A solid outing by Dunbar led New Orleans to a 92-85 win over Detroit. "Take away Dunbar, and we'd have won this thing," said Detroit coach David Smith. "It was a very close game most of the way, and he was the one that put New Orleans over the top. I thought we had the right game plan and executed well. What's sad is that I don't know what we'd do differently next time, except for hoping for a more mortal performance by him."

New Orleans coach Bob was happy for the win, but concerned about the team's play. "I didn't think this was a very good team win. Our players seemed tempted to sit around and watch Dunbar do his stuff. That was enough for the win today, but on another day maybe Dunbar will be injured or our opponents can counter him, and we'll need the rest of the players to step up as well."

New Orleans was led by Dunbar (33 points, 0 assists, a block), Forde (7 points, 9 boards, 0 assists, a steal, a block), Ortega (9 points, 0 assists, a steal, 2 blocks). Detroit was led by Bigelow (23 points, 16 boards, 0 assists, a steal), Alston (7 points, 2 steals), Marko (17 points).

With this win, New Orleans jump to 1-0 and 1-0 at home. They improve to #3 in the Southwest and advance to #5 overall in the Western Conference. With this defeat, Detroit stand at 0-1. They move up to #2 in the Central and fall to #11 overall in the Eastern Conference.

box score New Orleans roster Detroit* roster