January 3rd, 2009 
Stephen Rhodes 
Posted in 
Because the Detroit Pistons are rather thin on their roster – they’re missing Richard Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess due to injury – they had to do some tinkering with their roster as they started Kwame Brown and Amir Johnson in their game Friday night against the Sacramento Kings at The Palace at Auburn Hills. With their makeshift lineup, one would think there was going to be trouble in Motown. Not so fast; they had a hero in not Allen Iverson, but Rodney Stuckey as he poured in 38 points, leading Detroit to the 98-92 victory over Sacramento.
The first half was one of contrasts as the Pistons outscored the Kings 29-18 while Sacramento outscored Detroit 26-16; the Pistons managed to hold onto a slim 45-44 lead going into the third quarter. Detroit outshot Sacramento 63%-27% in the third quarter to take a 73-66 lead and a steal and layup by Stuckey helped the Pistons increase their margin to 9. Tayshaun Prince’s basket padded Detroit’s lead to 11, but Bobby Jackson’s 3-pointer pulled Sacramento to within 89-86 with 2:43 left in the game; Stuckey would respond with a layup and a 3-point play on the Pistons’ next two possessions. Iverson would seal the game for Detroit 15 seconds later with a jumper.
Detroit was led by Stuckey with 38 points, 4 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals while Prince and Iverson added 23 each – with Prince grabbing 10 rebounds, dishing out an assist along with a steal and 3 blocked shots while Iverson grabbed 6 rebounds, dished out 3 assists with a steal. Sacramento was led by Brad Miller with 25 points, 16 rebounds and an assist while John Salmons added 21 with 8 rebounds and 4 assists; Kevin Martin pitched in, scoring 20 with 5 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal. Detroit (20-11) plays again on Sunday when they travel to Los Angeles to take on the Clippers while Sacramento (8-25) travels to Indianapolis to face the Pacers on Saturday night.
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