NBA Game Summary - Detroit at Portland

Portland, OR (Basketball News) - Rasheed Wallace had 13 points and nine rebounds in his return to Portland to help the Detroit Pistons to an easy 83-68 win over the Trail Blazers.

Wallace, who spent seven-plus years in Portland, was traded to Atlanta on February 10. The Hawks then sent Wallace to the Pistons as part of a three-way deal right before the trading deadline.

Ben Wallace scored 12 points, blocked four shots and pulled down 19 rebounds for Detroit. Chauncey Billups netted a game-high 16 points, while Corliss Williamson added 14 for the Pistons, who have won five of their last six games.

"He told us it wasn’t anything special, he just wanted to win," Ben Wallace said about Rasheed. "He plays well on defense, he blocks shots and he can knock down shots. He gets out in the open court, he rebounds and he’s exactly what our team needed. He’s made our team better."

Detroit was also without the services of leading scorer Richard Hamilton, who underwent surgery for a broken nose on Tuesday.

Portland had just two players in double figures on the way to its lowest scoring output of the season. Zach Randolph paced the team with 11 and Shareef Abdur-Rahim had 10. The Blazers lost for the fourth time in a row after a dreadful 25-of-73 shooting performance (34 percent).

"They beat us in every aspect of the game. They dominated from start to finish," said Blazers head coach Maurice Cheeks. "It’s one of the best defensive teams in the league and you really have to have an offensive flow to beat them. Their whole team played well overall, not just one individual, and we just didn’t."

The Blazers fell behind early thanks to 14 missed shots and Billups recorded seven points, including a layup with two seconds left, en route to a 27-16 first-quarter lead.

Detroit notched 14-of-20 points over a 7 1/2-minute span to establish a 43-26 advantage with about two minutes to play before halftime. Rasheed Wallace tallied eight consecutive points during the run against his former team and led all scorers with 11 at the half.

The Pistons were up 46-29 at the break. Portland’s shooting woes continued as it made just 31.6 percent of shots (12-of-38). The 29 points were a season low for the Blazers in the first half.

Detroit scored five straight out of the halftime gates to take its biggest lead of the night, 22 points, at 51-29.

Portland scored six straight points to close within 16 at 57-41 with 3:13 left, but the Pistons were probably more worried about their head coach at that point. Larry Brown, bothered by back problems of late, headed for the locker room for treatment, giving way to assistant Mike Woodson for the second game in row.

After three quarters, Detroit led comfortably with a 64-43 margin.

Qyntel Woods netted eight points in the final quarter to help the Blazers narrow the gap to 13 points with under two minutes left, but it was too little, too late.

"We had no offensive flow and no defensive flow from the outset," Cheeks added. "I don’t know how to explain it. The sense of urgency that we need as we fight for a playoff berth was not there. But we can’t allow it to be devastating."