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Billups hits bullseye late, Pistons throttle Cavs

December 23, 2006
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By Paul Levine

Los Angeles - After missing the mark for most of the game, Chauncey Billups hit the bulls-eye when it mattered.

Billups scored 12 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter, and handed out 10 assists, helping the visiting Detroit Pistons pull away from the Cleveland Cavaliers 87-71 on Thursday night.

"I struggled a little bit from the field but I just wanted to keep aggressive," said Billups, hit just 4-of-13 field goals. "Everybody knows in the fourth quarter I'm going to be extra aggressive, trying to put the game away. I did that, shots starting going in. It was a good win for us."

Tayshaun Prince scored 15 points, while Antonio McDyess had a season high 11 - all in the final period - to go along with 11 rebounds as the Central Division leading Pistons (16-8) rolled to their 11th win in the last 14 games.

In the first meeting since wining deciding Game Seven of their Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series, the Pistons led 57-55 heading into the final quarter, even though Billups missed eight-of-nine shots.

"Mr. Big" came up huge in final period, though. He scored eight points, including a pair of 3-pointers in the first 3:02 to spark a game-breaking 20-5 run. The burst opened a 77-60 cushion with just over five minutes left and the Pistons coasted the rest of the way.

"That's Big Shot Billups at his best," Cavaliers superstar LeBron James said. "Fourth quarter, time to take over."

James tossed in 26 points and Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 16 for the Cavaliers (14-11), who made just 3-of-16 field goals and were outscored 30-16 in the fourth quarter en route to their third straight setback.

"We got our behinds kicked from top to bottom," Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said. "We competed in the first half and we played OK in the third quarter. But in the fourth quarter, when the game got tight, they turned it up a notch mentally. They attacked us defensively and executed at crunch time. We gave into their pressure and did not execute offensively.

"We have to somehow, someway, get tougher, when the going gets tough."

Elsewhere: Washington Wizards 126, Sacramento Kings 119 Antawn Jamison collected 33 points and 13 rebounds, leading the Wizards to their fourth road win in the last five games, despite a career-high 40-point performance by Kevin Martin.

Gilbert Arenas scored 30 points and Caron Butler had 23 and 10 rebounds for Washington (12-11), which won for the ninth time in the last 12 games.

Trailing by six at halftime, Jamison poured in 17 points, including four 3-pointers as the Wizards outscored the hosts 44-24 to go ahead for good, 97-83 after three quarters.

The Kings closed to within 104-98 with eight minutes to play. But Jamison and Arenas combined for 14 of the Wizards' next 19 points to seal the win.

The Wizards travel to Phoenix Friday night in an attempt to snap the sizzling Suns' franchise-record 15-game winning streak - the longest in the league - since the LA Lakers won 19 straight in 2000.

John Salmons matched his career high with 23 points, in place of Ron Artest (sore knees), as the slumping Kings (10-14) lost for the ninth time in 11 games. // © 2006 DPA

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