AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- A power failure delayed the start of Saturday's game between the Detroit Pistons and New Jersey Nets for 23 minutes, but it took even longer than that for the Pistons to get started.
Detroit fell behind by as many as 11 points in the first quarter, but the Pistons came alive midway through the second period and rolled to a 117-106 victory over the Nets.
'We weren't concerned,' said Detroit center Bill Laimbeer. 'They were making jumpers they don't usually make and we weren't making the ones we usually hit.
'It was just a matter of the percentages evening out over the long haul. They're only shooting 41 percent for the season. Our defense wasn't playing bad. They were hitting those shots with us all over them.'
Joe Dumars and James Edwards led the Pistons with 18 points apiece, but six teammates also scored in double figures as Detroit recorded its fifth victory in six games.
'That's the way we've been for the last several years,' said guard Vinnie Johnson, who scored 16 points off the bench. 'We don't rely on one, two or three people. We have confidence in everyone. That helps when we fall behind like we did tonight. Nobody panics and tries to do it all by himself.'
Johnson said the victory was important because the Pistons lost at home to the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday.
'Not to take anything away from Milwaukee, but we shouldn't have lost at home,' Johnson said. 'It was our own fault. We just fell apart in the second half. You have to stay intense for 48 minutes, like we did tonight. If you don't, there's so much parity in the league you're going to get beat.'
Roy Hinson, who led the Nets with 21 points, said New Jersey didn't sustain the intensity it started with.
'We came out with a lotof intensity, but we need to try and concentrate more and keep our intensity up for 48 minutes,' Hinson said. 'We figured we'd try to catch them off-guard, but we started to fade in the second half. You've got to sustain.'
The Pistons broke away from a 64-64 deadlock midway through the third quarter with a 7-2 run, highlighted by Mark Aguirre's three-point play.
New Jersey closed to within 76-73 on Hinson's free throw with 1:15 left in the third quarter, but Detroit scored the last six points of the period to take an 82-73 advantage into the final quarter.
Detroit continued its torrid pace in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, outscoring the Nets 16-4 to lead 98-77. Gerald Henderson had a pair of three-point goals during the surge.
The 21-point margin was the Pistons' biggest of the game, but New Jersey never got closer than 11 the rest of the way, despite outscoring Detroit 11-2 during the last two minutes.
Detroit scored the last five points of the first half to lead 54-48 at halftime.
A 14-5 surge by the Pistons, featuring six points by Edwards, pulled Detroit into a 39-39 tie with 6:46 left in the second quarter. The Pistons led for the first time in the game when Isiah Thomas fired in a jump shot from 15 feet with 4:54 left in the first half to make the score 43-41.
Detroit, which trailed by 11 points twice in the first quarter, opened a 49-42 advantage, but the Nets ran off a string of six straight points to slice the margin to 49-48 with 1:38 remaining in the half.
New Jersey hit 11 of its first 14 shots from the field to lead 23-12, but the Pistons got a basket by Laimbeer and a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer by Dennis Rodman to cut the Nets' lead to 30-25 at the end of the first quarter.
Thomas scored 16 points for Detroit and Rodman had 13 points and 10 rebounds. Mookie Blaylock finished with 19 points for the Nets, who dropped their fifth game in six outings and ninth straight over three seasons to Detroit.
