Pistons steal one in the fourth quarter Tired legs should have been the excuse. But at this point, it’s apparently in their heads.
The Wizards — in their third game in three nights — were up 12 in the fourth quarter and on their way to defeating the slumping Detroit Pistons on Monday. Instead, the advantage melted away in frustratingly familiar fashion, a double-digit lead turning into a heartbreaking loss for the third time in four games. Rodney Stuckey sealed Washington’s fate with a 20-foot jumper with 0.2 seconds left, giving the visitors a 79-77 victory.
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“Oh, it’s mental,” said Jordan Crawford, who led the Wizards (11-38) with 20 points and five assists. “It’s mental for sure. You think about it all the time, and it’s frustrating. We gotta play to win the game, be aggressive the whole game instead of when it gets to the fourth quarter. People start thinking and getting hesitant.”
The Pistons (17-32) snapped a five-game losing streak, while the Wizards dropped their fourth in a row. Stuckey (game-high 24 points) hit a 3-pointer with 55.9 seconds remaining to put Detroit ahead for the first time in the second half.
The Wizards seemed in control most of the second half, which started with an 8-0 run punctuated by Crawford feeding John Wall (14 points, nine assists) for an alley-oop slam and a 43-30 advantage.
But in the fourth quarter, Wall and Kevin Seraphin (12 points) didn’t score, while Crawford had just two points. The Wizards converted just five field goals in the quarter, the last a running one-hander from Nene (eight points, nine rebounds) to tie the game at 77-77 with 5.8 seconds left.
“We’ve got to get to the point where we get a lead and don’t play just to play,” Wizards coach Randy Wittman said. “We began dribbling around; I don’t know what we’re running. We just go out and play, and boom, all of a sudden it’s down to 10, it’s down to seven, it’s down to five and you’re in a game.”
Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, who watched the game courtside next to Wizards owner Ted Leonsis, didn’t pick a good game to attend. The Pistons led 16-14 at the end of a first quarter in which the two teams combined to shoot 30 percent, making it fitting that only pingpong balls in May’s NBA Draft lottery were at stake.
Jan Vesely’s slam from Brian Cook and his own feed inside to Wall for a layup came during an 8-3 run that reclaimed the lead for the Wizards at 22-19.
With Wall going 3-for-4 and Crawford shooting 3-for-5 in the second quarter and Will Bynum unable to get the ball off his fingers in time to beat the halftime buzzer, the Wizards took a 35-30 advantage into the break that was far bigger than it seemed. The Pistons’ point total was a season low, and they shot 28 percent from the field in the half.
