Daly Simply Puts Trust in Thomas as Pistons Rally : NBA finals: Detroit guard scores 14 of his 33 points during a 19-4 Piston run that beats Portland, 105-99.

What it really came down to, at least in Chuck Daly’s mind, was faith. Either his Detroit Pistons would emerge on their own from a malaise of missed shots and defensive mishandling, or they would lose a shocker to the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 1 of the NBA finals.

That trust in the Piston’s pluck was rewarded again Tuesday night. Daly merely handed the ball to Isiah Thomas and let him create, then watched as his defense revived itself. As a result, what had been an imposing fourth-quarter deficit turned into a 105-99 comeback victory over the Trail Blazers at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

“All you can do is hope,” the Piston coach said. “You got to trust your people and have faith that somebody is going to step forward.”

That somebody turned out to be Thomas, who scored 14 of his game-high 33 points during a 19-4 Piston run late in the game. Thomas, at one point, made 10 consecutive points, including two three-point shots. That dizzying five-minute stretch in which Thomas seemed to be everywhere, turned a 10-point Piston deficit into a five-point lead with 1:50 left. From there, the lead did not dip below four

“He’s had a lot of those kinds of games,” Daly said of Thomas. “One of his marvelous assests is his leadership. He had a fantastic 10 minutes. We were dead in the water. We were belly up.”

The situation was not quite that dire for the Pistons. Certainly, it would concern most coaches. But Pistons do not fret about late deficits. Call them smug, but they feel the fourth quarter belongs to them.

“It’s just the trademark of this team,” Thomas said. “We never quit. We expect to win. One of the worst things on this team is to go into the shower after a game and have a guy look at you strange--like you didn’t give your all. We never want that to happen.”

Piston poise, nurtured through two previous trips to the championship series, won out here against an inexperienced but extremely capable Trail Blazer team.

How else to explain a 94-89 Portland lead with 4:54 left evaporating under intense and unrelenting Detroit heat?

This time, Thomas was the initiator. But, as Thomas and other Pistons would later say, it could just as easily have been Joe Dumars or James Edwards or Vinne Johnson. In the important games, Thomas as often as not is the catalyst.

“Our team has a lot of guys who can step up,” said Dumars, who had 20 points despite playing with a strained left groin. “That can really make it tough for the other teams to defend. They don’t know where it’s coming from.”

Really, it comes from defense. Detroit’s defense made Portland’s offense counter-productive after the Trail Blazers had dictated a fast tempo in taking as much as a 10-point lead with 7:05 left.

Though some might say the Trail Blazers merely fell apart, give the Piston defense credit for dismantling them, possession by possession.

“Our trademark is defense,” said Piston center Bill Laimbeer, who apparently feels the Pistons have more than one trademark.

After Buck Williams sank a jump shot for a 94-89 lead, Portland failed to score on its next nine possessions. Included were Piston steals, ill-advised shots, an offensive foul and missed free throws.

Thomas began the onslaught by stealing the ball from Trail Blazer point guard Terry Porter and getting fouled while going in for a layup. Thomas’ two free throws with 4:16 left cut Portland’s lead to 94-91.

“It was a pick-and-roll play with Porter, and I was just trying to stay close to him,” Thomas said. “In the fourth quarter, we just wanted them to take the tougher shots.”

That happened on the Trail Blazers’ next possession. Jerome Kersey, who had 14 of his 18 points in the first half, missed a long jumper, and Thomas responded by pulling up and sinking a three-point shot with 3:40 left to tie the score, 94-94.

Detroit got the ball back quickly when Clyde Drexler, who had 21 points, was called for an offensive foul driving the lane. Dumars missed a jumper, but Drexler did the same, and this time Thomas resumed his dominance.

He sank a medium-range jumper for a 96-94 Piston lead with 2:25 left. It was Detroit’s first lead of the game. After Terry Porter missed a running, off-balanced jumper, Thomas sank a second three-pointer with 1:49 left. That made it 99-94.

Portland Coach Rick Adelman called a timeout. But by that time, the Pistons had wrested control and would not relinquish the lead.

“Most of the time, when you take a (three-point) shot like that, you can drive a nail in a team’s coffin,” Thomas said. “If you make it, you can take away a team’s heart and spirit.” Not to mention unnerve them. The Trail Blazers certainly seemed daunted after Thomas concluded his long-distance barrage. Williams and Kersey each missed two free throws. Porter commited his seventh, and last, turnover of the night.

All told, the Trail Blazers went 4 minutes 24 seconds without scoring. Porter’s three-pointer with 30 seconds left finally broke the drought. But, after working so hard to claim the lead, the Pistons weren’t going to squander it in the final minute.

“To beat Detroit, the defending world champions, we have to play an entire 48 minutes,” said Drexler, who had nine rebounds and played nearly all of the third quarter with four fouls. “We’re used to seeing other teams crack.”

Teams other than the Pistons do not make only 37.4% of their shots and win. Nor do other teams receive minimal offensive production from their big men and still prosper.

The Pistons do because, well, they are the Pistons.

“It became a test of wills,” Daly said. “We were struggling all night, but we hung around, hung around. In that situation, all you can do is hope.”

And wait until the fourth quarter, when, in most cases, one or several Pistons will emerge. As long as there is time on the clock, they believe no deficit is too large.

“We don’t quit until there are two zeros on the board,” Piston John Salley said. “When you’re in a situation like this, the body is nothing without the head.”

In this instance, the Pistons made the Trail Blazers lose their’s.

NBA Notes

Laker Coach Pat Riley, a halftime guest on CBS’s coverage of Game 1, said he will decide on his future in “about a week.” Riley dodged all questions on his status, but he said he still likes the competitiveness of coaching. “We’ve got this scenario,” said Riley, who watched the game with assistant Randy Pfund. “The Lakers beat the Pistons once. The Pistons beat the Lakers once. . . . The Lakers won back-to-back titles. We think the Pistons will win back to back. That makes one hell of a rematch next season.” Riley confirmed that he has met with owner Jerry Buss on several occasions and they “have discussed a lot of things. We have really yet to come to a decision. I haven’t yet. Something will be decided on my part that will clear this all up in a short time.”

The Trail Blazers, the NBA’s best rebounding team during the regular season, were out-rebounded, 54-46. Bill Laimbeer had 15 rebounds, Dennis Rodman 11 and John Salley nine for Detroit, which had 19 offensive rebounds to Portland’s eight. “We didn’t rebound well, and that shocked me,” Portland Coach Rick Adelman said. “Give them credit. They crashed the offensive boards. They got more physical and aggressive down the stretch, and we didn’t show enough poise offensively.”