Pistons fail to hold onto lead, lose to Hawks

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Until the Detroit Pistons get some more experience, there's going to be more nights when they snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

On Wednesday night, it was LeBron James and the Miami Heat showing their veteran poise to recover from a three-point deficit with 90 seconds to play to earn a 101-98 win.

Friday night was a slightly different scenario but with the same final outcome.

The Pistons led the Atlanta Hawks by as many as 12 points in the second half and by six points with 39.9 seconds to play in the fourth and still couldn't close it out.

Marvin Williams hit a three with 33.5 seconds to go. Then longtime Pistons tormentor Joe Johnson hit a three-point shot with 1.9 seconds left to tie the game at 87, even though the Pistons had a foul to give.

"I didn't know we had a foul to give at the time," Austin Daye said. "It would have been smart to foul him. Stuck (Rodney Stuckey) was playing great defense. You could say he could have fouled him or not but he forced him into a really, really tough shot."

Rookie Brandon Knight managed to get a shot off before time ran out but it was off-line.

The Hawks (14-6) immediately took over in overtime, going on a 15-5 run punctuated by an uncontested dunk by Zaza Pachulia.

Although the Pistons hit a few threes to try to stay in it, they eventually succumbed for a 107-101 loss to fall to 4-16 on the season.

"We kicked the game, there is no doubt about that," Pistons coach Lawrence Frank said. "It's obviously a game we should have won, we didn't and it is very disappointing."

Johnson scored just two points in the first half but finished with a game-high 30.

Ben Wallace, who has been on the winning side of many of these games, knows that these games are part of the process.

"I'd say it's a learning experience," Wallace said. "We were up for the most part but we still was playing their style of basketball. When we take the lead or take control of the game, we've got to force them to play the way we like to play. I think the first half we did that.

"Second half, we fell into their trap, we let them lull us to sleep. Anytime you can force a team to play the way you love to play, then your chance of winning is that much higher."

Knight, who missed two free throws down the stretch that could have made the difference against the Heat, gave it everything he had with 20 points, five rebounds and eight assists, but he was only 6-for-18 from the floor.

"We have a lot of young players on the court at one time," Knight said. "We're still a pretty new team, trying to get used to each other, trying to build a little bit of chemistry.

"We are a little bit inexperienced when it comes down to end-of-game situations, we haven't been in a whole lot of them. I know that we'll get better. We just keep a positive attitude and we'll get better in those situations."

Frank said having those back-to-back threes go in for the Hawks at the end of the game really decided the end right there.

"We were defeated once that game went into overtime," Frank said. "We have to be mentally tougher than that. They scored the first three buckets and it was an uphill climb for us."

The reality is the only way the young Pistons are going to get better is by being in those situations at the end of the game.

With Ben Gordon out with a shoulder injury, Will Bynum out with a foot injury, Charlie Villanueva out with an ankle injury and Tayshaun Prince out attending to a family matter, it's the young guys who will be in those situations.

"It's frustrating but we've got a game (in Philadelphia Saturday)," Knight said. "That's the biggest thing about this league. You might be frustrated with one game but there's nothing we can do to change that.

"We can learn from it, look at it briefly. We can see we're getting better as a team, as a unit, we're competing now. We use what we learned in (Friday's) game and try to put what we learned to use in (Saturday's) game."