Cutting it thin
In the end, it was Allen Iverson who made the difference: a runner with a mere 0.3 seconds left to give the Pistons a 90-88 win over the surprisingly-pesky Thunder, who had stayed close through three quarters, then fallen behind by 14, and then somehow fought back to a tie in the final minute.
Nobody shot especially well tonight: Detroit was 45.3 percent from the floor, Oklahoma City 45.1, and treys were conspicuous by their comparative absence. The Thunder, though, managed to miss seven free throws out of a mere 19 tries.
Iverson paced the Pistons with 22 points, more than half of which came in the final frame; Tayshaun Prince had the night’s only double-double (16 points, 11 boards). The Detroit bench combined for a mere 20, half of which came from Antonio McDyess.
Then again, the Thunder bench combined for a mere 20, half of which came from Chris Wilcox, who spelled Joe Smith in the middle while Nick Collison is out. (Smith just missed the d/d: 9 points, 10 rebounds.) Kevin Durant did his usual fourth-quarter burst and finished with 26; Desmond Mason, who hadn’t been an offensive power lately, came up with 8.
In the end, though, the biggest attraction of this game might have been waiting for Rasheed Wallace to draw a technical, which would have been his twelfth of the season. (After 15, every other T gets a one-game suspension.) Sheed was a bit mouthy — when isn’t he? — but apparently it wasn’t enough to annoy the officials.
The road trip concludes tomorrow in Washington, where the only really good news is that the Arenas-less Wizards are nearly as woeful as the Thunder.
Addendum: The wire services are all reporting that The Answer’s last bucket came with 0.2 seconds left. What they aren’t reporting is that the clock was backed up to 0.3 before the next possession.
