NEW YORK — The Detroit Pistons easily moved
into the second round of the NBA playoffs with a dominating
100-77 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday.
Richard Hamilton scored 24 points and
Chauncey Billups 20 for the Pistons, who claimed the first 10
points of the game and led 30-12 after the first quarter in
Philadelphia.
Detroit won the best-of-seven Eastern
Conference series 4-2 and will face the Orlando Magic in the
second round starting on Saturday in Detroit (Sunday in
Manila). The Pistons have advanced to at least the second
round of the playoffs seven straight years.
After struggling early in the series
against the upstart seventh-seeded Sixers and trailing 1-2,
second seed Detroit took over and disposed of Philadelphia
with lopsided wins in the final two games.
Detroit won Games 5 and 6 by a combined 40
points and outscored Philadelphia 57-38 in the second half of
Game 4 to start their comeback.
"It took us a little while to get our
rhythm back but once we did and we figured them out, we’ve
been successful," Billups said.
"It’s the NBA, there are no bad players.
That team has some capable players and they got going and got
a lot of confidence and they got us down.
"That team had been playing playoff style
basketball for quite awhile while and we needed some time to
get going again."
Detroit won 59 games in the regular season,
19 more than the Sixers, and rested most of their starters in
the last month.
Hamilton had 13 of his points in the first
quarter in Game 6, more than the entire Sixers team, as
Detroit held Philadelphia without a field goal for nearly the
first six minutes of the game.
Tayshaun Prince added 12 points for the
Pistons, who shot an impressive 58 percent, including
9-from-16 from 3-point range.
Andre Iguodala led the 76ers with 16
points, but Philadelphia was held to just 34 percent shooting
with the Sixers making just three of their 13 attempts from
3-point range.
Cleveland looks to advance to the second
round when it takes on the Wizards in Washington in Game 6.
The Cavaliers lead the series 3-2.
Boston, leading 3-2, also tries to clinch a
second-round spot when it faces the Hwaks in Atlanta in Game
6.
Utah tries to win the series at home when it hosts the
Houston Rockets. The Jazz lead 3-2.
