Tayshaun & Co. surge to defeat Knicks

8 March 2008 230 views No Comments

NEW YORK (AP)—With Rasheed Wallace out and Richard Hamilton sticking around for less than a half, it was up to Tayshaun Prince and the Detroit reserves to carry the Pistons.

Prince bounced back from a horrendous game in his last trip to Madison Square Garden, scoring 28 points and leading the Pistons to a 101-97 victory over the New York Knicks on Friday night.

Rodney Stuckey added 13 for the Pistons, who rebounded from a 90-78 loss in a showdown of Eastern Conference powers Wednesday in Boston and lowered their magic number to one for clinching their seventh straight playoff berth.

Prince was 0-of-10 from the field and scoreless in the Pistons’ 89-65 loss here on Jan. 13, their most lopsided defeat of the season and one of the poorest offensive performances in team history. He went 9-for-17 this time, capped by a clutch runner that gave Detroit a 99-95 lead with 9.9 seconds left.

“Last game we didn’t move the ball well. Tonight we moved the ball,” Prince said. “Obviously we knew we had to move the ball very well with Rasheed and Rip out of the game. We just moved the ball and got everybody touching the ball and everybody involved. So when that happens, the stat sheet just looks like it was, (with) guys in double figures off the bench and the starting lineup.”

“I thought our bench won this game for us, easy,” said Chauncey Billups, who also scored 12. “They came in and was phenomenal. They picked up the speed of the game, they got easy shots, they got rebounds, they got blocks. They just really took great advantage of the minutes that they had, kept us afloat in the game and Tayshaun carried us tonight. So it was a great win.”