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Wallace carries Pistons past Pacers

Jan 30, 2008 - 4:03 AM INDIANAPOLIS (Ticker) -- Rasheed Wallace collected 24 points and 10 rebounds as the Detroit Pistons continued their good fortunes against the Indiana Pacers with Tuesday's 110-104 victory.

Tayshaun Prince scored 17 points and Antonio McDyess picked up his 11th double-double with 10 and 13 boards in helping Detroit earn its fifth straight win over Indiana.

The Pistons can go for their first season-series sweep of the Pacers since the 1984-85 campaign when the two clubs meet in "Motown" on February 13.

"We've been running into teams that are all geeked-up to face us," said Wallace, who had just his third 20-point outing of the month. "That just proves that we are still one of the elite teams in the league."

Detroit's Jarvis Hayes registered two of his 13 points off the bench with an easy layup at the 5:48 mark in the fourth quarter to forge a 99-93 edge.

But Mike Dunleavy drilled a 17-footer and added a pair of free throws to close Indiana's deficit to 99-97 with 4:18 left. It was Dunleavy's first field goal since 9:21 to go in the third.

"I thought we attacked the basket pretty well and got to the line," Dunleavy said. "We didn't get a call one (possession), Jeff (Foster) missed a couple of free throws, and there was a layup I missed, so we had some opportunities."

Dunleavy was the story of the first half for Indiana, pouring in 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting before intermission en route to 25 for the game.

Wallace connected from deep and Richard Hamilton hit a jumper during a 7-2 surge, giving the Pistons a 106-99 advantage with 3:23 left.

The Pacers made one more late run to draw within two on Travis Diener's layup with 1:34 remaining, but Prince knocked down a 15-footer and Wallace blocked Diener's 3-pointer in the corner to seal the win.

"I had a head start, coming all the way from the other side," Wallace said. "That was my runway. Anything shorter than that and he probably would have gotten it over me."

"That last two or three minutes, we were real aggressive defensively," said Pistons guard Chauncey Billups, who had 13 points and eight assists. "We knew that they were trying to penetrate and kick out to all of their 3-point shooters, so him getting out there (on Diener) ... he had to.

"I rotated over to Dunleavy and I knew somebody had to come from the weak side, and that was 'Sheed."

Troy Murphy recorded 18 points and eight rebounds and Diener also scored 18 for the Pacers, who dropped their fourth game in a row.

"If you get up, you never know what happens," Diener said. "But we could never get to that point. We had our chances, and it's disappointing that we couldn't make enough plays. You've got to give them credit, they are a great basketball team and they're the team competing for championships. We just have to keep putting in these types of efforts and we'll be fine."