AUBURN HILLS, Mich, Jan. 30 (Ticker) -- Defense and rebounding made the Detroit Pistons so good in November. Two months later, they are doing those things and winning again.

Jerry Stackhouse scored 32 points and Ben Wallace collected a season-high 19 rebounds as the Pistons shut down All-Star Shareef Abdur-Rahim and the Atlanta Hawks, 88-71, for the 2,000th victory in club history.

When the Pistons (23-20) got off to their fast start, they were among the league leaders in defense. But they faltered in December before this current run of four straight wins that has seen them allow 77.9 points per game.

Detroit has won seven of nine since a three-game losing streak from January 7-11. Atlanta has won five in a row.

NBA.comTV highlights from Hawks-Pistons: 56k | 300k Jerry Stackhouse set the tone early, scoring 14 points in the first quarter to give Detroit breathing room.

The prevailing thought in among the Pistons is that they are getting back to what worked in November, but they still have work to do.

"I think we still got a little ways to go, but we're close to it," Wallace said. "We're stopping people. We're not allowing guys to catch the ball on the sweet spot. We're fronting guys, denying guys on the wing and just making it tough on them."

Although they were in control for most of the game, the Pistons led only 60-52 and had shot 36 percent (21-of-59) through three quarters. But they quickly built the lead to 12 points as Atlanta missed its first five shots of the period.

Atlanta scored six consecutive points to slice to deficit in half. But 3-pointers by Stackhouse, Jon Barry and Chucky Atkins highlighted an 11-2 burst that made it 75-60 with 5:42 left.

"We gave ourselves a chance," Hawks guard Jason Terry said. "But they just kept hitting 3-pointers. They must have hit five or six threes with a hand in their face. I couldn't even believe they were taking some of those shots and then they made them. There's just nothing you could do about them."

Terry paced the Hawks with 19 points but Abdur-Rahim, who was named to his first All-Star team Tuesday, had difficulties all night against Wallace. He finished with just 10 points on 4-of-14 shooting.

Abdur-Rahim scored 50 points the last time he faced the Pistons on November 23 and was selected to the East squad ahead of Stackhouse, who entered 11th in scoring (23.5).

Abdur-Rahim missed Friday's game against Detroit while serving a three-game suspension for an incident with Houston's Kenny Thomas on January 21. According to Wallace and Stackhouse, his 50-point performance served as extra motivation in defending him.

"It wasn't about the All-Star Game," Wallace said. "I wished him the best of luck in the game, but he wasn't about to get 50 tonight. That's what it was about. When we didn't let Shareef get going, their offense started to get a little stagnant. That's what we wanted to do, come out and make things tough on Reef. They fell right into our trap and started jacking up jump shots."

"I think a lot of guys had a lot on their chest tonight and were able to get it off," Stackhouse added. "Everyone was dissapointed that game we let them have in Atlanta the first time. We avenged that loss. We took the All-Star out of everything he wanted to do tonight. That was fun to watch."

In the first quarter, Detroit could have put away Atlanta after opening a 26-10 lead on Stackhouse's dunk with 3:35 left.

But Atlanta closed the quarter with a 9-2 surge and was within striking distance for until the decisive fourth quarter.

"We don't have much margin for error," Atlanta coach Lon Kruger said. "When Shareef doesn't have a big game and Jason Terry doesn't get off to a quick start, there isn't much we can do to recover."