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Nellie gets No. 900 Mavericks beat Hill-less Pistons 99-91
Posted: Sunday January 23, 2000 10:59 PM
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -- There won't be an asterisk in the record books to denote Don Nelson's 900th victory. Still, beating the Pistons without Grant Hill was a lot easier than doing it with Detroit's superstar in the lineup. The Mavericks took advantage of Hill's absence and made Nelson the sixth NBA coach to reach 900 victories as they beat the Pistons 99-91. "I'm just glad I won't have to talk about it any more," Nelson said with a smile. "The thing I'm happiest about is that it was won the way games are supposed to be won. I'm only going to remember that everyone played hard for us, we changed strategies and made adjustments and then we found a way to win it in the end." The Mavericks were also shorthanded with Gary Trent on the bench with a strained groin. They made up for it with a balanced attack, led by 22 from Cedric Ceballos and 18 from Michael Finley. Ceballos and Finley also pulled down 10 rebounds each. "That's the way this team plays -- we go to whoever is hot at the time," Ceballos said. "And we love winning. Yesterday, after the New Jersey loss, everyone was quiet. The room was quiet, the bus was quiet and the plane was quiet. But the nice thing about this league is that you can come right back and get it off your back. That's what we did tonight." Hill sat out with a bruised hip and back suffered Saturday in Chicago. He is not expected to play again until at least Thursday. Jerry Stackhouse led all scorers with a season-high 36, but Jud Buechler was the next highest with a season-high 12. "Obviously, it hurts when you lose the best player in the league," Pistons coach Alvin Gentry said. "We can't mope about it -- we just have to regroup and get going again. I thought we played hard tonight, we just didn't make any plays down the stretch. They hit some big shots and we didn't." Detroit had beaten the Mavericks seven straight times. "That's a game we are supposed to win, and so was the one yesterday [in Chicago]," Stackhouse said. "We can't use Grant as an excuse." Stackhouse scored six points in a 8-0 run that put Detroit ahead, and Buechler's 3-pointer sparked a six-point surge to give the Pistons a 76-70 edge at the end of the third quarter. Stackhouse finished with 12 in the quarter. The Pistons moved the margin to eight, but back-to-back 3-pointers by Ceballos and Hubert Davis made the margin just 80-79 with 9:13 left. Stackhouse answered with his own 3-pointer, and followed with another jumper, but Nowitzki scored the next five to keep Dallas within 85-84 with five minutes left. Greg Buckner's banker put the Mavericks ahead 90-89 with 2:24 left, and after Lindsey Hunter's airball, a jumper by Ceballos increased the Dallas lead to three. Christian Laettner missed a 3, and Buckner hit again as the shot clock expired. John Crotty missed for Detroit, and Dallas iced the game from the free-throw line. Buckner, who scored seven of his season-best eight points in the fourth, said not facing Hill made life much easier. "Stack is a great player, but Grant is one of the top three players in the league, and he does everything," he said. "It's always going to help us when we don't have to face a guy like that." The Pistons missed seven of their last eight shots, getting just a Stackhouse dunk in the final 2:40. "We got away from what we had been doing," Stackhouse said. "We had the game right where we wanted it, and we started doing things that aren't conducive to winning games. Guys were trying to win, but they were doing too much. We got away from our roles." Notes: Buechler replaced Hill in the starting lineup. It was the first start of his 90-game Piston career, and his first since he started nine times for Golden State in 1992-93. ... Dallas held the Pistons to 19 first-quarter points, the fifth time in six games that they have kept an opponent under 20 in the opening period. ... Stackhouse and Bradley both picked up technicals -- Stackhouse for arguing a call and Bradley for slamming Jerome Williams to the floor.
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