<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Chauncey Billups said the two-day holiday break wouldn't disrupt the Pistons' winning flow. Man, was he right. The Pistons continued their roll, crushing the Nets, 101-83, on Wednesday night. It was their sixth straight win, their 13th out of the last 15 and their sixth straight over New Jersey. "It was a little scary taking those two days off," coach Flip Saunders said. "You wonder, is it going to catch us? But I thought we needed the time off mentally, to kind of freshen up and regroup." The Pistons (21-7) were mighty fresh. Richard Hamilton led the way, scoring 22 points and hitting 10-of-16 shots. Billups finished with 17 points and 10 assists. Antonio McDyess had 15 points and nine rebounds. "I thought we came out in the third and changed the tempo of the game at the defensive end," Saunders said. "Offensively, we have to move the ball. We made the second and third pass, and that led to easier shots." After making their first six shots to start the game, the Pistons went one better, hitting seven in a row to start the second half. They hit 14-of-18 shots in the third quarter to build a 76-62 lead. "We got cooking," Billups said. "We were getting the shots we wanted. Our defense picked up in the third quarter and our shots were going in -- that's a deadly combination." Hamilton, who averaged 23 points against the Nets (12-16) in the Pistons' previous five wins, hit all five of his shots in the third. The Pistons' 31 points in the quarter came from Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, McDyess and Billups. "I was going good, and the guys were finding me," Hamilton said. "They were getting me shots in rhythm. It's always fun to play against New Jersey. I consider them one of my hometown teams, coming from Philly." The Pistons, down by six in the second quarter, used the zone defense to throw the Nets out of sync. It inhibited the pick-and-roll play the Nets had success with in the first half and forced them to shoot from the perimeter. "The thing about the zone is, it reinforces what we want to do in our man-to-man," Saunders said. "There were a lot of times in that third quarter when we would show zone, but still stay with our man-to-man." The Nets, who shot 54.5 percent in the first half, shot 7-for-18 in the third quarter, including missing all four three-pointers. The Nets had 18 points in the third as the Pistons held an opponent to less than 20 third-quarter points for the fourth straight game. New Jersey was also the seventh straight team Detroit has held under 90 points. "Detroit is one of the better teams in the league," New Jersey coach Lawrence Frank said. "It solidifies that we have to keep on working to get better. Look at their record against us; they are playing better than us. But it's a long season and we are going to keep on grinding." Billups, matched up against Jason Kidd, once again finished ahead. Kidd didn't make a basket, missing all eight of his shots. His two points came at the free throw line. He did have 13 assists, but in two games against the Pistons, Kidd has scored eight points, missing 12-of-14 shots. "That's not how he impacts a game (by scoring)," Billups said. "He impacts it in other ways, by rebounding, defending and setting guys up." Jason Maxiell scored 10 points off the Pistons bench, and rookie Rodney Stuckey had his best game to date, scoring seven points with three assists.</div> Source: Detroit News
