Pistons Lose Billups To Early Hamstring Injury; Fall 111-86 To Magic

Orlando, FL (AHN) -- Rashard Lewis scored a career playoff-high 33 points and Detroit's Chauncey Billups went out with a first quarter hamstring injury as the Orlando Magic hammered the Pistons 111-86 on Wednesday to close to 2-1 in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals.

Lewis was 11-of-15 from the field, including 5-of-6 from behind the arc after being only 2-of-12 from 3-point range in the first two games.

Billups, who averages 17.5 points and had 28 points against the Magic in Game 2, was injured only four minutes into the game when he drove to the basket and got tangled up with Orlando's Jameer Nelson. Nelson's leg caught Billups' foot before the Pistons All-Star guard fell hard to the court.

He didn't return and was to be further evaluated on Thursday. The Pistons are hopeful he'll be available for Saturday's Game 4 at Orlando.

Without Billups, Orlando immediately went on an 18-4 run to take a 24-6 lead on the way to a 54-42 halftime lead.

Said Pistons coach Flip Saunders, "I'm concerned because Billups is our quarterback; he runs our team. You saw our first two games. He's been a huge part of why we've been successful -- that matchup has been huge for us."

Detroit got as close as 73-69 at the end of the third period, but then went more than four minutes without a field goal to start the fourth period as Orland pulled away to a 87-73 advantage.

Dwight Howard had 20 points and 12 rebounds for Orlando while Nelson and Hedo Turkoglu added 18 points apiece.

Richard Hamilton led the Pistons with 24 points, followed by Tayshaun Prince with 22 and Rodney Stuckey with 19. Rasheed Wallace added 11 points on 4-of-15 shooting.

Detroit had beaten Orlando nine straight times in the playoffs. Detroit rallied from a 3-1 deficit to eliminate the Magic in 2003, then swept Orlando 4-0 in the first round last year.

Said Lewis, "Detroit's obviously been a team that's been beating us the past couple of years. The main focus is we don't want to dig ourselves too deep of a hole. We want to try to win our home games, take the series back to Detroit 2-2."