Pistons beat Wizards again 96-87

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Detroit Pistons got the most out of playing the Washington Wizards in a home-and-home series.

On Saturday night, they won their second in as many nights, both over the woeful Wizards.

Charlie Villanueva tied a season high with 19 points, Rodney Stuckey added 18 and the Pistons beat the Wizards, 96-87.

It was only the second time this season that Detroit has won two straight.

The Wizards, who trailed throughout the game, have lost seven straight and dropped to an NBA-worst 3-22.

It got so bad for Washington that coach Randy Wittman said that he had intentionally got a technical foul midway through the first quarter with his team in the midst of missing 14 of its first 15 shots.

He was hoping for a second, which would mean getting ejected from the game.

“I’ve been trying to get thrown out for a while. These guys won’t even throw me out,” Wittman said.

Had he been spared the rest of the game, Wittman would have missed Detroit grabbing 58 rebounds for the second straight night.

“It’s just the effort we’re giving,” Pistons coach Lawrence Frank said.

The Wizards closed to 88-81 with 6:15 to play, but didn’t score for nearly four minutes as Detroit built a 94-81 lead with 2:55 to play.

Jordan Crawford, who scored his only point of the first half with 1:05 to play, scored 20 in the second half to lead Washington with 21. Emeka Okafor had 14 points and tied a season high with 14 rebounds.

After the Pistons beat the Wizards by 32 on Friday night, Wittman called their performance embarrassing. A day later, he said: “We went through the motions.”

He said he couldn’t fault his team’s effort in the follow-up game.

“Our ball movement and passing was much better,” Wittman said.

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