McDyess shines as Pistons down Hornets in Motown

Chauncey Billups compiled 22 points and dished out 11 assists, Tayshaun Prince tallied 18 points and Richard Hamilton donated 13 points in the Pistons’ fifth consecutive victory.

"The guy right now that is really playing at a high level has been Tayshaun (Prince)," said Detroit head coach Flip Saunders. "He’s playing extremely well, we’re running a lot of things through him and he’s playing very lively."

Dale Davis made his first start of the season in place of forward Rasheed Wallace, who sat out the contest while serving an automatic one-game suspension for receiving his 16th technical foul of the season during a victory over Phoenix.

Chris Paul continued his tremendous rookie campaign with 24 points and 10 assists while David West contributed 24 points in the loss. Marc Jackson added 10 points, as the Hornets had their three-game winning streak halted.

More significantly, the Hornets stayed two games behind Sacramento in the race for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Kings lost to Dallas, 127-101, on Tuesday night.

"That’s a championship team. I was very proud of the way our guys fought," Hornets head coach Byron Scott said. "Being so young and having to go against a great basketball team like Detroit, even without Rasheed (Wallace) we knew it was going to be difficult. We had to play almost a perfect basketball game."

Leading 52-46 entering the third quarter, Detroit quickly built a double-digit edge. West scored the first basket of the second half then the Pistons ripped off eight straight points to take a 60-48 advantage.

Hamilton drained a three and converted an old-fashion three-point play before Davis capped the quick spurt on a dunk with 9:05 left to play.

The Pistons also tallied the final six points of the stanza to seize a 77-64 edge. McDyess and Tony Delk each drained two free throws and Prince’s jumper opened the 13-point advantage with 10 seconds left.

Detroit took a 17-point lead early in the fourth quarter, 87-70, after McDyess completed a three-point play at the 7:24 mark.

The Hornets didn’t go away, scoring the next 11 points to pull within six. West totaled five points, including a three-point play, and Aaron Williams’ slam made the score 87-81 with four minutes remaining.

West drained a jumper about two minutes later to pull the Hornets within 92-87, but the Pistons scored the next seven points to put the game out of reach.

Billups converted a pair from the charity stripe then Delk drained an open trey. Billups slashed into the paint and ultimately drained two more free throws to push the edge to 99-87 with 1:10 on the clock.

Detroit cruised to victory from there.

Game Notes

Detroit improved to an astonishing 34-3 at home this season...The Hornets dropped to 14-23 as the visitor...Detroit won the season series, 2-0. Hamilton poured in 30 points to push Detroit to a 96-86 victory at the Ford Center on January 10th...The Pistons shot 49.3 percent from the floor and drained 25- of-30 from the charity stripe...The Hornets shot 47.6 from the floor...Delk scored 15 points in the victory.