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Prince, Pistons pounce on punchless Warriors

Dec 16, 2007 - 10:12 PM AUBURN HILLS, Michigan (Ticker) -- Tayshaun Prince and the red-hot Detroit Pistons cooled off the Golden State Warriors.

Prince scored 23 points Sunday as the Pistons coasted to a 109-87 rout of the Warriors, who clearly were not ready for an early afternoon start time.

It was the 11th victory in the last 14 games for Detroit, which has won 12 of its last 13 home contests against Golden State.

The Warriors entered with wins in 13 of their last 17 games since dropping a 111-104 home decision to the Pistons on November 14.

But Golden State appeared sluggish early, evidenly affected by the game's scheduled start time of 12:30 p.m.

"We've got to be ready to play," Warriors swingman Stephen Jackson said. "This is definitely uncalled for. We're a professional team and we've got to be ready to play.

"There's no excuse to come out and get blown like that and start a road trip off like that."

The Pistons capitalized on both ends of the floor, racing to a 56-35 halftime lead. The 35 points were a season low in a single half for the Warriors, who entered averaging 109 points - the second-best mark in the league.

"We've got to take a page from them," Warriors point guard Baron Davis added. "We can't make excuses about the travel, about the late games. We could have won this game had we come ready to play and play with the intensity that we're capable of playing with."

After rallying for a spirited win over the Los Angeles Lakers late Friday night, the Warriors were delayed in their travel schedule to Detroit. The team's trip was curtailed by a snow storm which prevented many fans from attending Sunday's matinee.

"I don't need no rest," Jackson said. "That's part of your job. We just got our (tails) kicked. We weren't ready to play, and that's terrible."

"We executed early and we were able to take control of the tempo," Pistons coach Flip Saunders said. "We knew we could probably take advantage of them early, because this was a tough schedule situation for them."

Prince, Richard Hamilton and Antonio McDyess combined for 36 points before the break as the Pistons outscored the Warriors by a 33-13 margin in the second quarter.

Prince finished 8-of-14 from the floor and made all three of his shots from the arc to pace six Pistons in double figures.

"We took it to them early in the post, and that let us control the tempo," Prince said. "We got out big, and after that it was just fun."

Chauncey Billups scored 19 points, McDyess added 14 and 11 rebounds and Hamilton chipped in 13 points for Detroit, which enjoyed a 47-32 edge on the glass.

Matt Barnes scored 15 points off the bench for Golden State, which shot just 6-of-22 from 3-point range and committed 17 turnovers.

Jackson scored 13 points and was the only Warriors starter in double-figures, as coach Don Nelson emptied his bench for much of the second half.

"We pulled the plug early on this one," Nelson said. "We've got a game tomorrow and you have to think beyond one game sometimes. I was going to give the starters about five minutes in the third period and if I didn't see any light, I was going to play my bench."