Pistons Score Big Over Nets

The Detroit Pistons showed New Jersey they can do more than just play defense.

Chauncey Billups had 28 points and a career playoff-high 13 assists, Richard Hamilton scored 28 and the Pistons defeated the Nets, 95-80, Friday night at Auburn Hills, Mich., to take a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal.

Game 3 of the best-of-seven series is Sunday night in New Jersey.

Rasheed Wallace had 15 points and three blocks and Corliss Williamson scored 11 for the Pistons, who took control by outscoring the Nets, 27-11, in the third quarter. Ben Wallace had eight points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.

New Jersey’s Kenyon Martin, who had 19 points and eight rebounds, fouled out with 1:10 left. Richard Jefferson also scored 19 and Rodney Rogers 11 off the bench. Jason Kidd had eight points on three-for-13 shooting and 11 assists.

The Nets took their first lead late in the first quarter and led, 46-34, at halftime. They didn’t trail again until Hamilton’s two free throws with 3:43 left in the third put Detroit ahead, 53-52.

Williamson’s basket about a minute later capped a 19-2 run and gave the Pistons a 57-52 lead.

New Jersey pulled within two points twice early in the fourth quarter before Detroit went on a 17-4 run -- highlighted by Rasheed Wallace’s two three-point baskets -- to take an 81-66 lead.

The Nets cut their deficit to seven but couldn’t get closer.

“I think we just played our best half of basketball,” Piston Coach Larry Brown said. “I don’t know if we can play better than that.”

In Game 1, Detroit held the two-time Eastern Conference champion Nets to 56 points -- the second-lowest total in NBA playoff history -- in a 22-point victory.

New Jersey looked as if it might be in for another rough shooting night when it missed its first six shots. But then the Nets scored some fastbreak baskets and relentlessly went after offensive rebounds for second and third chances.

Their halftime total was only nine fewer points than they had in Game 1. New Jersey also had 27 rebounds, two fewer than it did in the previous game.

But the game turned in the second half. When the Nets needed them most -- in the game-turning third quarter -- Martin and Jefferson combined for only five points on one-of-six shooting.