Dec

21

Bibby Leads Hawks Past Listless Pistons 85-78

Posted by Stephen Rhodes under NBA Game Recap 

There’s something about Sundays and professional sports teams from Detroit – they cannot seem to win on that particular day of the week; the NFL’s Detroit Lions are winless with one game to go while the Pistons are 0-5.  That factoid aside, in Sunday’s game between the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks, offense was hard to come by. But it was the lack of activity at the free throw line that hurt the Pistons (5-of-7) while the Hawks visited the charity stripe 22 times, making 15.  That made all the difference at Philips Arena as Atlanta defeated Detroit 85-78.

Neither team impressed offensively as the Pistons outscored the Hawks 25-22 in the first quarter; Mike Bibby would open the second quarter with a 3-pointer – his first of 5 in the period – and the Hawks would go on a 13-0 run early in the quarter, in which Bibby would add two more treys, taking them to a 52-41 lead into halftime.  Atlanta would increase their lead to 59-41 by scoring the first 7 points of the third quarter, but Detroit would close the quarter and the gap to 69-63 with a 9-1 run.

The Pistons further cut their deficit to 80-76 on a basket by Rasheed Wallace with 2:30 left in the game, but Bibby would respond with a jumper of his own and the Hawks would hold on for the victory.  Atlanta’s high scorer was Bibby with 27 points (including a perfect 6-for-6 from behind the 3-point line), 3 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals while Joe Johnson added 19 with 5 rebounds and 7 assists; Al Horford recorded a double-double, scoring 11 with 11 rebounds. 

Detroit was led by Wallace and Rodney Stuckey with 20 points each – with Wallace grabbing 5 rebounds, dishing out4 assists along with a steal and 2 blocked shots while Stuckey grabbed 9 rebounds, dished out3 assists with 2 steals.  Richard Hamilton added 16 with a rebounds, an assist and a steal.  Atlanta (17-10) plays again on Tuesday when they continue their homestand, hosting the Oklahoma City Thunder while Detroit (14-11) returns home to host the Chicago Bulls – also on Tuesday night.


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