Sixers get ninth win of season while snapping six-game losing streak

WHEN MICHAEL Carter-Williams controls a game like he did last night, it comes in the form of fewer shots, fewer hapless forays to the basket and a more controlled setting.

Against Detroit, it meant he almost collected a triple-double (14 points, 10 assists, nine rebounds), was the best player on the floor and led the 76ers to a convincing, 89-69 win over a struggling Pistons team that has now lost four in a row.

The Sixers jumped out in this one early, taking a 28-8 lead by making 11 of their first 15 shots while limiting the Pistons to just two makes in their first 19 attempts.

"Michael was a point guard tonight," said coach Brett Brown. "He still played in a crowd a few times. His presence on the court and his size - he's 6-6 and when he gets a smaller guard in his hip pocket and he can pass and play like he did, he can walk a game down. That's a special quality for a young point guard. He ran the team and controlled the tempo."

The Sixers ran right through Detroit from the get-go, and never really let up throughout the game. It helped that the Pistons (17-30) made just two of 20 from three-point range, shot 30.7 percent overall and got practically nothing out of big man Andre Drummond, who scored six points and committed four fouls in just over 19 minutes of play.

"Guys were running the floor and we were finding open men and we just played together," said Carter-Williams. "We were knocking down shots which helped us out. We stayed poised and moved the ball. I was trying to get guys good looks."

He did that and earned the praise of his coach in the process, which is always a good thing for the point guard to hear.

"He [Brown] means I controlled the game well," MCW said of his coach's praise. "I found guys in the right spots and vocally I was a leader out there. I didn't have to look for him to call plays. I knew what was working and what wasn't."

What wasn't working was the Pistons, according to coach Stan Van Gundy.

"We weren't ready to play," he said. "I don't think I've ever coached a game where one team's effort was that much better than my team's. It was a joke. They played so much harder. They ran harder. They cut harder. They drove it harder. They defended harder. They were into us more. They went to the boards harder. Everything. It was embarrassing and humiliating."

Robert Covington paced the Sixers with 19 points, and JaKarr Sampson had career highs of 13 points and eight rebounds. Luc Mbah a Moute scored 12 while K.J. McDaniels and Henry Sims both went for 10.

"Sixty-nine points against any NBA team is a fantastic effort," said Brown. "To win the rebounding game like we did [48-38] and contest the three-point line like we did was fantastic."

The Pistons' struggles are understandable as they lost point guard Brandon Jennings for the season to a torn Achilles' on Jan. 24 and last night were playing their fourth game in six nights. They certainly won't get any pity from the Sixers, who are in the midst of 18 games in 31 days, including 12 back-to-backs.

The Sixers ended a six-game losing streak and improved to 9-37 on the season. They made eight consecutive field goals in the span of 3 1/2 minutes in the first quarter, while the Pistons missed 12 in a row during a 7 1/2-minute run in the first. It all contributed to the Sixers yielding their lowest point total of the season and posting their first 20-point win since March of last year.

"We got stops," said Carter-Williams. "Nerlens [Noel] had some great blocked shots, we had some steals and we got the rebounds and got to run. That's our game. That's what we want to do. We want to run and get open shots."

And when MCW is playing maestro the way he did last night, results are usually pretty good.

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