DETROIT, Michigan, June 16 - Chauncey Billups had 17 points while Ben Wallace had 11 points, 13 rebounds and three steals on Thursday as Detroit beat San Antonio 102-71 in game four of the 2005 National Basketball Association finals.
Lindsey Hunter came off the bench to add 17 points for the defending champions, who fed off their boisterous fans for the second-straight victory at the Palace arena.
They not only put the brakes on the high-flying Spurs, but they evened their best-of-seven title series at two games each.
You don't think games are going to go the way they did like this, but I didn't think the first two games would go like they did in San Antonio,'' Billups said. Seven players reached double figures for the Pistons, who had 13 steals to just one steal for San Antonio. That’s not us, but we will take what they give us,’’ Billups said of the uncharacteristic run-and-gun-style displayed by Detroit. We know this is for everything. It is all or nothing. Nobody remembers who finished in second place.'' Said Hunter, I came into this league as a scorer, so it is not new to me. I still know how to put it in the hole.’’
Rasheed Wallace had 14 points and eight rebounds for Detroit, who are trying to become just the third team to recover from an 0-2 deficit to go on and win an NBA championship.
The Boston Celtics and the Portland Trailblazers rallied after dropping the opening two games in 1969 and 1977 finals respectively.
Tim Duncan scored 16 points and had 16 rebounds on 5-of-17 shooting for San Antonio, who were embarrassed on the road after easily winning the first two games at home.
Pop (Spurs coach Gregg Popovich) knows how I felt after the first two games, and now I know how he feels,'' said Pistons coach Larry Brown, who picked up his 99th career post-season coaching win to tie Celtic-legend Red Auerbach for third place all-time. I believe this is the best game a team I have been involved with, in such an important game, has played. This was a special game.’’
On Tuesday, the Pistons became the first team to score more than 90 points on San Antonio in 14 finals games. Now they have done it twice in a row.
We had it going the last couple of games but now we got a couple of days off so hopefully we can continue to be aggressive,'' Billups said. Said Ben Wallace, We can still play better. We haven’t played a perfect game we are still searching.’’
San Antonio were their own worst enemy, allowing the Pistons to force 10 turnovers in the first half for 13 fast break points.
Detroit led 23-17 after the first quarter and 51-36 at the half. Their biggest lead was 31 points.
Duncan was the lone bright spot for San Antonio. He collected his first rebound of the game two minutes into the first quarter to become the Spurs’ all-time postseason leader for rebounds.
It was his 1,302nd postseason rebound, enabling him to pass David Robinson who finished with 1,301 playoff rebounds.
Tonight was a carbon copy of the last game,'' Spurs coach Popovich said. They got even more points off turnovers. That’s the most disappointing thing because you can imagine since that game that’s all we emphasized is the boards and taking care of the basketball. We came out and did the exact same thing.’’
Spurs sharpshooter Manu Ginobili played with a bandage on a left thigh that he injured early in game three in a collision with Pistons’ Tayshaun Prince. He finished with 12 points.
Tony Parker also struggled Thursday, committing three turnovers and scoring just 12 points.
The Pistons shot 46 percent (41-of-90) while San Antonio made 37 percent of its field-goal attempts (26-of-70).
Game four is Sunday in Detroit.