Wed May 7 22:58:57 2008

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Magic pull away to beat Pistons; Billups hurt

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Orlando, FL (Sports Network) - Rashard Lewis scored a career playoff-high 33 points, and the Orlando Magic took advantage of an injury to Chauncey Billups to pull away and beat the Detroit Pistons, 111-86, in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Dwight Howard added 20 points, 12 rebounds and six blocked shots for the Magic, who sliced Detroit's lead in the best-of-seven set to 2-1. Jameer Nelson and Hedo Turkoglu both scored 18, while Keyon Dooling had all 10 of his points in the final quarter.

Lewis went 11-of-15 from the field, including 5-of-6 from three-point range.

Billups suffered a strained right hamstring in the first quarter and didn't return.

On Monday, a clock malfunction played a part in Detroit's 100-93 victory, as Billups hit a controversial three-pointer at the end of the third quarter. However, in Game 3 Billups was on the court for less than four minutes and the Pistons had a nine-game postseason win streak over the Magic broken.

Richard Hamilton scored 24 to lead the Pistons, who also got 22 from Tayshaun Prince and 19 from Rodney Stuckey.

Game 4 is Saturday, again at Amway Arena.

Billups was hurt with 8:11 left in the opening quarter. He tried driving from the right side to the hoop, knocking down Nelson. Billups' leg got tangled with Nelson, and as he fell Billups did a mini-split. Billups then remained on his stomach for a few moments. Stuckey entered the game for Billups, who left nearly three minutes later on the game clock to the locker room.

A free throw from Hamilton with under a second left in the third quarter had Detroit within 73-69, but the Magic blew it open in the fourth, opening the period with 11 consecutive points. Lewis hit a three, Howard went 1-of-2 from the foul line and Dooling nailed another shot from beyond the arc and put in a driving layup. Lewis' putback layup culminated the spurt for an 84-69 advantage, nearly 2 1/2 minutes into the stanza.

Turkoglu hit consecutive three-point shots for a 90-73 lead, and the Pistons never challenged down the stretch.

It was a marvelous start for the Magic, as they bolted to a 20-3 lead. Detroit had just one field goal over the first eight-plus minutes. Nelson was heating up at the other end though, drilling a three-pointer and Howard's jam off a feed from Turkoglu moved the margin to 17 points. Howard then hit 1-of-2 from the foul line for Orlando's largest lead of the quarter, 24-6.

It was 30-16 going into the second, but the Pistons were unable to get their deficit under double digits the remainder of the half. Lewis scored 12 of Orlando's final 14 points of the half for a 54-42 difference.

Lewis had 18 points in the first half on 7-of-8 shooting, and his free throw expanded the lead to 65-52 with 5 1/2 minutes remaining in the third. However, the Pistons rallied, eventually closing the gap to 67-64 on a Prince jumper with 2:11 remaining in the period.

Game Notes

The Magic have never won a playoff series when they lose the first two games of the set...It is Orlando's first playoff win versus Detroit since April 27, 2003...The Magic went 11-of-24 from beyond the arc...Rasheed Wallace scored 11 for Detroit...Orlando shot 53.8 percent from the field, compared to 40.3 for the Pistons.