SAN ANTONIO, Texas, June 21 - Pressured by the reigning league champions for the fourth consecutive NBA finals game, the San Antonio Spurs stumbled down the stretch in game six.
San Antonio did not score a basket in the final 2:22, missing seven consecutive shots, including three, three-point field goals.
We had couple of bad rotations in the first half,'' Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. They had five (threes) in the first half and we had a couple of poor rotations where a couple of guys made mistakes on some of the threes.
They are not known to be a three-point shooting team. We shot 28 and that is too many. A lot of those were hurried.'' After getting burned by the three pointer in game five, Detroit needed to do a better job of perimetre shooting on Tuesday. They shot 47 percent (8-of-17) in three-point field goals in game six compared to the Spurs 28 percent (8-of-28) shooting. I picked my shots pretty good and just knocked them down but not as many as I would have liked to,’’ said Detroit guard Chauncey Billups who had 21 points and made five of nine three pointers.
The Pistons eight three pointers on Tuesday, matched their total for the first five games of the series.
It wasn't no special three point play that (Brown) drew us in the huddle,'' said Piston forward Rasheed Wallace. We just took what they gave us.’’
Wallace was the goat in Sunday’s game five, making a defensive blunder in the final seconds which left Robert Horry open for the game-winning three pointer.
But he redeemed himself Tuesday by finishing with 16 points, three assists, three blocks and two threes.
Even though I did a bonehead play the other night I had to put it behind me,'' Wallace said. Tonight we showed guts. We got the win and forced a game seven.’’
Detroit are hoping their reputation as comeback specialists continues in what will be the first game seven in an NBA finals since 1994.
Detroit was down 3-2 to New Jersey last year in the Eastern Conference semi-finals before winning the final two games, and the Pistons also came back from a 3-2 deficit against Miami earlier this month in the Eastern Conference finals.
Two years ago, the Pistons advanced despite trailing Orlando 3-1 in the first round.
We put ourselves in this situation so we got no alternative but to show up and compete,'' said Pistons boss Larry Brown, who posted his 100th career playoff coaching win to pass Red Auerbach (99). This is a competitive group of guys that care about each other enough to go out every night and put themselves in situations where they give themselves a chance to win.
``Everyone made a big deal of the shot Horry made and who made the mistake. I can deal with mistakes with effort. I don’t want them to worry about making hustle plays and think about the consequences. That’s what these guys have been able to do.’’
detroits winning it 
Booooo!!!
“Big shot Bob” will reign in game 7.