There's something very foul about the Palace at Auburn Hills for the Atlanta Hawks. Richard Hamilton had 24 points and Charlie Vilanueva added 23 and 11 rebounds as the Detroit Pistons staved off a fierce third quarter Atlanta comeback and cruised to a 103-80 win over the Hawks on Tuesday night.
Josh Smith had 26 points and Al Horford added 17 points and 12 boards for Atlanta, which lost for the 27th time in the last 31 games in suburban Detroit.
The Pistons opened the game strong, scoring the game's first six points en route to taking a 28-19 lead into the second quarter. They extended the lead to 12 at the break before Atlanta fought back with a flourish to start the third quarter.
Atlanta opened the frame with 11 straight points capped by Marvin Williams' 3-pointer to cut the Detroit lead to 49-48 with 8:28 left in the frame, but the Pistons, who blew a 25 point lead in their last game against the Toronto Raptors, called timeout, regrouped and held Atlanta at bay.
The Pistons held a three point lead going into the fourth quarter before destroying the Hawks in the quarter. The result was a 39-19 butt whooping that sent the Hawks to their next destination with their wings clipped.
Mike Bibby had 14 points, but Jamal Crawford had a terrible shooting night, connecting on just 1-of-6 from the field for Atlanta, which heads to Beantown to faces the Boston Celtics on Thursday.