Hamilton’s Shot Lifts Pistons Past the Heat

The Detroit Pistons got back to their gritty, defensive ways to hand Miami its first loss against an Eastern Conference opponent.

Richard Hamilton caught an inbounds pass under the basket and banked in a short shot with 1.3 seconds left to give Detroit a 78-77 win over the Heat on Friday night at Auburn Hills, Mich.

Miami fell to 8-1 against the East, even though it limited Detroit to 32.5% shooting.

Despite their many rim-clanging shots, the defending NBA champions won because they held Miami to 37.5% shooting, slowed down Dwyane Wade and forced Shaquille O’Neal to defer to teammates toward the end of the game.

Udonis Haslem, who made a go-ahead basket with 7.3 seconds to go, missed a long, fadeaway jumper at the buzzer.

The Heat left the court angry at the officials after Rasheed Wallace raised a hand near the basket and appeared to touch the final shot as it hit the front of the rim.

“There were a lot of questionable calls, like the traveling,” said O’Neal, referring to a call against him with 2:13 left. “I never travel.”

*

Phoenix 95, New Orleans 86 -- Shawn Marion had a season-high 33 points and 15 rebounds, leading the Suns on a fourth-quarter comeback at Phoenix despite the absence of Steve Nash.

Quentin Richardson and Amare Stoudemire made big shots for the Suns in the final 2:14 as Phoenix overcame the loss of NBA assists leader Nash, who suffered a concussion with 3:46 left in the second quarter.

*

Utah 90, Houston 80 -- Andrei Kirilenko had 21 points and 12 rebounds at Salt Lake City and Mehmet Okur was eight for eight from the field in scoring a season-high 20 points for the Jazz.

Houston launched 28 three-point attempts, making eight, as the inside game was noticeably absent. Yao Ming had only nine points and four rebounds.

*

San Antonio 89, Denver 75 -- Tim Duncan had 23 points, 13 rebounds and six blocks at Denver to help the Spurs end Denver’s four-game winning streak. Duncan took advantage of the absence of Kenyon Martin, who played only six minutes because of flu.

*

Indiana 82, Charlotte 77 -- Fred Jones scored eight of his 23 points in the final 2:30 to rally the Pacers from a six-point deficit at Indianapolis.

The Pacers are 3-1 since three of their players were suspended for fighting with Detroit fans.

*

Orlando 117, Atlanta 99 -- Steve Francis scored 29 points and No. 1 draft pick Dwight Howard added a career-high 24 in his homecoming at Atlanta.

*

Cleveland 98, Boston 96 -- Zydrunas Ilgauskas scored 26 points, including the game-winning jumper on an assist from LeBron James with 19 seconds left at Boston.

*

Philadelphia 116, Washington 114 -- Allen Iverson stole an inbound pass, drove down the court and made a layup at the buzzer, giving the 76ers an overtime victory at Philadelphia.

Washington was without Coach Eddie Jordan, who was hospitalized with a blood clot in his left leg and is expected to miss one more game.

*

Dallas 92, Portland 83 -- Marquis Daniels had a block, a steal and three straight assists in a key two-minute span in the fourth quarter at Dallas.

*

Seattle 92, New Jersey 79 -- Danny Fortson came off the bench to score a season-high 20 points at Seattle.

Ray Allen added 19 points and Vladimir Radmanovic scored 14 as Seattle improved the NBA’s best record to 12-2.