1989 NBA Finals; Game 4 vs. Los Angeles Lakers
In a game strangely similar to Game 4 of the 1983 Finals, an injury depleted Laker team down 0-3, built a big lead only to see it slip away in the 4th quarter. Detroit helped the cause in this game by missing 11 free throws in the 1st half. There was a double technical after Rick Mahorn and Michael Cooper exchanged unpleasantries in the 1st quarter. L.A.'s largest lead was 40-24 with 10:09 left in the half before Detroit closed the gap late in the half. The Lakers made 70% of the shots in the 1st quarter and James Worthy had 17 points in that quarter. L.A. was leading 78-76 entering the 4th but Detroit was too much. They were led by James Edwards who scored all 13 of his points in the final period. For the period, Detroit would hit 62% of its shots and L.A. only 30%. With the score Detroit 100 L.A. 94, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar re-entered the game for the final time in his career. He hit his final shot, fittingly a skyhook, with 1:37 to play to cut the lead to 100-96. Laimbeer drained a jumper to make itt 102-96 and Kareem would be taken out by Pat Riley with 47 seconds left to an ovation. Detroit won the Pistons' first ever NBA championship.
| DETROIT | MN | FG-FGA | FT-FTA | OR | DR | RB | AS | PF | ST | TO | BL | PTS |
| Aguirre | 23 | 1-5 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Mahorn | 35 | 5-7 | 3-4 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 13 |
| Laimbeer | 30 | 5-8 | 4-4 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 |
| Dumars | 37 | 5-13 | 13-17 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 23 |
| Thomas | 32 | 5-9 | 4-6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 14 |
| Johnson | 29 | 5-11 | 4-7 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 |
| Edwards | 21 | 4-8 | 5-9 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 13 |
| Salley | 20 | 3-4 | 2-4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 |
| Rodman | 13 | 1-5 | 0-0 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Team | 15 | |||||||||||
| TOTALS | 34-70 | 35-51 | 9 | 28 | 50 | 20 | 27 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 105 | |
| 3-PT: Laimbeer 2-2, Thomas 0-1 | ||||||||||||
| L.A. | MN | FG-FGA | FT-FTA | OR | DR | RB | AS | PF | ST | TO | BL | PTS |
| Worthy | 46 | 17-26 | 4-6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 40 |
| Green | 38 | 2-5 | 2-4 | 3 | 9 | 12 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| A-Jabbar | 29 | 2-8 | 3-4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| Cooper | 46 | 4-14 | 2-3 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| Campbell | 14 | 2-3 | 2-2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Woolridge | 25 | 4-7 | 5-6 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 13 |
| Thompson | 24 | 3-10 | 5-6 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| Rivers | 12 | 1-5 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Lamp | 5 | 0-1 | 1-2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| McNamara | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Team | 14 | |||||||||||
| TOTALS | 35-79 | 24-33 | 10 | 30 | 54 | 23 | 30 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 97 | |
| 3-PT: Worthy 2-3, Cooper 1-7, Green 0-1 | ||||||||||||
| SCORING | 1Q | 2Q | 3Q | 4Q | F | |||||||
| Detroit | 23 | 26 | 27 | 29 | 105 | |||||||
| Los Angeles | 35 | 20 | 23 | 19 | 97 | |||||||
| A - 17,505 | ||||||||||||