Detroit Pistons 97, New Jersey Nets 93: Skid ends

Ted Kulfan / The Detroit News

East Rutherford, N.J. -- In a season of many low points already, the Pistons Tuesday avoided a big one.

Tayshaun Prince's dunk off an inbounds play, on a nice feed from Richard Hamilton, snapped a tie and led the Pistons to a 97-93 victory over the New Jersey Nets.

Prince's bucket gave the Pistons a 93-91 lead with 45 seconds left in the game.

"Just knowing who took the ball out, I knew that he would make a play," said Prince, who had 15 points and eight rebounds. "Usually in a tight situation you don't want to turn the ball over or throw lob passes. Once I knew he was taking the ball out, if I was going to get open, he'd make the pass."

The Pistons (16-31) ended a five-game losing streak. The Nets have yet to reach five wins this season (4-43).

"It's good to get a win when you're struggling," Prince said.

New Jersey's Courtney Lee missed a 3-pointer with 24 seconds left. Hamilton was fouled and made both free throws to push the lead to 95-91.

Hamilton led the Pistons with 22 points. Rodney Stuckey added 21.

And with one block Tuesday, Ben Wallace became the 17th player in NBA history to record 2,000 blocks in his career. Wallace is the first player under 6-foot-10 to do so.

"It was a great feeling," Wallace said after chipping in eight points and six rebounds. "I got the game ball. But it was more important to get a win. I would trade a couple of those blocks for a couple more wins. You go out and play hard every night, play at a high level, and good things happen to you."

Brook Lopez scored 27 and Devin Harris had 24 points and 14 assists for the Nets.

The Pistons led 71-67 entering the final quarter. But the Nets hung tough, and took an 86-81 lead on Lee's 3-pointer with 5:30 left in the game.

But the Pistons' switch to a zone defense bothered the Nets late in the game.

"(Assistant coach) Brian Hill kept on saying, we have to look at our zone and, sure enough, our zone helped us in the end," coach John Kuester said.

"We had a lot of big plays from a lot of players throughout the game."

The Pistons played with a full, healthy roster for only the second time all season (Dec. 27 was the other).

Even on opening night, both Austin Daye and Jonas Jerebko were inactive because of suspensions assessed during the exhibition season.

Will Bynum (left ankle sprain) and Charlie Villanueva (back) both returned to the lineup. Bynum scored 10 points in 16 impressive minutes while Villanueva looked like his back was still bothering him, going scoreless in eight minutes.

"It's great to win and hopefully we can build off this," Bynum said.

ted.kulfan@detnews.com (313) 223-4606