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Pistons fire past Nets to reach finals

Detroit Pistons forward Corliss Williamson, left, battles for a rebound with New Jersey Nets forward Rodney Rogers. PHOTO: REUTERS

They were all moving downcourt. Ten players, five of them defeated, five of them as spry as rabbits. So it was not surprising that after Detroit guard Mike James went to the rim and missed, it was a Pistons player who left the floor like a rocket to grab the ball.

While the Nets stood panting, Ben Wallace gathered James' errant layup and slammed the ball through the rim, sending an already roused crowd at the Palace into a greater frenzy. A clock -- the sounds of Big Ben -- began to play over the loudspeakers, ThunderStix were waved in every nook of the sold-out arena, and the Nets, their Eastern Conference reign fading faster than their vaunted transition game, were down by 24 points midway through the third quarter on Thursday night.

It was over. The game, the series, the Nets' stranglehold on the conference. With Jason Kidd going scoreless in a playoff game for the first time in his 10-year career, the Nets fell to Detroit, 90-69, in Game 7 of their conference semifinal series.

The high-flying, undersize racers from New Jersey, the team revitalized by Kidd in 2001, will not return to the NBA finals for a third consecutive season. Instead, Detroit, which won the series, four games to three, will visit the Indiana Pacers for Game 1 of the conference finals today. The Nets swept the Pistons last year in the conference finals.

The Nets, the two-time defending conference champions, will go home in May for the first time since Kidd arrived in a trade from Phoenix for Stephon Marbury three years ago.

"I've been down this road before," said Kidd, who was 0 for 8 from the floor. "But the last two years, we have found a way to have success in the playoffs. This is new for the guys being out this early. So I hope they understand how bad it feels to end the season the way we did."

Last year, Kidd's counterpart at point guard for the Pistons, Chauncey Billups, hobbled around on a bad ankle and played poorly in that series, but the Nets turned a deaf ear to any Detroit excuses.

This year, Billups outplayed Kidd throughout the series, outscoring him, 22-0, on Thursday while matching Kidd with seven assists. While Kidd was obviously hampered by soreness in his back and left knee, Billups found a way to excel despite a strained back.

"They said last year when Chauncey was hurt, `That's part of the NBA and you have to move on,'" Joe Dumars, Detroit's president of basketball operations, said. "So just like they didn't want to hear that from us last year, we'll move on and go to Indiana."

Kidd's game has never been measured by points, but it could have been on Thursday night in the sixth scoreless game of his NBA career.

"I was on fire," Kidd said facetiously. "I thought all my shots looked good, felt good. The ball just didn't go in tonight."

Kerry Kittles (18 points), Kenyon Martin (17 points, 12 rebounds) and Jefferson (17) tried to make up the difference, but with Kidd so far off his game, the Nets had little hope.

Billups, who made four 3-pointers, had plenty of help. Richard Hamilton scored 10 of his 21 points in the second quarter to help push a seven-point lead to 13. Ben Wallace, uncharacteristically sinking several long jumpers, poured in 18 points to go with eight rebounds.

But the Pistons, as usual, won with defense. Surrounding and protecting the rim like an offensive line, they held the Nets to 36 percent shooting and forced 16 turnovers. That's how a team that shoots only 40 percent wins by 21 points.

"I knew we had it in us, but I didn't think the game was going to be so one-sided," Ben Wallace said. "I thought Jersey was going to come out with a lot more energy and were going to play harder. If you would've told me that we would've blown this team out coming into a Game 7, I would've told you that you were crazy."

It was the Nets' first Game 7 in the NBA, and their aim was to defy the odds.

The home team had won 83 percent of the nearly 90 Game 7's played in the NBA. Buoyed by a triple-overtime victory in Game 5 here, the Nets believed they could win.
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