MIAMI (AP) -Tayshaun Prince scored a career-high 34 points and matched a career best with 12 rebounds, and the Detroit Pistons used a big second-half run to beat the Miami Heat 91-80 Thursday night in the season opener for both teams.
Chauncey Billups added 19 points and 11 assists for the Pistons, who used a 12-0 run over a 6-minute stretch midway through the second half to take control. Rasheed Wallace scored 11 points for Detroit.
Ricky Davis scored 23 points for Miami, which dropped its opener for the second straight season. Sure, this one was closer than last year’s 108-66 ring-night debacle against the Chicago Bulls, but that’ll offer little consolation.
Shaquille O’Neal didn’t score in the first half and finished with nine points for Miami, getting only six shots from the floor.
Rockets 106, Jazz 95
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Tracy McGrady scored 47 points and Houston got a little revenge for last season’s opening-round playoff loss by beating Utah.
Mike James added 15 points – two more than the Jazz reserves combined – and Chuck Hayes had 13 rebounds for the Rockets, who improved to 2-0 under new coach Rick Adelman and have yet to play a home game this season.
Carlos Boozer had 30 points and 16 rebounds, and Mehmet Okur finished with 16 points and 10 boards, but after dominating the first quarter the Jazz tapered off in the second and never recovered.
Deron Williams had 18 points and 13 assists, and Ronnie Brewer scored 13 points for the Jazz, who led by 12 in the first quarter before McGrady took over the game.
Suns 106, SuperSonics 99
SEATTLE (AP) – Amare Stoudemire, playing for the third time since knee surgery a month ago, had 23 points and 11 rebounds, and Phoenix rallied past Kevin Durant and the SuperSonics in the home opener of the Sonics’ 41st and most awkward season in Seattle.
Steve Nash had 18 points, including the clinching 3-pointer, and 12 assists, while veteran Grant Hill added 13 points, six rebounds and five assists in his Suns debut. Phoenix won for just the second time in nine season openers.
Durant, the second overall draft pick, scored 27 points on 11-for-23 shooting. Chris Wilcox had 23 points and 11 rebounds for Seattle, which blew a nine-point lead it had late in the third quarter one night after getting blown out late in its opener at Denver.
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