Pistons 113 Nets 92
Late in the third quarter, fans who were watching the Pistons conduct their own dunking clinic, finally decided they’d seen enough and began to leave the Meadowlands.
Still, they had hung around a heckuva lot longer than the Nets did.
In a game where, despite their protests to the contrary, they flat out quit — and did so under the watchful gaze of George Steinbrenner, Lewis Katz and Harvey Schiller of the YankeeNets venture — the Nets suffered their worst home defeat of the season and insured themselves a losing record as Detroit laughed to a 113-92 triumph.
“We dictated the tempo and we did whatever we wanted,” said Piston Jerry Stackhouse, who led all scorers with 34 points through his own personal energizing dunkfest that included five slams in the second quarter — one of them a frightening, poster-worthy windmill that came amid a 14-5 run in a 3:01 span.
That second-quarter track meet blitz contained 10 fastbreak points and headed Detroit (37-35) toward a 60-48 halftime lead. The Pistons iced it with a 19-5 third quarter run featuring 11 of Grant Hill’s 32 points.
For the Nets (31-42), the tragic number now is four: any combo of Net defeats or Magic victories totaling four eliminates New Jersey. But
the real tragic number is nine which is how many games remain for the Nets. If this is how they’re going to do it, they flat out shouldn’t bother. They’ve already been assured their fifth losing season in six years.
“I really don’t think we packed it in,” offered Johnny Newman, who led the Nets’ with 22 points. “They made shots and we didn’t get it done.”
“They set the tone and we didn’t match it,” offered Don Casey
With Stephon Marbury again visibly bothered by his tendinitis-stricken left knee, the Nets’ offense suffered — almost as much as the defense. Marbury, claiming to feel better than he did Friday in Orlando (“It was not even close”), scored 10 points and collected 10 assists, but had little of the explosiveness he has shown all season.
The Pistons, though, had lots. Supporting Stackhouse was the equally brilliant Hill, who missed a triple double by one assist (32 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists). Stackhouse scored 14 points and Hill added 11 in that run-away-and-hide second quarter by Detroit.
“We got our butts kicked, point blank,” sighed Kendall Gill.
Oh boy, there are nine of these left.
“Without question, we’re tired right now and I think it shows,” said Keith Van Horn (11 points). “The last two games we were flat but I think individual pride and team pride comes into account and hopefully that will play a role and get us up for every game.”
Or people will be leaving before the third quarter. If they come at all.
Evan Eschmeyer (4 points, 7 rebounds) started his fourth straight game. Jim McIlvaine still is down with a bad back. McIlvaine and wife Kim, though, became parents for the second time Saturday with the birth of daughter Kailey Mae.
Stat machines broke down so Nets gave out hand-written finals. Pistons coach George Irvine got his with a look of disdain: “Where are we, Arkansas or the Greater New York area?”