he banked over Hamilton, cutting Detroit’s lead to 96-94 with 43.8 seconds remaining.
But that was the closest Seattle got. Amir Johnson scored inside to put Detroit back up four points, and at the other end Kevin Durant, Wilcox and Watson each missed shots that would have cut the lead back to two points. Nick Collison fouled Billups after he rebounded Watson’s miss. Billups made both free throws, sealing the game for the Pistons with 8.5 seconds to go.
The Sonics could have fared a lot better in this game if they had fared better at the free-throw line. Detroit finished 30-for-37 from the line while Seattle was 20-for-25. The Sonics also turned the ball over 20 times, and gave up 16 offensive rebounds.
Watson had another solid performance at point guard for the Sonics, finishing with 23 points and seven assists. Durant totaled 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Fellow rookie Jeff Green contributed 15 points.
“They’re one of the best teams in the league,” Durant said about the Pistons. “And you’ve got to learn when you play against them we’ve got to keep the intensity at a certain level the whole game. Early on we came out very hard. We caught them on their heels and played aggressive. But toward the second and third quarter we got away from that.”
