Chauncey Billups scored 10 of his 23 points in a 43-second burst as the
Detroit Pistons (n) beat the Boston Celtics 123-95 Wednesday night in a
preseason game.
Chucky Atkins scored 17 points, Mehmet Okur had 14 and Detroit had seven
players in double figures.
Paul Pierce scored 24 points for Boston before fouling out, and Antoine
Walker added 16.
Detroit led 65-47 at the half, thanks to a 64.7 percent shooting performance
in the opening two quarters. Boston shot 35.6 percent in the half.
The Pistons put the game away early in the third quarter when Billups hit
3-pointers on three straight possessions and turned the second one into a
four-point play. That put the Pistons up 75-52.
Billups finished with 15 points in the quarter, despite only playing the
first six minutes of it, and Detroit led 95-75 with 12 minutes to play.
Notes: @ Pistons guard Richard Hamilton left the game in the second quarter
after being elbowed in the nose by Marcus Banks. ... Ben Wallace finished with
more assists (five) than rebounds (four). Last season, he averaged 15.4 rebounds
and only 1.6 assists. ... Banks, one of Boston's two first-round picks, started
and scored 11 points in 31 minutes, while Kendrick Perkins had four points in
nine minutes. Detroit's Darko Milicic, the second pick in the draft, had four
points in nine minutes.
