With game all but over, Wallace takes it to bank, Nuggets lose 113-109 in OT

Nuggets stunned as road trip ends with overtime loss

Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News

Published March 27, 2007 at midnight

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AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - The Nuggets were walking off the court. The game must have been over.

The ball still was in the air.

The Nuggets continued to head to the locker room. A 10-game losing streak at the Palace of Auburn Hills appeared to be snapped.

The ball still was in the air.

The Nuggets were ready to offer high-fives all around. It was bound to be grand flight home, the culmination of a 3-2 Eastern trip.

The ball banged off the glass and fell through the net.

Game not over.

Detroit center Rasheed Wallace threw in a 62-footer at the regulation buzzer Monday night to tie the score, and the Pistons went on to beat the Nuggets 113-109 in overtime.

"I got to believe it," Wallace said of his miracle shot.

Not that the Nuggets did.

"I guess Rasheed had a horseshoe in his shorts somewhere," said Nuggets center Marcus Camby, who threw the errant inbound pass Wallace picked off.

It was the second time on a five-game trip the Nuggets had been beaten in improbable fashion. Thursday, they lost 109-108 at Chicago on a tip by Tyrus Thomas with two-tenths of a second remaining.

That was a tough loss. But it was nothing compared with Monday's.

"I've seen it, but I've never seen it happen to me," Nuggets guard J.R. Smith said of the shot. "We were walking off the court. The darn thing went off the backboard and went in. There's nothing you can do about it."

The Nuggets (35-34), who instead had a 2-3 trip, could have made a routine inbound pass while leading 98-95 with 1.5 seconds remaining. The game appeared over after Pistons guard and Denver native Chauncey Billups, who scored a game-high 34 points, missed a three-point attempt with 3 seconds remaining.

The Nuggets got the rebound and called timeout. Camby's inbound pass went off the hand of teammate Carmelo Anthony, although Anthony claimed Detroit's Tayshaun Prince gave him a "little nudge."

Wallace scooped it up and let it fly. Soon, there was pandemonium at the Palace.

"I personally would have liked to have thrown the ball at the rim or the corner a little bit more," said Nuggets coach George Karl, who said he called timeout and moved the ball past halfcourt to avoid a turnover in the backcourt. "But you can't criticize a lucky shot. You can give him 100 and he won't make one. And he made one."

Pistons coach Flip Saunders said the odds were even greater, saying it was one "in a million." He said Karl will "second-guess himself whether he should have called timeout" but shouldn't.

Karl put on the best face he could afterward, saying the Nuggets will "wake up a better basketball team" today than at the start of the trip. Still, he said it was "tough to swallow" and it would be a "long" flight home.

Making matters more difficult, the Nuggets were close to victory in overtime. They led 104-100 when Camby, who scored a team-most 24 points, made two free throws with 2:36 left.

But Wallace wasn't done. He hit a three-pointer with 59 seconds left to tie the score 106-106, and the Pistons (45-25) took the lead for good at 107-106 when Antonio McDyess made the second of two free throws with 27.7 seconds left.

"We always believe that no matter what the deficit is, we can come back, unless it's way out of hand," Wallace said.

Wallace said he works on halfcourt shots in practice. When asked if he called bank, he first said yes, but then laughed and said, "Nah, psych. I didn't, but hey, I'll take it."

The Nuggets appeared primed for their first win at the Palace since March 10, 1995. After trailing by 15 in the first quarter, they took a 12-point lead in the third, watched Detroit go up by five, then led throughout the final 7:54 of regulation.

That is, until Wallace's shot went in.

"Bad luck, man," Nuggets forward Linas Kleiza said. "He made one hell of shot. . . . We played a great game. We just had a bad ending."

Lost in the drama surrounding Wallace's shot was Nuggets forward Nene totaling 21 points and a career-high 17 rebounds.

Smith scored 21 off the bench, but he shot an airball on an ill-advised three-point attempt with 20 seconds left in overtime and the Nuggets down 107-106.

The Nuggets had three players score more than 20 points. And none was named Allen Iverson or Anthony, who, with the Pistons keying on them, scored only 16 and 13.

As for Iverson, he was perhaps the only Nuggets player not heading to the locker room figuring victory was in hand.

"It looked right on," Iverson said.

Iverson must have noticed that horseshoe in Wallace's shorts.

		FG	FT	Reb
DENVER	Min	M-A	M-A	O-T	A	PF	Pts
Anthony	45:17	6-19	1-2	1-5	3	4	13
Nene	46:33	8-13	5-5	9-17	4	5	21
Camby	41:06	8-15	8-8	3-13	4	1	24
Blake	25:44	0-6	0-0	1-3	3	3	0
Iverson	44:27	5-14	5-9	0-0	8	1	16
Kleiza	23:12	4-9	2-2	1-2	0	5	12
Evans	8:30	0-1	2-2	1-1	0	2	2
Smith	30:11	8-15	0-0	1-5	2	4	21
Totals	265	39-92	23-28	17-46	24	25	109

Percentages - FG .424, FT .821. Three-point goals - 8-21, .381 (Smith 5-10, Kleiza 2-3, Iverson 1-5, Blake 0-1, Anthony 0-2). Team rebounds - 4. Team turnovers - 14 (22 pts.). Blocked shots - 5 (Nene 2, Camby, Smith, Iverson). Turnovers - 14 (Iverson 5, Anthony 3, Camby 2, Nene 2, Kleiza, Smith). Steals - 11 (Smith 4, Camby 3, Iverson 2, Nene 2). Technicals - None.

		FG	FT	Reb
DETROIT	Min	M-A	M-A	O-T	A	PF	Pts
Prince	45:09	8-15	3-3	3-8	2	1	19
Maxiell	25:29	4-4	0-0	1-5	0	5	8
Wallace	33:50	6-15	8-9	1-9	3	5	22
Murray	44:36	4-4	2-2	0-2	3	3	10
Billups	47:21	11-23	9-10	2-5	10	3	34
McDyess	38:43	7-13	6-8	0-11	2	2	20
Hunter	8:41	0-2	0-0	0-1	0	1	0
Delfino	13:32	0-3	0-0	0-0	1	0	0
Davis	5:58	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Mohammd	1:41	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Totals	265	40-79	28-32	7-41	21	20	113

Percentages - FG .506, FT .875. Three-point goals - 5-18, .278 (Billups 3-8, Wallace 2-6, Delfino 0-1, Prince 0-3). Team rebounds - 10. Team turnovers - 18 (29 pts.). Blocked shots - 6 (Maxiell 3, Prince 3). Turnovers - 18 (Murray 6, Billups 3, Wallace 3, McDyess 2, Prince 2, Hunter, Maxiell). Steals - 9 (Maxiell 2, Prince 2, Murray 2, Billups, Davis, Wallace). Technicals - None.