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Hamilton, Pistons rout Nets

Dec 3, 2007 - 2:58 AM AUBURN HILLS, Michigan (Ticker) -- Richard Hamilton made sure the New Jersey Nets kept singing the Motown blues.

Hamilton scored 19 points to lead a balanced attack as the Detroit Pistons breezed to a 118-95 victory over the Nets on Sunday night.

Chauncey Billups collected 18 points and nine assists and Jason Maxiell had 18 and 11 rebounds for Detroit, which has won three straight games here against New Jersey.

Hamilton's performance was much-needed after scoring just eight points in Saturday's win at Milwaukee.

"(Hamilton) just did what he usually does," Billups said. "When he's out there, he's the 'Energizer Bunny.' He shoots most of our shots on our team and he's always going to make a lot more than he misses. He was good."

Maxiell was a huge spark off the bench with starter Antonio McDyess in early foul trouble.

"Max was big," Hamilton said. "He was huge. He's big every (game). He's going to come and play with a lot of energy like he usually does. He made a lot of shots. He could have had a lot more easy baskets, but he had bad hands tonight, and I told him that (jokingly), but he was excellent."

The Nets fell to just 6-39 on the road in the series dating back to the 1985-86 campaign.

Despite it being lopsided during the regular season, Billups still remembers the sting of being swept by the Nets in the 2003 playoffs and being forced into a Game Seven the following season.

"My first year they swept us in the playoffs," Billups said. "Since then, maybe we've had some good competitive battles with them. We've pretty much played pretty good against everybody. I don't feel like we've just dominated them."

Tied at 27-27 after one quarter, the Pistons pulled away in the second behind a 10-4 surge to close out the first half en route to a 54-44 advantage at intermission.

Detroit continued to add to its cushion with an 11-0 burst to finish the third, extending the lead to 87-67 heading into the final period.

"We made some coverage mistakes in the third, and they made us pay," Nets coach Lawrence Frank said. "And when we did start getting an offensive rhythm in the third, we could not get any stops. You need to bring your defense with you, especially on the road and we just had too many breakdowns."

"We were playing against a very good team in Detroit," New Jersey guard Jason Kidd said. "At the end of the third quarter, 10 goes to 20 and that was pretty much it. We didn't have any answers, and it seemed like they made every shot, and if they didn't make it, they got the offensive rebound and that put us in the hole."

McDyess and Rasheed Wallace poured in 12 points apiece to help the Pistons captured their sixth win in seven tries since dropping back-to-back games to Dallas and Sacramento.

Vince Carter poured in 22 points and Richard Jefferson chipped in 21 for the Nets, who shot 45 percent (35-of-77) from the field

Kidd handed out a season-high 16 assists. It was the 12th time this season the veteran floor general reached double figures in assists.