One can look at the San Antonio Spurs-Detroit Pistons game on Thursday night from a couple of perspectives: the defense on both sides performed above-average or the players on both sides simply forgot how to shoot, save for Pistons guard Allen Iverson – who scored 31 points. 

No matter what your point of view is, the facts are this – even Iverson’s scoring could not save the Pistons as the Spurs held them to 40.2% shooting.  Bottom line?  San Antonio held off Detroit in a low-scoring affair 83-79 at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

As the final score indicated, the first half was low-scoring as Detroit outscored San Antonio 24-20 while the Spurs outscored the Pistons 25-16 in the second quarter; the Spurs took a 45-40 lead into their locker room.  San Antonio would take a 64-58 lead going into the fourth quarter and although Detroit got to within 3, a dunk by the Spurs’ George Hill would make it 73-66 with 6:35 remaining in the game.

But the Pistons would rally as Iverson’s jumper would pull Detroit to within 78-77 with 3 minutes to go; a pair of defensive stops would give the Pistons to take the lead, which they would do on a Iverson layup with 1:21 left to go.  Rasheed Wallace would foul Tony Parker, who would make a pair of free throws, giving San Antonio an 80-79 lead while Iverson missed from the other end of the court.

Parker missed a jumper and Wallace grabbed the rebound with 28 ticks left on the game clock; Wallace missed a fadeaway jumper and the Spurs’ Bruce Bowen would get fouled before he could call a timeout.  Bowen would hit both free throws to make it 82-79 with 9.7 seconds remaining.  Iverson missed a last-gasp 3-point attempt and Tim Duncan would ice the game for San Antonio from the free throw line.

San Antonio’s high scorer was Parker with 19 points, 5 rebounds, 11 assists and a steal while Duncan added 18 with 18 rebounds and 3 blocked shots; Matt Bonner chipped in 15 (including 5 three-pointers) with 7 rebounds, an assist and a steal.

Detroit was led by Iverson with 31 points, 3 rebounds, 7 assists, a steal and a blocked shot while Antonio McDyess notched a double-double, scoring 13 with 13 rebounds.  San Antonio (36-17) plays again on Saturday when they travel to D.C. to take on the Washington Wizards while Detroit (27-26) travels to Cleveland to face the Cavaliers on Sunday.