Pistons Win One For Joe D

On the night that the Detroit Pistons retired Joe Dumars' No. 4 jersey, his former teammates put on a defensive clinic in his honor.

The Pistons forced the Vancouver Grizzlies into 23 turnovers in an easy 111-97 victory.

"I couldn't be more pleased with the way we played defense in the first half," said interim coach George Irvine. "That's exactly the concept we were trying to stress - play hard on defense, force turnovers, and turn them into offense. It's very gratifying to see guys like Jerry Stackhouse and Grant Hill busting their butts on defense like that."

"That was definitely the key tonight," Stackhouse said. "We got some stops and some easy transition baskets. I guess we are realizing that is how we have to play."

Detroit has won two straight and has moved back to .500 (30-30) since Irvine replaced Alvin Gentry on Monday.

"We've played two struggling teams, but we have done exactly what we needed to do," Hill said. "We played hard and we took care of business."

The Grizzlies have lost seven straight, including a 0-3 mark on their current road trip.

Hill added nine rebounds and six assists, and the Pistons also got a season-high 16 points from Michael Curry and 10 points and 12 rebounds from Jerome Williams.

Othella Harrington led Vancouver with 25 points and Shareef Abdur-Rahim had 16.

"Right now, we've just hit a bad stretch," Harrington said. "We're giving up a lot of points, and it's not just one player. We gave them too many easy threes or fast breaks."

The game did not start until 8:45 p.m. local time because of a 45-minute ceremony to retire Dumars' jersey.

"That ceremony was great for us," Stackhouse said. "There was a big crowd, and there was some electricity in the air. It's fun to play on nights like this. You want to put on a show."

The Pistons blew open a close game with a 15-1 run to start the second quarter and led 60-44 at the half. Stackhouse had 16 in the half, while Hill added 15 and seven rebounds. The Pistons also turned 14 Vancouver turnovers into 17 points.

Vancouver cut the margin to 62-51 early in the third as the Pistons struggled from the floor. Detroit hit just four of its first 12 shots, but Vancouver still couldn't get the margin back to single digits.

"After that great first half, it was not surprising that we had a bit of a lull in the third," Stackhouse said. "It was just nice that we had a big enough margin that it didn't really matter."

Detroit only managed 16 points in the third, but the Grizzlies weren't much better and still trailed 76-64 at the beginning of the fourth.

"I thought we were going to get back into the game, but it never happened," said Vancouver coach Lionel Hollins. "They had a lot of energy and emotion after the Joe Dumars celebration."

The Pistons then put the game away by outscoring Vancouver 10-2 in the first three minutes of the fourth. Stackhouse led the way with two dunks, as the run put them up 86-66.

Detroit cruised from there, relaxing enough for Hill to throw a spectacular off-the-backboard alley-oop to Williams.

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