Pistons rev up offense

If the Detroit Pistons were this good on offense more often they wouldn't have to rely so heavily on their throttling defense.

The Pistons shot 56.9 percent last night and got 27 points from Richard Hamilton in taking a 3-1 series lead with a 109-92 rout of the Bucks in Milwaukee.

Neither team had shot above 45 percent in the best-of-seven series that shifts to Auburn Hills, Mich., for Game 5 Thursday night.

Embarrassed by becoming the first team to lose at home in the playoffs this season, the Pistons used their defense to turn things around with a 95-85 win in Game 3 Saturday.

Last night, they intensified their offense, thanks in part to the Bucks starting Keith Van Horn in place of big man Brian Skinner for the purpose of gaining more offense themselves.

Van Horn scored 11 points on 5-of-13 shooting.

Rasheed Wallace added 20 points for Detroit, Chauncey Billups had 19, and Tayshaun Prince 17.

Hamilton's layup with 6:26 left made it 89-75, and the Bucks made their last run, pulling to 95-88 on Damon Jones's 16-footer with 2:18 left.

Prince responded with a 3-pointer and the Bucks never got closer than 8 after that.

Kings 94, Mavericks 92 -- Peja Stojakovic came out of his shooting slump just in time to send Sacramento home on the verge of closing out their first-round playoff series with Dallas. And on the game's final play, his defense helped, too.

Stojakovic, who felt so out of whack the previous game that he took only one shot in the second half, missed 10 straight in the first half last night, then came back with five straight swishes to help give Sacramento a 3-1 lead in the series with Game 4 in Sacramento Thursday night.

Sacramento nearly blew it, though, letting a 91-83 lead with 3:23 left come down to a final play. Steve Nash took an inbounds pass with 8.4 seconds left. Stojakovic wound up on him because of a pick-and-roll with Dirk Nowitzki and he was able to contain Nash behind the foul line. A fading 18-footer jumper at the buzzer bounced off the rim.