Hawks shock Pistons on Johnson’s late basket

Johnson scored a team-high 29 points and dished out five assists and Zaza Pachulia added 16 points and nine rebounds for the Hawks, who have won four of their last five games.

"Those moments at the end of the game as players we cherish them," said Johnson of the game-winning shot. "Me personally, I want the ball at the end of the game. My coaching staff and teammates believed in me since day one and we’ve been rolling with it."

Al Harrington had 14 points and Salim Stoudamire added 12 off the bench in the victory.

Tayshaun Prince scored 29 points, Chauncey Billups netted 20 points and dished out seven assists and Richard Hamilton added 16 points in the loss. However, Rasheed Wallace was held to seven points on 3-of-14 shooting for the Pistons, who have lost two straight games and were denied their NBA-leading 40th win (39-8) of the year.

Hamilton, Ben Wallace and Billups each had opportunities to win the game in the final seconds, but the Hawks, who moved to 15-32, escaped with the stunning victory, especially for a club that started the season with nine straight losses.

"I don’t think we played with the heart and desire that we usually play with. We didn’t come out and impose our will on this team," said Ben Wallace. "This league is strange like that, you look to come out and win every game but things happen. Some nights it doesn’t go for you and tonight was one of those nights."

The Hawks hung tough through three quarters, then seized the lead during the fourth.

Atlanta used a 12-6 quarter-opening burst to take an 89-87 edge. Pachulia scored inside then after Harrington made a jumper, Johnson’s basket opened the two-point lead.

Jumpers by Hamilton and Prince allowed the Pistons to open a 94-91 lead with 3:07 left. Then, after Prince made a free throw, Pachulia tallied two points in the paint to make the score 95-93 with 1:40 left.

Prince and Harrington exchanged baskets, then Ben Wallace made 1-of-2 from the charity stripe. Pachulia made a pair of free throws on the other end cut the deficit to 98-97 with 42 ticks left.

Billups missed a trey and Atlanta had a chance to win the contest. Johnson used a high pick and slashed to the left box and made a bank shot to push the Hawks in front 99-98 with 7.5 seconds left.

Hamilton missed a contested jumper in the lane and a flying Ben Wallace missed an acrobatic tip-in attempt. The ball went out of bounds with eight-tenths of a second left, but Billups — in an attempt to catch and shoot quickly — didn’t handle the in-bounds pass and time expired.

The Pistons asserted themselves early in the contest. Holding a 17-15 lead, Detroit finished the first stanza on a 17-9 scoring stretch to open a double- digit lead. Hamilton tallied seven points and Prince’s three gave Detroit the 34-24 edge.

Atlanta didn’t go away, however, and used a 19-9 quarter-opening burst to square the contest at 43-43. Josh Childress scored five points and back-to- back buckets from Johnson tied the game with around six minutes to play.

Detroit opened a 60-57 lead at the half behind 15 points from Prince. Johnson led all scorers with 18 points.

In a methodical third quarter, the Pistons slowly extend their advantage to 81-77 after three periods.

Game Notes

The Pistons fell to 18-6 on the road...The Hawks improved to 11-14 at home...The loss snapped the Pistons four-game winning streak versus Atlanta and its six-game win streak in Atlanta...The Hawks shot 49.4 percent from the floor...Childress tallied 10 points off the bench...Antonio McDyess scored 11 points in the loss.