ORLANDO, Fla.—Richard Hamilton scored 32 points and Hedo Turkoglu missed a layup with time running out as the Detroit Pistons beat the Orlando Magic 90-89 on Saturday to take a 3-1 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Tayshaun Prince scored 17 for Detroit, including an 11-foot runner for the go-ahead basket with 8.9 seconds left. Rasheed Wallace had 16 points and eight rebounds. Antonio McDyess had eight points and 14 boards.

Orlando squandered a 15-point lead in the third quarter. After Prince’s basket, Turkoglu’s layup from the left side of the lane was no good and didn’t draw a foul, and Dwight Howard’s putback was also off the mark.

The Pistons, the first team to win on the road in the second round, can clinch the series when it returns to Detroit on Tuesday.

The Pistons won despite playing without All-Star point guard Chauncey Billups, held out after straining his hamstring in Thursday’s game.

Turkoglu scored 20 for Orlando and three players added 15 points—Rashard Lewis, Maurice Evans and Jameer Nelson.

The Pistons held Howard in check all game, forcing several turnovers on Magic passes inside and largely preventing the All-Star from getting the ball near the rim. They double-teamed and banged him around but didn’t commit many fouls on the 59 percent free throw shooter. Howard shot only two free throws, making both. He finished with eight points and 12 rebounds.

Detroit climbed out of a 55-44 halftime deficit with a 15-0 run over nearly seven minutes in the third quarter to tie it at 63. McDyess and Hamilton each scored four in the run and Lindsey Hunter, activated because of Billups’ injury, hit a 3-pointer. The Magic missed eight straight shots and committed two turnovers in the span.

Pistons rookie Rodney Stuckey made his first playoff start in place of Billups, but Hunter took over the ballhandling duties much of the time with Stuckey in foul trouble. Hunter rarely appeared in the regular season, playing a career-low 24 games and spending 46 on the inactive list in his 15th pro year. He looked rusty early but finished with eight points and three assists.

Billups is third on Detroit’s career playoff scoring list and was averaging 15.8 points and 5.7 assists this postseason. In the end, the Pistons didn’t need him.



Hornets vs. Spurs

SAN ANTONIO—Besides winning titles, there’s another reason Tony Parker loves playing in the NBA.

The San Antonio point guard thrives on a good 1-on-1 matchup, such as the one he’s got going with New Orleans’ Chris Paul in the Western Conference semifinals.

“It’s great fun, great matchup, a great challenge for me. So I’m having a lot of fun,” Parker said Saturday. “It’s always good when you play against the best players. That’s why you want to play in the NBA, to play against the best.”

Parker certainly has that in Paul, and Paul in Parker.

The two point guards matched each other almost point-for-point, assist-for-assist in Game 3 of the series on Thursday, and figure to do so again in Game 4 on Sunday.

The Hornets have a 2-1 lead and the Spurs want to even things up before returning to New Orleans for Game 5.

Parker, who turns 26 on May 17, racked up 31 points and 11 assists in the Spurs’ Game 3 win. Paul, who turned 23 on Tuesday, had 35 points and nine assists.

“They’re both very good basketball players,” said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. “They’re both very unselfish. They both have the ability to score, at the same time use their teammates, to help their teammates to score.”

Hornets coach Byron Scott agrees, and sees a few differences.

“I think Chris Paul is a true point guard. When I say true point guard, he’s a pass-first type point guard. I think Tony Parker is more of a scoring point guard,” Scott said. “I think both of them are extremely quick. CP shoots it a little bit better, Tony’s probably a better finisher. But they’re both very good at what they do.”

The numbers these playoffs seem to bear out Scott’s opinion. Parker has the slight edge on scoring so far in the first two rounds, 26.6 points to Paul’s 25.6. Paul has 11.8 assists per game to 6.8 from Parker.

“They are kind of similar. I think that Chris Paul is getting really good getting to the paint and finding the open teammate,” the Spurs’ Manu Ginobili said after Game 3. “I think Tony plays faster. He’s deadly in transition. So I think Paul uses more of the pick-and-roll and is getting very smart and very used to that kind of system with those teammates. ... They are two of the most impressive point guards in the league for sure.”

Paul was runner-up for MVP this season as he led the Hornets to the Southwest Division title and No. 2 seed (they finished with the same record as the third-seeded Spurs but won the tiebreaker) after not even making the postseason last year.

Parker was voted the MVP of last year’s NBA finals after leading the Spurs to a sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“Both of them are unbelievable players,” the Hornets’ Peja Stojakovic said. “(Paul) led us to the second round and he is a true leader. And Tony also, Tony, his results speak for (themselves). ... It’s a great battle.”