Game 2-Pistons 95 Nets 80

After dominating the Nets in game one(78-56) of the Eastern Conference semifinals the Pistons came right back and played a great game 2 beating the Nets 95-80 to take the 2-0 series lead. The Pistons didn't look good in the first half. They were down 46-34 going into the third quarter. In that third quarter the Pistons' finally turned on their defense forcing the Nets to miss 10 straight shots and commit seven turnovers during a stretch of nearly 10 minutes. The Pistons had a 61-57 lead going into the final quarter. The Nets got within 2 points twice early in the 4th, but the Pistons answered again with a 17-4 run. Detroit held them off and made 8 of their final 9 shots to secure the victory. The big story of this game was the Pistons' guards. Billups had 28 points and a playoff career high 13 assists. Rip Hamiliton also had 28 points. The Pistons' guards outscored the Nets' guards 56-14. The Pistons are just a better team then the Nets. Detroit has dominated them in both games. They showed their toughness when they were down by 12 going into halftime. They had to battle back and they did. Their defense got them back into the game. They held the Nets to 11-32 shooting in the second half and forced 15 turnovers. The series now moves back to New Jersey with the Pistons up 2-0. Hopefully they can close out the series at Jersey but if they don't they should be able to win 1 of 2 games on the road and close out the series at home. It will be a tough task against the Nets who aren't going to just give up.
Notes-Game 3 is Sunday night....Corliss W. added 11 points off the bench....Both teams shot 43 percent from the field....Rasheed Wallace added 15 points and 3 blocks....Ben Wallace scored all of his 8 points in the third quarter including three important jumpers to help get the Pistons back in the game....Chauncey and Rip had 34 points combined in the second half....The Pistons scored 34 points in the first half and 61 in the second half....The Pistons scored 30 points off New Jersey's 20 turnovers....