Spurs' 11-0 surge adds up to 0-11 slide for Pistons
By Jeff McDonald - Express-News


For nearly a month, Spurs center Antonio McDyess has watched from afar as his old team struggled to do much of anything right. As the losses piled up for the once-proud Detroit Pistons, building toward a once-in-a-decade streak of futility, McDyess began to grow concerned.

By the time the Pistons walked into the AT&T Center, having lost every game they'd played since Dec. 12, McDyess was legitimately frightened.

For his new team.

“You don't want to be that team,” said McDyess, who signed with the Spurs after five seasons in Detroit. “The one that they win against.”

The Spurs would not be that team Wednesday night.

Stringing together a handful of fourth-quarter stops that ignited some easy offense, the Spurs transformed what had been a tight game into a 112-92 cakewalk over the epically sliding Pistons.

For the Spurs, it was another lopsided win over a sub-.500 team. For the Pistons, it was another disheartening defeat, extending their losing skid to 11 in a row, their longest in 16 seasons.

To get it, the Spurs (21-12) outscored the Pistons 35-15 in the final 11 minutes, breaking open a game that had been tied at 77.

The Spurs locked down the game the old-fashioned way, the way they won the 2005 NBA le against these not-so-same Pistons. They cranked the defensive intensity — all the way to 11 — when it mattered most.

“We really took on an edge in the fourth quarter,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “We got up on shooters.”

In the fourth quarter, the Spurs held the Pistons (11-23) to 38.1 percent shooting, with Detroit notching as many made field goals, eight, as turnovers.

“We all know it's not going to be easy (to break the streak),” said Detroit's Richard Hamilton, who had a game-high 29 points. “We know lately things are going in the right direction, but we just aren't finishing games.”

Perhaps the game's defining sequence began with 10:19 to play. The Spurs played 23 seconds of suffocating defense, forcing Tayshaun Prince into a miss just before the shot clock expired.

The rebound bounced to Charlie Villanueva, but the Spurs forced Ben Gordon into a contested 3-pointer. Tony Parker hauled in the long rebound for the Spurs, jetted the length of the court, and polished off an old-fashioned 3-point play after Chucky Atkins fouled him.

It was a potential six-point swing, and part of an 11-0 run that finally allowed the Spurs some breathing room.

“The defense was the best in the fourth, and that was the difference in the game,” said Parker, who had nine of his 23 points during the fourth-quarter runaway. “When you play good defense, that translates into fast-break opportunities.”

Parker was one of six players in double figures for the Spurs, who shot 58.1 percent. Popovich had no decent answer for why his team seemed to shoot both the lights and the floorboards out of the AT&T Center, one game after struggling to top 40 percent in a loss at Toronto.

“That's why you try to play defense,” Popovich said, “because you can always count on that.”

In the fourth quarter, with the Pistons threatening to make the Spurs “that team,” Popovich's players began to heed his defensive-minded harangues.

On the first possession of the frame, Gordon drove for a basket and drew a foul on Parker. Had he made the free throw, it would have given Detroit its first lead since the first quarter.

Gordon missed, and the game remained tied at 77. After Richard Jefferson broke the deadlock with a 19-footer, the Spurs suffocated the Pistons with four consecutive stops.

“We had to play harder,” McDyess said. “Pop was getting after everyone, and some of us were just going through the motions. We had to pick up our defense.”

By the time Detroit scored again, the rout was on. Much to McDyess' relief, “that team” would be some other team.