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Charlie Villanueva Leads Pistons To Fourth Straight Win
Auburn Hills, MI (Sports Network) - Charlie Villanueva scored 27 points, grabbed five rebounds and dished out five assists off the bench, as the Detroit Pistons continued their winning ways over the Denver Nuggets in Auburn Hills with a 101-99 victory.
Rodney Stuckey added 25 points for the Pistons, who have beat the Nuggets 14 straight times in Detroit and have won seven consecutive games in the series. Jonas Jerebko chipped in 12 points and eight rebounds. Ben Wallace had 16 rebounds and seven points for Detroit, which has won four in a row.
Carmelo Anthony tallied 40 points and six rebounds for the Nuggets, who haven't won in Auburn Hills since March 10, 1995. Chauncey Billups ended with 21 points against his former club. J.R. Smith finished with 14 points and seven rebounds off the bench for Denver, which has dropped two straight games since a four-game win streak.
A driving layup by Smith had the Nuggets within two early in the fourth. Detroit responded with back-to-back three-pointers from Villanueva and DaJuan Summers to build an 87-79 margin.
Down 92-84 moments later, Denver used a 10-1 run to go ahead. Anthony recorded two straight three-point plays before making a driving layup to put the Nuggets in front 94-93 with less than four minutes to play.
After the Nuggets pulled to a 96-96 tie, Villanueva made the first of two foul shots, and Wallace got the offensive rebound off the miss. Chucky Atkins missed a layup but Wallace was there for the tip-in to put the Pistons ahead by three with about two minutes left.
Anthony made a nine-foot running jumper at the other end to get Denver within one. Nene grabbed a defensive rebound after Stuckey missed a jumper, but Wallace stole a bad pass by Nene. Stuckey put in a layup for a 101-98 lead with 57.2 seconds to go.
A free throw from Anthony cut the deficit to two with 52.6 ticks left. Stuckey and Atkins missed jumpers at the other end before Anthony pulled down a defensive board with 6.1 seconds to go.
Billups missed a contested layup as time expired.
Denver led for a majority of the first quarter and took a 24-23 lead into the second.
It was the Pistons who led for most of the second. However, the Nuggets stayed close and Billups’ layup cut the gap to 52-50 at the break.
With the score tied at 73 late in the third, the Pistons ended the frame with seven straight points. Atkins made a trey and two foul shots before Wallace made a pair of shots from the charity stripe for an 80-73 lead.
The Nuggets finished a four-game road trip with a 2-2 mark...Denver turned the ball over 15 times, leading to 24 Detroit points...The Pistons shot 43.4 percent from the floor, while the Nuggets made 44.7 percent of their shots.
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