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Pistons edge out Nets to snap five-game slump
One top assistant resigned after just two months on the job. One starter was moved to the bench. And the starting point guard returned after a short injury stint with his best game of the season.
Yet with another day of changes that brought about their 15th different lineup of the season, the Nets still found themselves on the losing end of a 97-93 decision to the Pistons on Tuesday night at the IZOD Center. Devin Harris finished with 24 points and a season-high 14 assists, to go along with a 27-point performance from Brook Lopez. But the Pistons outscored New Jersey 10-2 over the final 2:25 and got strong efforts from Richard Hamilton (22 points) and Rodney Stuckey (21 points) to snap a five-game losing streak. During the game, reports surfaced that veteran coach Del Harris had decided to leave the team after just two months on the job. In a statement following the game, Harris said his time to help GM Kiki Vandeweghe adapt to his role as an interim coach was over and that there was nothing negative to read into his departure. "I came to help Kiki in his first venture into team coaching," said Harris, 72. "I believe in these recent games, there is strong evidence that the team has gotten over the hump and will be much more competitive the rest of the way." Harris said he was returning to his home in Dallas. Before joining the Nets, Harris was expected to be the general manager of a new D-League team in Frisco, Texas. He tersely refused to add any other reason for his departure after the game. "What I said [in the statement] was the total story," he said. "It's all good." The Nets, however, were not good in crunch time. They did lead 86-81 on a Courtney Lee 3-pointer with 5:37 left and maintained a four-point lead after a Lopez 18-footer with 3:01 left and another 18-footer from Kris Humphries with 2:22 left. But Stuckey got to the line for two and Hamilton added an 11-foot jumper with 1:23 left to tie it at 91-91. Lopez failed to convert a 15-foot attempt on the Nets' next trip down the floor and then came up short trying to corral a Stuckey missed layup. Since the loose ball bounced off Lopez's hand, Detroit maintained possession. Hamilton inbounded the ball from the baseline and found Prince, who got away from Jarvis Hayes under the net on a backscreen for an alley-oop dunk. The Pistons had the 93-91 lead with 40.8 seconds left. Lee missed a 3-pointer with 24.9 seconds left, putting the Nets in a position to foul. Hamilton made two from the line to make it 95-91. Lopez brought it back to a one-possession game on a dunk off a Harris feed with 19 seconds left. But after Hamilton made it 96-93 with a free throw, Harris drove from the other side of the floor and came up well short on a 3-point attempt with 11 seconds left. It appeared Prince either got a hand on the ball or Harris' wrist. Harris wasn't sure himself. Harris, who had missed the past four games with a sore right wrist, also said there was some confusion on whether there would be a timeout called. "We have kind of been struggling with the execution of last-second plays," he said. Vandeweghe said he was trying to avoid a timeout on what he called a "quick-hitter" play. "We tried to get it before the defense had set up," he said. The Nets finished what was supposed to be an easier four-game homestand at 1-3. Of late, New Jersey has been the place where losing streaks -- other than those of the Nets -- come to die. The 76ers snapped their three-game skid with an 83-79 win against the Nets on Sunday. On Friday, the Wizards ended a four-game losing streak with an 81-79 victory. And now the Pistons have a fresh start. "We still need to continue to work with each other," said Pistons center Ben Wallace, who became the 17th player to record 2,000 blocks in the second quarter. Harris' return coincided with the inactivity of Keyon Dooling, who had put too much time on his sore hip playing in place of Harris. Vandeweghe said Dooling's injury was "nothing structural" and Dooling reiterated that his hip was just "more sore than normal." Dooling had missed the first 18 games of the season coming back from off-season hip surgery. The Nets also moved Chris Douglas-Roberts out of the starting lineup for the first time, in an effort to bring more energy to the bench. Hayes started in his place and finished with 11 points, but Douglas-Roberts recorded his first scoreless game of the season.