Richard Hamilton had a playoff-career high 40 points and the Detroit Pistons advanced to the second round of the NBA playoffs with a 122-93 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday.
Rasheed Wallace scored 22 points and keyed an 18-2 run after halftime for the two-time defending Eastern Conference champions, who won the best-of-seven series in five games.
Detroit will play the winner of the Cleveland-Washington series. The Pistons will take a day off and have at least a couple of practices before resuming their goal of winning a second title in three years.
Michael Redd led the Bucks with 23 points, two in the first quarter. Hamilton had 15 points in the opening quarter as the Pistons took a 39-23 lead.
Detroit had four starters with at least 11 points in the first half while Redd was the only Buck in double figures at halftime as they trailed 62-49. Chauncey Billups had 17 points and eight assists and Tayshaun Prince added 12 points for the Pistons.
Cavaliers 121, Wizards 120, OT
At Cleveland, LeBron James muscled through traffic and dropped in a layup with 0.9 seconds left in overtime as Cleveland took a 3-2 series lead over Washington.
With the Cavs down by one, James, who finished with 45 points, took an inbounds pass with three seconds to go. After sliding past Antawn Jamison, James knifed inside of Michael Ruffin, Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood. He rose in the lane and softly dropped in his layup.
Arenas, who had 44 points, was way off with a desperation heave at the buzzer.
The best-of-seven series returns to Washington for Game 6 tonight.
Larry Hughes scored 24 points, Eric Snow had 18, including six in overtime, and Flip Murray added 12 for the Cavaliers, who blew a seven-point lead late in regulation.
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