Pistons handle Bulls’ best shot

CHICAGO — The white towel draped over Rasheed Wallace’s shoulder after the game seemed out of place in the Detroit Pistons’ locker room, given the way they had just fought back. The Chicago Bulls might want to throw one in though.

The Pistons dug in, putting Chicago in a hole from which no NBA team has emerged.

Tayshaun Prince scored 23 points and Chauncey Billups had 21, and the Pistons rallied from a 19-point deficit to beat the Bulls, 81-74, on Thursday night in Game 3 of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals.

“We had nothing to lose coming into the second half,” Prince said. “We stepped our defense up and more importantly took care of the basketball. We did a good job of rebounding. We got a couple of baskets to go for us and it set our defense up and we were able to get some turnovers and get some rebounds and we were able to do some good things.”

The Pistons, who swept Orlando in the first round, will try to finish this one Sunday at the United Center.

Coming off easy victories in the first two games, the Pistons trailed, 44-28, at halftime. They were down, 49-30, early in the third and 55-38 midway through the quarter.

But Prince, Billups and Wallace brought them back. Now, they’re one win away from their fifth straight conference finals.

“Perseverance -- that’s the type of team that we are,” Wallace said. “No matter what the deficit is, we feel that we can come back from it.”

Prince scored 13 points in the third quarter and Billups had 10. Wallace had a block in the closing seconds and made a three-point basket at the buzzer to pull Detroit to within 61-60. He then put his team ahead with a jumper only two minutes into the fourth and had a three-pointer that made it a five-point game midway through the quarter.

Luol Deng had 21 points for Chicago, which made only 10 of 41 shots in the second half, including four of 25 in the final quarter. The Bulls were 28 of 83 (33.7%) overall, almost the same percentage (33.6) they managed in the first two games.

“We just lost on our home court, so this loss hurts a lot more than the other two, even though we played hard tonight and fought hard,” Deng said. “I think we played better today than last two games, but it’s still a loss and it still hurts.”