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Thursday, Dec. 30 7:30pm ET
Hawks lose fifth straight on road | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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 GAME FLOW
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -- With the suspended Isaiah Rider banned from the building, his Atlanta Hawks lost a tough one Thursday night on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer in overtime by Detroit's Terry Mills. Jerry Stackhouse scored 33 points, including a 3-pointer that sent the game to overtime, and Grant Hill just missed a triple-double with 25 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds in Detroit's 106-105 victory. "This is a really tough loss to take," said Dikembe Mutombo. "We had it won twice, and we let it get away both times. It's worse because we really came out and played as a team tonight. If we keep playing like this, we'll win some games." Mills took a pass from Hill on the right baseline and swished a high-arcing jumper as the buzzer sounded. "That was exactly the play we designed - it worked to perfection," Mills said. "We haven't had too many wins like that one -- we always seem to find a way to lose these games." Hill got the pass off while being swarmed by nearly every Hawk on the floor - including several who weren't supposed to be there. "Grant is the type of player that when he gets the ball, you want to help defend him, even if you aren't supposed to," said Jimmy Jackson, who led the Hawks with 26 points. "But if you take even one step, he will see it and hit the open guy." Rider was suspended indefinitely by the team before the game. After a profanity-laced diatribe to the media after Atlanta's 116-89 loss to Indiana on Wednesday, Rider missed the team's flight to Detroit as well as Thursday morning's shootout. He finally arrived at the Palace less than an hour before gametime, and met with his teammates before leaving again to head home on a commercial flight. "The meeting was good, because it helped clear the air -- he came in and said what he wanted to say," said Jackson, who also played with Rider last season in Portland. "Everyone has different ways of expressing themselves, and I'm used to the way he does it from Portland. I knew he was just venting last night -- he just vents different than Jimmy might, or Chris, or Dikembe." Hawks general manager Pete Babcock said that he would discuss the situation with coach Lenny Wilkens later Thursday night, and with Rider on Friday before deciding the eventual length of the suspension. Wilkens declined comment on Rider after the game. "This was a really tough loss for us -- I'm not going to talk about the other thing right now," he said. Before leaving the building, Rider predicted that the Hawks would play the Pistons tough. "It will be easy to play a good game tonight -- controversy always brings a team together," he said. "What this team needs is to find a way to keep playing hard after tonight." Detroit's win was the Pistons' third in a row and moved them back over the elusive .500 mark at 15-14. "The one thing that we knew was that Atlanta was going to come together through the adversity and play hard," Pistons coach Alvin Gentry said. "They made a lot of plays, but we hit the shot. That puts us over .500 and hopefully gives us something to build on for the rest of the season." Stackhouse forced overtime with a 3-pointer with eight seconds left in regulation, and the Pistons used that momentum to score the first six points of the extra period. Hill capped the spurt with a spectacular fast-break dunk in traffic. Atlanta came right back and tied the game at 103 on LaPhonso Ellis' jumper with 53 seconds to go. Stackhouse missed two free throws on the next possession, and after Jimmy Jackson's miss, Alan Henderson grabbed the rebound and was fouled by Jerome Williams. He made both free throws, and Detroit called timeout with five seconds left, setting up Mills' buzzer-beater. "Jerry thanked me for saving him after he missed the two free throws," Mills said. "This was a huge win." Game notesRider's suspension was his second in six weeks. He missed the Hawks' Nov. 18 game against Charlotte after skipping practice the day before. Rider claimed that his Mercedes had been vandalized. ... The Hawks' 11-18 start is their worst since they started with the same record in 1984-85. ... At 15-14, the Pistons are over .500 for only the second time this season. After starting 0-4, they won eight of 11 to get to 8-7. | ALSO SEE NBA Scoreboard Atlanta Clubhouse Detroit Clubhouse Forgiving Hawks end suspension of troubled Rider
RECAPS Indiana 109 Charlotte 99
Detroit 106
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