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Wednesday, Mar. 22 10:00pm ET
Hill scores 14 points in fourth quarter | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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 GAME FLOW
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- For the second straight night, the formula worked for the Detroit Pistons: Keep it close on the road against a good team, and let Grant Hill take over in the fourth quarter. Hill scored 14 points in the final period for the second straight game as the Pistons rallied to beat the Portland Trail Blazers 104-95 Wednesday night.
"Sometimes you come through, sometimes you don't," said Hill, who scored 33 in Tuesday night's 100-90 win at Seattle. "People tend to remember more when you don't than when you do. I don't mind that; I just go out and play my game and get better and better." Jerry Stackhouse added 23 points and Terry Mills had 14 of his 16 in the second half on 4-of-5 3-point shooting for the Pistons, who have won three straight road games after losing their previous 11. Rasheed Wallace and Steve Smith each scored 20 for the Blazers, who led by as many as 14 in the second quarter and 11 late in the third before the Pistons started hitting shots from all over the floor. "There was no sign of a panic situation," Mills said. Hill hit an 18-foot jumper and drove around Scottie Pippen for a baseline dunk to pull the Pistons within 83-80. He then drove down the middle of the lane for a layup and followed with a finger roll to put Detroit up 84-83 with 7:26 left. Wallace had a thunderous dunk over Christian Laettner to put the Blazers back ahead 85-84, but a 3-pointer by Mills gave the Pistons the lead for good at 90-87 with 4:33 left. After Pippen's 3-pointer got the Blazers to 92-90 with 3:47 to play, Hill sank a 15-foot jumper, Mills a 3-pointer and Stackhouse drove for two layups and got fouled to make it a rout at 102-90 with 1:21 left. Hill hit seven of his eight shots in the fourth and also had four rebounds. "Grant just took over the game," Pistons coach George Irvine said. "When you stop to think about it, he is a great player who has raised his game. And that is very difficult to do." Backup Jerome Williams added 13 rebounds for the Pistons, who shot 58 percent in the second half. The Blazers lost center Arvydas Sabonis, who sustained a severely sprained right foot with four minutes left in the third quarter. Sabonis caught a long lob pass from Wallace with one hand near the basket and was nudged by Laettner. Sabonis' left foot slipped, and he fell to the floor, his right foot caught awkwardly underneath him. Sabonis was carried off the floor by teammates and left the arena on crutches. X-rays were negative. He finished with 15 points and seven rebounds. Portland was ahead 75-64 at the time, and the Blazers lost their concentration. "Sabonis getting hurt took the wind out of the team," said backup center Jermaine O'Neal. Without Sabonis, the Blazers likely will have to bring back Brian Grant, who has a sore right foot, back from the injured list sooner than expected. "You don't want to just throw him out there for 40 minutes," Portland's Smith said. "That's why we need Jermaine O'Neal and Joe Kleine to step up." Sabonis' injury was the worst of an awful quarter for the Blazers, who turned it over eight times in the period. The Blazers have lost four of their last six home games since winning 16 straight at the Rose Garden. "We have to figure out a way out of this pretty soon, especially if we are going to lose Sabas for any length of time," Blazers coach Mike Dunleavy said. "He's been our anchor since the All-Star break." The Pistons took a 13-8 lead on two fastbreak layups and two dunks, both by Laettner. But Wallace hit three long jumpers and Pippen drove for a finger roll to tie it at 16. Later in the first quarter, Portland went on a 10-0 run, and Detlef Schrempf's 20-foot jumper made it 31-20. The Blazers pushed their lead to 14 in the second quarter, despite Pippen sitting out the last 6 1/2 minutes with his third foul. Game notesDetroit, 35-32, stayed three games ahead of Orlando for the No. 7 spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race. ... The Pistons had lost 26 of their previous 28 in Portland. ... Wallace has made 36 of 49 shots (74 percent) in his last four games, averaging 20.5 points. ... The Blazers fell to 41-3 when leading after three quarters. | ALSO SEE NBA Scoreboard Detroit Clubhouse Portland Clubhouse Blazers' Sabonis suffers severely sprained right foot
RECAPS Minnesota 109 Boston 106
Detroit 104
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