Pistons Create Tougher Road for the Celtics

Hamilton Scores 25 as Detroit Evens Series: Pistons 103, Celtics 97

BOSTON, May 22 -- A degree of normalcy returned to playoff basketball on Thursday night: A team won on the road.

If the Boston Celtics are going to survive the Eastern Conference finals, they're going to have to do something they've been unable to do through two rounds of the postseason: Win on the road.

Detroit got the kind of contributions up and down its roster that have sent the Pistons to the Eastern Conference finals six consecutive years, handing the Celtics their first home-court defeat in these playoffs, 103-97, at TD Banknorth Garden.

The Pistons used their signature defense to build the lead and held on to even this best-of-seven series at one game each, with the series moving to Detroit for Games 3 and 4 on Saturday and Monday.

"The atmosphere's going to be crazy," said Richard Hamilton, who led Detroit with 25 points. "We're geeked about getting back to our home court. The fans are excited, and now it's our job to take care of home court."

One thing that absolutely figured to change was the Pistons' defense, one of the team's staples that was notably absent in Game 1. The Celtics shot 52 percent in the series opener. For the Pistons, that was much more inexcusable than Rasheed Wallace hitting only three shots and Chauncey Billups losing his personal matchup with Rajon Rondo.

Predictably, the Pistons came out and put the clamps on the Celtics in the first half to build a nine-point lead before settling for a 50-43 advantage at the half. Kevin Garnett (24 points) and Paul Pierce (game-high 26) were able to score as effectively as they had in Game 1, but the rest of the Celtics, particularly the shooters, played as if they were wearing handcuffs.

Ray Allen, Rondo, Eddie House, James Posey and Tony Allen combined to miss 12 of their 15 shots the first half, though Allen did rally to finish with 25 points for the game. Boston made only 39 percent of its shots those first two quarters. The game turned into a bruising, deliberate half-court contest that has become the Pistons' trademark.

Wallace remained in a funk offensively, arguing and cussing more than shooting, which had to catch both the Pistons and Celtics by surprise.

Only 90 minutes before tip-off, Boston veteran forward P.J. Brown talked about how he expected Wallace to be at his "very, very best" for Game 2. But a couple of fouls and a technical appeared to take Wallace out of his game.

Hamilton, a resurgent Billups (19 points, seven assists) and Antonio McDyess (15 points) more than picked up the scoring slack.

And when the Celtics got some rare scoring from Allen to briefly reclaim the lead midway through the third quarter, the Pistons went back to playing withering defense, harassing Garnett and Pierce into a couple of turnovers late in the third quarter that helped the Pistons push their margin back to nine points to end the third quarter.