NBA Roundup : Slump Forgotten, Pistons Win Again, 107-94

It was only a couple of weeks ago that the Detroit Pistons were in a terrible slump, Isiah Thomas was talking of retiring and Coach Chuck Daly seemed in danger of getting fired.

Now, the slump is over, Thomas has forgotten his retirement plans and Daly has found a winning combination and probably saved his job.

On Wednesday night, Vinnie Johnson came off the bench to score 18 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Pistons to a 107-94 victory over Atlanta at Pontiac, Mich.

In slowing down one of the hot teams in the NBA, the Pistons won for the seventh time in the last nine games and reached the .500 mark (23-23) for the first time since Christmas.

Even when the Pistons opened the season by winning 12 of 18 games, Daly was having trouble filling the power forward and shooting guard spots in his starting lineup.

After the Pistons fell to 16-21 and appeared to be discouraged and disorganized, Daly went to Kent Benson at power forward and rookie Joe Dumars at shooting guard. It was his eighth different combination. This one clicked.

“I feel pretty good with Kent and Joe,” Daly told USA Today. “We went a long time with the other people. It was just time to change and its worked out well, so we’ll stay this way.”

The Hawks, who lost for only the fourth time in 15 games, were leading, 80-77, when Johnson went on a spree. He scored nine points in a 15-4 spurt that put the Pistons in command, 92-84.

Dominique Wilkins scored 30 points to lead all scorers, but the Hawk ace scored 22 of them in the first half.

Indiana 92, Washington 88--The Bullets were merely treading water while waiting for their ace, Jeff Ruland, to return. Ruland, who led the team in everything but blocked shots, broke his foot Dec. 11, and the Bullets struggled to a 12-10 record without him.

It wasn’t exactly a triumphant return for Ruland in this game at Indianapolis. Although he scored 18 points and had nine rebounds in 26 minutes, the rest of the Bullets had a horrible shooting night and the lowly Pacers improved their record to 13-32.

Ruland was 3-for-5, but his teammates were only 28-for-79 (35.4%). Cliff Robinson, normally a good shooter, was only 4-for-19.

Utah 107, Philadelphia 86--Adrian Dantley scored 30 points at Salt Lake City and passed Bob Cousy to move into 25th place on the all-time scoring list with 16,963 points.

The 76ers, who had won 18 of their previous 21, made only 32 of 82 field goal attempts. Charles Barkley was 1-for-8 and fouled out.

Dallas 126, San Antonio 114--The Mavericks sank a club-record 37 consecutive free throws in this game at Dallas before rookie Detleff Schrempf missed, with the Mavericks two short of the league record.

Rolando Blackman celebrated his selection to the West All-Star team by scoring 25 points and leading the Mavericks to their third win in a row.