NBA Game Summary - Indiana at Detroit

Auburn Hills, MI (Basketball News) - Richard Hamilton scored 28 points, Ben Wallace had 21 points and 15 rebounds, and the Detroit Pistons cruised to a 96-81 victory over Indiana in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Rasheed Wallace and Chauncey Billups added 11 points apiece for the Pistons, who led by double digits for the final 30 minutes and 30 seconds of the game.

Jermaine O’Neal and Stephen Jackson — two of the five Indiana players suspended for the now-infamous November 19 brawl at The Palace — led the Pacers in this one.

O’Neal scored 22 points on just 8-of-22 shooting and Jackson had 15 points on 6-of-19 shooting. Jamaal Tinsley added 13 points in the loss, and Jeff Foster had a team-high 13 rebounds off the bench.

Rest may have played a factor in the score. The second-seeded Pistons have been off since taking Game 5 in their first round series with Philadelphia on Tuesday, while sixth-seeded Indiana had just one day off after winning Game 7 against Boston on Saturday night.

"That’s tough, and I admire their coach for getting them ready to play," said Detroit head coach Larry Brown. "We had to play the way we played to win."

Game 2 of this series is scheduled for Wednesday in Detroit.

The Pistons shot 47 percent for a 23-20 lead after the first quarter, but they didn’t start taking control of the game until the second.

The Pacers were within seven points with eight minutes to play before halftime after a Foster free throw made it 36-29. But — amazingly — that was as close as they would come the rest of the way.

"Right now we’re playing against a team that’s bringing a different level of force than we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle. "The score was pretty indicative of the way things went."

Detroit outscored the Pacers 16-9 the rest of the way to halftime — not an overwhelming margin, but more important was the way the Pistons seemed to be taking control with their defense.

Indiana shot just 40 percent in the first half. They committed nine turnovers, were outrebounded by four and their big men were outplayed in the paint.

"You can’t have that happen against the world champions," Carlisle said. "They have the best starting five in all of basketball."

And not one of Detroit’s starting five — Hamilton, Billups, Tayshaun Prince, and the Wallaces — played more than 40 minutes in the game.

The Pistons lead was 15 heading into the fourth quarter, and reached as high as 21 points in the fourth. The result was far less drama in a contentious rivalry that in the past nine months has featured a fight and a bomb threat to the Pacers locker room at The Palace.

"It was good to see everybody was focused on basketball," Ben Wallace said. "It was a physical game, but it was a clean physical game."