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Pistons 100 Sonics 97

March 4, 2008

Moments after hitting a key shot that helped the Detroit Pistons beat Seattle 100-97, Johnson had to deal with Rasheed Wallace and Jarvis Hayes heckling him while he tried to talk to the media. At one point, Hayes flipped a towel over Johnson's head while Wallace told him to take his entourage to the interview room.

"This is big for my confidence,'' the 21-year-old Johnson said. "I thought Rasheed would be coming in, but I wanted to finish the game.''

Detroit led 96-94 in the final minute when Chauncey Billups saw Johnson cutting to the basket.

"I saw he had gotten a little open, and he's such a great athlete that I was happy to take my chances with him taking a shot,'' Billups said.

Johnson made it pay off, hitting a layup in traffic to double Detroit's lead with 32 seconds left.

"I was supposed to be a distraction - roll to the hoop to open things up for Tayshaun (Prince),'' he said. "But Chauncey gave me the ball and I made the shot.''

Pistons coach Flip Saunders went with two youngsters, Johnson and Jason Maxiell, over veterans Antonio McDyess and Wallace down the stretch.

"The young guys got us back into the game with their energy, so we stayed with them,'' he said. "They did what we needed them to do.''

The Pistons were playing their first home game after a West Coast trip, and were also looking ahead to Wednesday's clash with Boston.

"That was a tough game mentally - that happens to every team after they come back from the coast,'' Billups said. "Luckily, the kids got us going and we fed off that.''

Seattle took advantage of the sluggish Pistons, shooting 82 percent in the first quarter on its way to a 41-28 lead.

"They were a little off early and we played really well,'' Seattle coach P.J. Carlesimo said. "This is a game we could have won.''

The Sonics couldn't maintain the pace, and they only hit 32 percent in the final three periods of their fifth loss in six games.

"I'm very disappointed, because we fought hard in the first quarter against one of the best teams in the league,'' Chris Wilcox said. "We stayed close with them through the whole game, but we couldn't pull it out at the end.''

The Pistons have won five of six and have defeated the Sonics seven straight times.

Billups' buzzer-beating 3-pointer cut Seattle's lead to 78-77 going into the fourth, and the Pistons took control with a 13-2 run to begin the period. The Sonics, who went 0-for-12 to start the second quarter, started the fourth by missing 10 of their first 11.

"They really turned up the pressure after the first quarter, and we didn't handle it really well,'' Carlesimo said. "Our effort was great, but their bench gave them more of a lift than our bench did.''

Seattle pulled within 96-94 on Earl Watson's driving layup with 43 seconds left, but Johnson answered with a basket at the other end.

Prince blocked Kevin Durant's shot, and Watson and Wilcox both missed desperation shots before Billups clinched the game from the line.

Prince led Detroit with 24 points, while Billups added 20 points and nine assists and Richard Hamilton scored 18 for Detroit. Watson had 23 for Seattle, while Wilcox and Durant added 20 apiece.

After reaching a season high for points in the first quarter on 18-of-21 shooting, the Sonics collapsed early in the second, managing just one point in the first seven minutes.

"This was a battle, but we put ourselves in that position by giving up 41 points in the first quarter,'' Prince said. "We had a strong second quarter, and that got us right back into the game.''

That let the Pistons pull to 42-38 after trailing by as many as 15, and Seattle's lead was just 54-53 at the half.