Detroit Eliminates New York, 95-84 : Eastern Conference: Mark Aguirre comes off the bench to score 25 points. Pistons make their fourth consecutive trip to the conference finals.

The Detroit Pistons, after 25 years without advancing to a conference final, reached their fourth consecutive Eastern Conference championships Tuesday by eliminating the New York Knicks.

The Detroit bench, with Mark Aguirre scoring 25 points, outscored New York reserves, 44-17, and the Pistons won the series in five games with a 95-84 victory.

“Detroit’s bench just wears you down over a series,” New York Coach Stu Jackson said. “I don’t know of a bigger, more physical bench than Detroit. They just really kept us off balance the entire night.”

The Pistons, bidding to become only the third franchise in history to repeat as NBA champions, now trail only the Lakers’ eight-year stretch (1982-89) in conference finals and Boston’s two five-year runs (1972-76 and 1984-88). Philadelphia was in the Eastern Conference championships from 1980-83.

Detroit, which swept four regular-season games from New York, will meet the winner of the Chicago and Philadelphia series. The Bulls are leading, 3-1.

Over the last two seasons, Detroit has held playoff opponents to fewer than 100 points in 22 of the last 25 games.

“That’s one of our strengths, wearing people down,” Detroit’s Bill Laimbeer said. “We come at them in waves.”

Patrick Ewing, playing all but 1:59 of the game, led the Knicks with 22 points, but he missed his last eight shots and made only one of 10 in the second half. Gerald Wilkins scored 18 points for New York.

“Patrick got tired,” Laimbeer said. “He had to carry the load.”

The Knicks, who led by as many as 14 points early, were ahead 28-20 after one quarter. Then Aguirre came in and took control of the game.