The Detroit Pistons found a remedy for their seven-game losing streak. They played the Heat.

Jerry Stackhouse scored 24 points to lead the Pistons to an 86-80 victory at the Palace of Auburn Hills, sending the Heat to its sixth straight loss. Brian Grant scored a season-high 22 points, and Alonzo Mourning added 18 points and 10 rebounds in the defeat.
But as it has been throughout the Heat's 5-23 season, the team's best was far from good enough.

"It was a defensive game as both teams were into one another," Heat coach Pat Riley said. "[Detroit] turned theirs up a little bit in the third quarter. We had a very hard time in the second half getting good shots. We got shots, but we didn't get good shots. We stopped making plays.

"We had to play with a force. That was one of the keys to the game. At an offensive standpoint we needed to play with force and had to make the play that was there. We just didn't make enough plays."

The Heat trailed by as much as 12 points in the fourth quarter before making an effort to rally. But after Jim Jackson cut the Pistons' lead to 75-70 on a pair of free throws with 3:35 to play, Chucky Atkins buried a 3-pointer from 27 feet -- his only basket of the night.

"It doesn't matter who we play, we have to play well," Riley said. "We don't have bad players. Right now we have a team that's playing bad. We don't execute. We start some games doing everything we know we should do and then we revert back to non-execution, sort of selfish play, poor spacing, make offensive fouls and it keeps adding up."

Mourning said, "We didn't execute down the stretch in making the right plays to beat them. We shot ourselves in the foot. If we cut down on the things that's hurting us down the stretch, then we'd be all right. It's the same story all the time. We get in a close game, then we start doing things to pretty much cater to the opposition."

Mourning eventually fouled out with 2:01 remaining.

The Heat stayed close to the Pistons behind the accurate shooting of Mourning and Grant. The pair combined to shoot 12 of 14 from the field in the first half. Many of their points, especially late in the second quarter, came under the basket, helping to cut the Pistons' lead to 46-42 before the end of the half.

Being down only four points at the half was remarkable with the Pistons shooting 72.2 percent in the first quarter.

The Pistons had built a 12-point lead, their biggest of the first half, when Jon Barry made a 21-foot jumper and converted a free throw to complete a three-point play with 8:53 left.

Clifford Robinson helped the Pistons rebuild their lead to 55-44 early in the third quarter with a 3-pointer.

Detroit was able to take away what Grant was hurting them with in the first half. After 16 points, Grant was held to six points in the second half.

Eddie Jones, who had 15 points, left the game with 4:06 remaining in the third quarter after bruising his left shoulder. It was the same shoulder he dislocated last season that caused him to miss 15 games.

Riley said, "As the game progresses, we lose focus. That's what we do and that's why we're where we are."