Out with a Rout

The ingredients for a blowout were in place even before Milwaukee learned it would have go to without point guard Mo Williams, sidelined by a strained Achilles. The Pistons came in on a nine-game winning streak, Milwaukee a three-game tailspin. At full strength and playing at home, Milwaukee got blown out by 26 points to start December against the Pistons. They closed the month – and the year – with a 114-69 crushing before the 200th consecutive sellout crowd at The Palace, a raucous New Year’s Eve matinee bunch that came to celebrate and wasn’t disappointed. Without Williams, the Bucks coughed up the ball nine times in the first quarter and 14 in the first half. The Pistons finished December with a 15-2 record, the winningest December in franchise history. The 2005-06 team went 13-2 while the 1988-89 Pistons had the highest winning percentage for the month when they went 11-1. It was the third-worst loss in Bucks history.

FLIP SAUNDERS: “I don’t know if I’ve had a team that’s gone through this kind of stretch. We’ve been so aggressive and so dominating over long periods of time and games.”

BUCKS COACH LARRY KRYSTKOWIAK: “You’re playing against probably the elite team or one of the two elite teams in the East. There’s no margin for error.”

The story of the game in Pistons red, white and blue

– Rip Hamilton needed 26 points to surpass Gene Shue and move into 10th place in franchise history in scoring and only the fact the Pistons won so easily prevented him from getting there. Hamilton, who entered the game making 57 of his last 100 shots over seven games and 29 of 48 over his last three, raised the bar a few more notches Monday, making his first six shots and finishing nine of 10 for 22 points in 27 minutes. Over his last four games, Hamilton is now averaging 22.8.

HAMILTON: “Just feeding off what’s going, understanding what we have and what we want to accomplish. It’s just making everybody’s game that much easier to go out there and play.”

SAUNDERS: “He’s been extremely efficient in everything he’s doing and been good defensively. We came off that West Coast trip and we changed what we did, pick-and-roll wise, and we became much more aggressive defensively. I think that helped us offensively. When we get aggressive defensively, it kind of gets our motor going a little bit.”

Blue Collar – When the Pistons are playing well, Chauncey Billups is more often content to distribute the basketball and pick his openings selectively. That’s exactly what he’s been doing and continued to do in the Milwaukee rout, taking just eight shots but scoring 13 points to go with 12 assists and no turnovers in just 25 minutes as Rodney Stuckey had his longest outing in his six games at 23 minutes. Billups added the flourish to his day late in the third quarter on a breakaway when he uncharacteristically gathered himself and dunked, hanging on the rim, which became the subject of postgame banter and ribbing.

HAMILTON: “That dunk was so old school. He was telling all the young guys he can dunk. They should’ve given him a technical for hanging on the rim that long. He told me, ‘I’ve got to let all the cameras get all their snap shots in and let them know I can still get up there.’ ”

BILLUPS: “(Pistons rookies Rodney Stuckey and Arron Afflalo) didn’t have NBA TV when they were in college, so I had to show them I could get up there and swing on that rim a little bit.”

Red Flag – Milwaukee outrebounded the Pistons, 38-36. Relax. We’re kidding. What are you going to nitpick in a game like this amid a streak like the Pistons are on?

Pivotal plays, frozen moments and lasting images from an easy 10th straight win

Worth a Try – After getting torched for 28 points in the first quarter, Bucks coach Larry Krystkowiak went big – real big – to start the second quarter, employing a zone defense with 7-footers Jake Voskuhl, Andrew Bogut and Charlie Villanueva across the back line. The experiment didn’t last long. Jarvis Hayes (14 points in 17 minutes) shot the Bucks out of their zone by draining a triple and then a long deuce. It was the third straight strong game for Hayes, who is 14 for 20 in those games and averaging 11.3. Is it coincidence that Hayes came out of his slump as soon as Walter Herrmann became active?

Bench Brigade – Milwaukee ran off seven straight points early in the second quarter to cut a 16-point deficit to nine against Rasheed Wallace (seven points, three rebounds, four assists) and four subs – Afflalo (six points), Stuckey (six points, seven assists), Hayes and Jason Maxiell (six points, three rebounds). It’s a measure of Saunders’ growing confidence in his bench that he didn’t rush his starters back into the game. And, just like that, the bench ran off eight straight points with Maxiell hitting two short jump shots, Afflalo turning a steal and breakaway into two free throws and Stuckey executing a highlight-clip blow-by drive to beat Voskuhl to the basket.

That Kind of Day – The Bucks didn’t have a lot of fight in them but weren’t quite ready to pack it in by halftime. They played their best basketball of the day over the first four minutes of the third quarter, scoring on their first five possessions of the half – and managed to lose ground in the process. The Pistons also scored on five possessions and got 3-pointers from Billups and Hamilton as a 19-point deficit grew to 21 for the Bucks. It’s typical of how the Pistons are cutting the heart out of their opponents with flawless execution.

BILLUPS: “We’re playing great. We’re really locked in right now. Offensively, we’re really rolling and moving the ball. Most nights we’re going to have so many advantages on the offensive end that we can really count on. But defensively right now we’re just locked in, man. We’re taking team’s first and second options away and trying to make them do other things and we’ve been successful at that.”

A little perspective on the 13th double-digit win of December

Have the Pistons ever had a deeper team? It wasn’t supposed to be possible in the salary-cap era to put together a group like this, but it’s a testament to Joe Dumars’ reign as president that Flip Saunders has the curious task of making inactive players who’ve recently been NBA starters. There’s only one way compiling such a roster is possible – you can’t afford to make any bad contract decisions. The deal Dumars gave Nazr Mohammed in the summer of 2006 came as close to that as it comes around here, but how bad could it have been – Charlotte took it off the Pistons’ hands while sending back two expiring contracts for players who’ve shown they can actually be of value, Primoz Brezec and Walter Herrmann. How’s this for depth: The Pistons got 37 points from their small forward position – 15 from Tayshaun Prince, 14 from Hayes and eight in six minutes from Herrmann as all 12 players who dressed scored.