Pistons Control Wade in Shutting Down Heat

The Detroit Pistons refused to let Dwyane Wade beat them again.

In their first meeting since Wade scored Miami’s final 17 points in a two-point win on Feb. 12, the Pistons held him to a season-low 13 and rallied for an 82-73 victory Wednesday night at Auburn Hills, Mich.

“You never want to have a player that has so much confidence against you that he thinks he can just take the game over at any time,” Piston Coach Flip Saunders said. “At least he’s not going to think he can walk on the floor and score 17 straight on us.”

Wade made three of 15 shots.

Shaquille O’Neal, who had an injured thumb, returned to the Miami lineup after sitting out Tuesday’s loss at Minnesota, but the Heat lost his backup, Alonzo Mourning, in the second quarter to what the team thinks is a torn calf muscle. As a result, O’Neal played a season-high 43 minutes, scoring 27 points.

Miami led, 43-35, at halftime and 64-62 with eight minutes to play before Detroit went on a 10-2 run and never trailed again.

The Pistons have also won 16 in a row at home, five short of the team record.

Cleveland 120, Charlotte 118 -- LeBron James made the first game-winning shot of his career -- a 21-footer -- with nine-tenths of a second left in overtime, finishing with 37 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds at Cleveland.

Raymond Felton scored 30 points to lead six players in double figures for Charlotte.

Indiana 95, Chicago 85 -- Jermaine O’Neal scored 16 points in his first game since Jan. 24, and Stephen Jackson had 12 of his 24 in the fourth quarter of a victory at Indianapolis.

O’Neal sat out 24 games because of a torn left groin.

Andres Nocioni had 17 points in the Bulls’ fourth straight loss.

Philadelphia 115, Atlanta 106 -- Allen Iverson scored 29 points in his return from a foot injury, Kyle Korver had 23 and Chris Webber 21 to help the host 76ers end a four-game losing streak.

Iverson had sat out all four games after being injured March 12 against Memphis.

Josh Childress had 17 points and 12 rebounds for Atlanta.

Orlando 111, New York 87 -- Steve Francis had only two points in 11 minutes as the Knicks were soundly defeated in his return to Orlando, Fla., after last month’s trade. Dwight Howard led seven Orlando players in double figures with 23 points.

Denver 104, San Antonio 92 -- Carmelo Anthony scored 12 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter at Denver to help end the Spurs’ five-game winning streak.

Manu Ginobili had 26 points for San Antonio.

Boston 110, Toronto 96 -- Paul Pierce had 32 points to help the Celtics defeat the Raptors for the eighth straight time at home. Mike James led Toronto with 31 points, but only two of them came in the fourth quarter.

Seattle 114, Milwaukee 105 -- One night after grabbing a career-high 19 rebounds, Chris Wilcox scored a career-high 30 points and had 14 rebounds in the SuperSonics’ victory at Seattle. Michael Redd had 26 points for Milwaukee.