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NBA: Wallace sparks Pistons victory

San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan, top right, battles Detroit Pistons forward Antonio McDyess, center, and forward Rasheed Wallace for a rebound during their NBA game in San Antonio, Texas, on Thursday. PHOTO: AP

Rasheed Wallace scored 23 points and grabbed 15 rebounds to spark the Detroit Pistons past reigning NBA champions San Antonio 90-80 on Thursday.

In a matchup of the teams with the second-best records in each conference and former NBA Finals rivals, the Pistons snapped a two-game losing streak by grabbing an early lead and holding off the Spurs.

"We weren't going to hang our heads or mope around. That's not us," Wallace said. "We want to win too much. Everyone in here is a winner."

Richard Hamilton added 18 points while Tayshaun Prince had 17 and Chauncey Billups contributed 13 for the Pistons, whose losses came to NBA wins leader Boston and last season's NBA wins leader, Dallas.

But it was Wallace whose efforts made the major difference.

"Rasheed is without a doubt our No. 1 option," Billups said. "When he's locked in, we take advantage of that and use him as much as we can."

The Spurs led 15-14 but were outscored 16-0 over the last 4:15 of the first quarter.

"If not for a six-minute portion of the game where we were really bad, I thought we competed really well and executed well," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.

"We spent the night trying to climb back. Tonight, we played, 42 minutes -- not 48 -- and that's not good enough against a really good team like Detroit," Popovich said.

The Pistons led 54-39 at half-time, continuing a stretch of slow starts that worries Spurs star Tim Duncan.

"It's very frustrating," Duncan said. "Our first half has not been very good the last 10 or 15 games. We came out with a decent start, but then we had that lull when nothing went right for us," Duncan said.

"Defensively we were bad and offensively we couldn't put the ball in the basket," he said.

The Pistons shot only 26 percent in the third quarter and San Antonio rallied, Duncan scoring 10 points in the period and the Spurs trimmed the deficit to seven points but came no closer.

Tony Parker scored 12 points on 4-of-12 shooting with five turnovers for the Spurs.

Duncan led the Spurs with 24 points, 15 rebounds and five assists while Jacque Vaughn added 10 points off the bench.

"I thought Duncan and Vaughn were fantastic," Popovich said. "They just needed a little help, and didn't get any."

Kings 116, Grizzlies 113

John Salmons scored 28 points and had 11 rebounds and seven assists and the Sacramento Kings rallied from 10 points down in the fourth quarter to a 116-113 home win over the Memphis Grizzlies.

Jazz 108, Suns 86

The Utah Jazz scored a 108-86 home victory over the short-handed Phoenix Suns, who were without Steve Nash (flu), Shawn Marion (elbow) and Grant Hill (appendectomy). Mehmet Okur had 22 points and 17 rebounds for the Jazz.
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