Pistons Misfire in a Loss to Spurs

The San Antonio Spurs held the Detroit Pistons to a franchise low for points and 25.9% shooting in an 85-64 victory Sunday at San Antonio, Texas.

Tim Duncan led the Spurs with 17 points and 14 rebounds.

The Pistons made only 21 of 81 shots.

Grant Hill, the No. 2 scorer in the NBA averaging 27.1 points, led the Pistons with 16 points but made only five of 21 shots.

“Maybe the construction project downtown needed some more bricks,” Hill said. “We sure provided them today. At least sometimes you have two or three guys get hot, but today we had nobody.”

Indiana 80, New Jersey 79--Mark Jackson’s short jump shot over an outstretched Jayson Williams with 0.6 seconds left lifted the Pacers to victory at Indianapolis.

Chris Mullin led the Pacers with 21 points. Keith Van Horn had 25 for the Nets.

New York 79, Chicago 63--The Knicks’ Allan Houston scored 26 points at New York and the Bulls tied a franchise record for fewest points.

Chicago needed a three-point play from Kornel David and a jump shot in the lane by Cory Carr in the final 80 seconds to reach 63 points, which tied the franchise-low set against Cleveland on Dec. 19, 1994.

Minnesota 102, Sacramento 90--Joe Smith scored a season-high 30 points and Stephon Marbury added 23 points and 15 assists for his third consecutive double-double at Minneapolis.

Chris Webber led the Kings with 20 points but was held below double figures in rebounds for the first time, finishing with nine.

Toronto 102, Vancouver 87--Vince Carter scored 27 points, including five dunks, to lead the Raptors before a sellout crowd of 19,800 at the new Air Canada Center.

Shareef Abdur-Rahim led the Grizzlies with 23 points.

Orlando 109, Houston 83--Nick Anderson and Darrell Armstrong each scored 19 points and Penny Hardaway had 16 points and 11 assists for the Magic, which never trailed in remaining unbeaten in five home games.

Hakeem Olajuwon led the Rockets with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Scottie Pippen had 19 points, but was ejected during a scoreless second half in which he missed all four of his shots and drew two technical fouls.

Washington 86, Boston 75--Mitch Richmond scored 25 points and Rod Strickland had 20 points, nine rebounds and nine assists at Washington as the Wizards won their third game in a row.

Rookie Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 24 points and 12 rebounds.

NBA Notes

Atlanta guard Steve Smith, the Hawks’ leading scorer, will be out of action for seven to 10 days after straining his right knee Saturday night in a victory at Philadelphia. Smith will have an MRI today to confirm the diagnosis, and he could be put on the injured list, which means he would have to miss a minimum of five games.