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Billups scored 25 points and had eight assists against one turnover and Hamilton added 23 points as the Pistons never trailed in a 109-101 victory over the Clippers, who had won the first four games of their five-game homestand.
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"We didn't know that was going on, we took what the defense gave us and executed," Hamilton said. "When you execute the way we did, good things will happen."
The league's most surprising upstart, Los Angeles has vaulted to the top of the Pacific Division, a group it normally supports from the basement, on the strength of nine wins in its first 10 home games.
However, Detroit had matched that mark on the road entering Sunday and controlled throughout to defeat the Clippers for the 15th time in the last 19 meetings.
"This is the best team I have ever coached," Pistons coach Flip Saunders said. "From the standpoint of everything that they can do, it's a multi-dimensional team. They can lock down defensively and we have the ability to beat people with our offense."
Billups had 13 points and six assists in the first half as the Pistons turned it over just once and claimed a 59-45 lead. He made a 3-pointer and a 19-footer in a span of 37 seconds midway through the third to put his club ahead, 70-58.
Hamilton had nine points in the final 5:05 of the period and capped it with a layup at the buzzer to make it 83-72.
Los Angeles got within eight points on more than one occasion in the fourth, but never closer. Desperate to cut into the deficit and maintain their run at home, the Clippers resorted to fouling center Ben Wallace over the final six minutes.
"I was a little bit surprised," Wallace said. "It was pretty much a compliment. What they pretty much said is they figured out they couldn't play with us, and let's go to some other type of strategy. Sometimes you outthink yourself."
The strategy nearly paid off as Wallace made just 4-of-14 free throws down the stretch. However, he got his own rebound on one of the misses and fed Billups for a 3-pointer that put Detroit ahead, 97-86, with 4:50 left.
"Unfortunately for us, we got the result we wanted at the free-throw line, but we just didn't do a good job of claiming the rebounds," Los Angeles coach Mike Dunleavy said. "Had we done that, I think we would have had a lot more pressure on them."
Detroit forward Rasheed Wallace had been a part of the strategy many times with Portland when he faced former Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal, a poor foul shooter, but never liked it.
"All that says is (they) don't have a defense and don't have confidence in their team to make stops," Rasheed Wallace said.
"I haven't seen it beat us one time," Billups said. "They just keep learning the hard way. It's just telling you, there ain't no way we're going to stop you. That's like the last option."
Although he made only seven of a career-high 22 free-throw attempts, Ben Wallace finished with 13 points, 12 rebounds and a season-high five assists.
Elton Brand scored 21 of his 36 points in the second half and had 10 rebounds to record his 14th double-double of the season. Chris Kaman added 16 points but the Clippers failed to become the first team in the league to collect 10 home wins.
Los Angeles (14-6) has another chance to see where it stands next to the league's elite when it visits San Antonio on Tuesday.
"Right now in our conference we have just five teams above .500, the West has five or six," Saunders said. "So I think they're one of the elite teams when you talk about the top five or six in the league."
Detroit opened with a 12-4 run and took a 30-23 lead after one quarter on Billups' 3-pointer with 33 seconds left. He made another from the arc in the final minute of the second and Rasheed Wallace's two free throws with three seconds left established the halftime advantage.
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