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Tuesday, Feb. 6 7:30pm ET
Nuggets remain woeful on road

RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME FLOW

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) – Detroit Pistons rookie Mateen Cleaves knows the importance of winning home games.

On Tuesday night, Cleaves and the Pistons ended six weeks of home frustration with a 94-83 victory over the Denver Nuggets.

"You have to guard your home court like you guard your house," Cleaves said after Detroit's first home win of 2001. "You wouldn't want someone to come into your living room and steal your TV while you were watching it."

Cleaves scored 13 points and impressed Pistons coach George Irvine with his defense.

"Mateen helped us with the offense tonight, but he's on the floor because he plays defense," Irvine said. "Our reserves really did a nice job in the second quarter, and he sparked it."

Detroit snapped an eight-game home losing streak. The Pistons had not won at home since beating Boston 101-96 on Dec. 26.

"This is a great win for us," said Jerry Stackhouse, who led Detroit with 24 points. "Everyone played hard, and even though we didn't play great, our defense got us the win."

Joe Smith added 12 points for Detroit.

Antonio McDyess led Denver with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Nick Van Exel scored 22 for the Nuggets, who have lost seven of eight on the road.

"We placed ourselves in a marvelous situation at home, and once again, we go on the road and don't get much done," Denver coach Dan Issel said. "We have two guys that show up every night -- Antonio and Nick. After that, it is pretty much a crap shoot."

Detroit, which led 29-25 after one quarter, broke the game open with an 11-0 run midway through the second. Cleaves scored seven points in the period as the Pistons built a 57-39 lead by halftime.

"It's our job to come and build on what the first unit does," Cleaves said. "Tonight, everyone brought everything they had."

Detroit led by as many as 19 in the third quarter before Denver cut the lead to 14 points, 74-60, by the end of the period.

Detroit quickly put the game out of reach in the fourth.

"We're in a big slump right now, especially on the road," McDyess said. "It is like we expect to lose. If we can start playing like we do at home, things will be all right."

McDyess limped off the court with an apparent left-knee injury with 9:54 left. McDyess was coming around a screen when his knee buckled. He returned to the game after missing three minutes.

Game notes
Detroit's eight-game home losing streak was two short of the team record set in 1979-80 and tied in 1993-94. ... Denver is 2-9 in the second half of back-to-back games. ... McDyess had his league-leading 37th double-double before the injury. ... Detroit hadn't won at home since a 101-96 win over Boston on Dec. 26.
ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard

Denver Clubhouse

Detroit Clubhouse

RECAPS
Orlando 109
Charlotte 83

Detroit 94
Denver 83

New Jersey 90
Atlanta 84

Miami 102
Indiana 89

Milwaukee 112
Sacramento 109

Phoenix 97
Chicago 80

FROM
ATHLETESDIRECT

Jerry Stackhouse Official Site


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