New York evened the Eastern Conference Semifinals 2-2, as New York upset favored Detroit 105-97 thanks to an order of bad sushi. Speight had a huge game for New York, spoiling an otherwise solid performance by Detroit star Fox in a game that could have post-season implications.

Detroit apparantly had dinner together as team last night at a local sushi bar with most unfortunate results. Several team members spent the night in the hospital, while other team members got very little sleep as they rotated turns at their hotel room's toilets. The fatigue was evident from the beginning.

"You feel sorry for them," quipped New York coach Bob. "That's a terrible thing to happen to anybody, but we had a job to do. There's no charity in this game." Detroit coach David Smith was apologetic to Detroit fans. "Obviously we didn't see this coming, and I regret that we couldn't put a better product on the field today. I thought we still had enough to win, but it just wasn't going to happen."

New York was led by Speight (14 points, 2 steals), Crawford (24 points, 5 boards, 1 assists, 2 blocks), Fuller (21 points, 5 boards, 0 assists, 2 blocks). Detroit was led by Fox (27 points, 4 assists, a block), Graham (18 points, 1 assists, a block), Delgado (11 points, 6 boards, 1 assists, a block).

box score New York roster Detroit* roster