Pistons roll past Knicks with 67-point first half

On Saturday, he took advantage of an opportunity to take center stage.

Prince made all eight of his shots in the first half, including a pair of 3-pointers, and his 20 points helped the Pistons to an easy 100-85 victory over the short-handed New York Knicks.

"I got a lot of easy buckets out there -- some wide-open jumpers and a couple of dunks after I ran the floor on a break," he said. "This is an unselfish team, and we are always going to look for the guy with the hot hand. Tonight, that was me."

Detroit played without Rasheed Wallace (back), but the Knicks were down to just nine healthy players with Allan Houston (left quadriceps), Penny Hardaway (groin) and Tim Thomas (groin) all sidelined.

"We've got guys out there playing more minutes than they normally play, and who aren't used to playing together," New York coach Lenny Wilkens said. "That's asking a lot, but I want them to learn from it."

Ben Wallace added 12 points and 12 rebounds for the Pistons, who ended a two-game losing streak, while Chauncey Billups had 11 points and 13 assists.

"I'm looking to do a better job of getting my teammates involved," said Billups, who is averaging 8.1 assists in Detroit's past 10 games. "I think that I can do that and still find ways to score. This was a good win for us -- we knew they were banged-up, and we took advantage of that."

DerMarr Johnson led the Knicks with 17 and Vin Baker added 16, his highest point total since joining New York.

"Every game is like a playoff game right now, because this is coming down to the wire in the last few games," Baker said. "We just have to get ready to play and really push it and get the seventh or eighth spot in the East."

The Pistons jumped out to a quick 16-3 lead and never looked back. They scored 32 points in the first quarter and 35 more in the second, giving them their highest-scoring half of the season.

Detroit led by 19 at the half, shooting 61.9 percent from the floor in the first two periods.

The Pistons played a little more defense in the third, outscoring New York 23-18 to increase their lead to 90-67. They led by as many as 27 in the fourth.

The fans began chanting for Darko Milicic with nine minutes to play, and coach Larry Brown sent him in almost immediately. The No. 2 pick in last summer's draft finished the game, but did not score and was called for a defensive three-second technical foul.

"That kid just does some crazy things," Brown said. "He needs to be out there, but he has to trying so hard to please the fans."

Notes:
The game was played on the same day as the Michigan high school finals, which have produced NBA stars like Magic Johnson, Chris Webber and Jalen Rose. Johnson's alma mater, Lansing Everett, won the Class A title Saturday afternoon. ... Hamilton, who had been playing with a facemask to protect his broken nose, started the second half without it, but put it back on at the first timeout. ... Rasheed Wallace was in uniform, but spent the entire game on the bench with an electrical-stimulation machine hooked to his back. ... DerMarr Johnson started for the first time since the 2001-02 season, when he played for Atlanta.