NBA ROUNDUP : Pistons Get Even With the Hawks, 101-88

The Detroit Pistons, playing defense like the team that won NBA titles the past two years, evened their first-round series with Atlanta as Joe Dumars scored 28 points in a 101-88 victory over the Hawks on Sunday night.

The third and fourth games of the best-of-5 series will be played Tuesday and Thursday in Atlanta. Game 5, if needed, will be back at The Palace next Sunday.

The Pistons, who shot only 38.5% in a 103-98 loss in Game 1 on Friday night, shot 47% in the second game while holding Atlanta to 36% shooting. Dennis Rodman grabbed 16 rebounds for Detroit, and set a team playoff record with six offensive rebounds in the first quarter.

Detroit took an 8-7 lead on a basket by Dumars at the 6:48 mark of the first quarter and led the rest of the game.

Dominique Wilkins, who scored 32 points in the Game 1 upset, was held to 20 in Game 2.

Both teams struggled in the first quarter. But Rodman had nine total rebounds in the period, and Dumars scored eight points to help the Pistons to a 22-18 lead.

The Detroit bench, led by Mark Aguirre’s 13 points, controlled the second quarter. Aguirre scored 11 of the Pistons’ first 16 second-quarter points and the Hawks missed their first seven shots as Detroit built a 47-36 halftime lead.

Atlanta shot only 30 percent in the first half, Detroit 41.7 percent.

Twenty-three of Detroit’s 47 first-half points were scored by reserves. The Hawks’ bench contributed just seven first-half points, five by John Battle.

Isiah Thomas, wearing a brace for the first time on his right wrist, scored nine of his 15 points in the third quarter, which saw the Pistons build an 18-point lead with 4:54 left in the period. Thomas missed 32 games with the broken wrist, which required surgery to repair.

The Hawks, 29-for-81 for the night, went without a basket for 5:26 of the third period, but made 10 free throws, plus the last two baskets of the period, to trail 76-65 at the start of the fourth quarter.

Detroit’s biggest lead was 88-69 on a basket by Dumars with 5:47 left in the game.

Detroit’s defense gave up the fewest points in the NBA this season. The Pistons held opponents to an average of 96.8 points per game. The Hawks averaged 109.8 points per game during the season, but only 95.2 against Detroit.

The Pistons were 43-8 when holding opponents under 100 points, 24-1 when allowing less than 90 points.

Chicago 89, New York 79--This time the Knicks had it their way most of the game and it still wasn’t good enough.

Patrick Ewing scored 24 points, the Knicks forced a half-court game and had a big edge in rebounds. But the Bulls, led by Michael Jordan’s 26 points, put on late run in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.

Craig Hodges hit a 3-pointer for his only basket of the game with 7:36 remaining to break a 66-66 tie and the Bulls went on a 13-4 run to decide the issue. The victory gave the Bulls a 2-0 lead in the best-of-5 series that resumes in New York on Tuesday night.

Ewing, who scored only six points in Thursday night’s 126-85 Bulls blowout, scored 14 of his points in the first quarter on 7 of 11 shooting but hit only one of his last 11 attempts.

“We knew they would come out strong,” Jordan said. “It was up tempo and settled down into a half-court game. They did a good job in keeping it a half-court game and I thought we did a good job on Patrick in the second half.”