Show B2 — The Herald Journal Logan Utah Saturday May 8 2004 turn up the offense Billups Pistons with' on New win Detroit takes AUBURN HILLS Mich (AP) — Chauncey Billups-flickehis wrist and sent a d high-archi- ng through the air Jason Kidd standing helplessly in the lane followed the flight of the ball as it went through the net It was a sight he saw often Billups scored 28 points and had a career-playo- ff high 13 assists to lift the Detroit Pistons to a 93-8- 0 win Friday nigh! over the New Jersey Nets and a 2-- 0 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal “They kept making shot after shot you look up and all the sudden you’re down 12” Kidd said Richard Hamilton Billups’ backcourt partner also scored 28 points as Detroit’s guards outscorcd New Jersey’s — Kidd and Kerry Kittles — 4 56-1- lead 2-- 0 Jersey Billups and Hamilton made 18 of 33 shots Kidd and Kittles were “When we can get it going like that we’re tough to beat because we know our big men are going to do the dirty work” Billups said Rasheed Wallace had 95-8- 0 held our serve” Detroit’s victory in Game 1 14 snapped the Nets’ streak-oconsecutive postseason victories against Eastern Conference teams dating back to die first round last year The streak included a sweep of the Pistons in the conference finals e The Eastern Conference champion Nets are trailing a playoff series 0 in the East for die first time since adding Kidd before the 2001-0- 2 f PLAYOFFS 15 points and i three blocks and reserve Corliss Williamson had 1 1 for the Pistons who took control of the game by outscoring the Nets 27-- 1 1 in the third quarter Ben Wallace had eight points 1 1 rebounds and four blocks Game 3 of the series is Sunday night in New Jersey “We haven’t done anything yet" Billups said “We just best-of-sev- en two-tim- 2-- season “There’s a first for everything” Kidd said “We’ve come a long way in three years We’ve had some success now this is a bump in the road and we’ll see how we handle it" Just seven teams in NBA history have won series after trailing 0 New Jersey’s Kenyon Martin who had 19 points and eight rebounds fouled out with 1:10 left Richard Jefferson also had 19 and Rodney Rogers scored 11 off the bench Kidd had 11 assists The Nets took their first lead late in the first quarto1 led 4 at halftime and didn’t trail again until Hamilton’s two free throws with 3:43 left in the third Williamson’s basket about a minute later capped a 19-- 2 run and gave the Pistons a 2 best-of-sev- en 2-- 46-3- 57-5- lead New Jersey pulled within two points twice early in the fourth quarter before Detroit went on a 17-- run 4 AP photo Detroit’s Chauncey Billups (1) celebrates with Ben Wallace (3) in the fourth quarter of their 96-8- 0 win over New Jersey Friday night Floyd Stotts Kent leads hot Astros past Braves fired By The Associated Press : ' A suggestion by bench coach Jim Riggleman may have cost the Dodgers’ Wilson Alvarez a perfect game When Chris Stynes came to the plate leading off the sixth inning Friday night Riggle-ma- n told second baseman Jose Hernandez to move moved a few steps toward second base Stynes hit a hard grounder into the hole between first and second baseman and Hernandez could only knock if down unable to make a throw Stynes was Pittsburgh’s only runner of the game and Alvarez combined with Guillermo Motaon a leading Los Angeles over vthe Pittsburgh Hratefr4-0- i “He usually hits the ball the other way” Hernandez said “Riggs told me to move a lit-- ' AP photo tie bit toward the bag so I did Wilson one-h- it route to lefthander of Los Alvarez delivers en a the a Pirates shutout pitch Angeles night Pittsburgh Friday I tried to make a play but the 1 ball just hit my glove: didn’t San Diego had two players allowed one run and four hits I Barry Bonds was intentionI IJMiMil-l- l have a chance” and in the walked seventh in six innings against a linep who threw 85 ejected including starting Alvarez I ally I (2-Jake after Feliz followed homer with a Peavy pitcher missing Chipper Jones Marpitches struckout five over with (2-a he off hit Udle Pavano cus Giles and Rafael Furcal pitch Cory breaking in seven innings his first start and seven hits in six innings with two outs in the seventh a scoreless tie Houston won for the eighth since a 12-- 3 loss at San FranRocky Biddle pitched the Brewers 7 Mets 5 time in nine games and has inning Peavy gave up two cisco last Sept 28 He had a ninth for his sixth save in six Keith Ginter Lyle Overbay the NL’s best record at 0 216 ERA and one save out of runs in 6 3 innings striking chances ' (4Tom out homered off Atlanta lost its season-hig- h Glavine eight this season the bullpen Matt Morris (3-gave up Cubs 11 Rockies 0 third third in a row 2) during a four-ru- n Alvarez wasn’t even thinkall four runs and seven hits in Carlos Zambrano (3-1 Ben pinch-hittand Phillies 4 inning a his to chance about pitch ing six innings first 14 batters and also connected retired the Grieve his Vicente Padilla earned perfect game 1 Reds Giants 6 career-lohits two a the Milwaukee for won the first of season and up just scoreboard gave victory “I looked at the Kirk Rueter in his second career shutout second time in seven games Jim Thome hit his 10th home gave up and said ‘Hey that’s the first three hits in eight innings and ended New York’s four-garun to lead Philadelphia over Corey Patterson drove in hit’ he said “I just want to walked none RBI and hit an runs Sosa four and Sammy winning streak Scott Randy Johnson and Arizona get my job done and we win four-ru- n in double a conRamon had Martinez each 17th and Podsednik allowed one his Padilla (1-eighth got the game” Pedro Feliz hit a two-ru- n secutive steal over two sea- -' two hits and two RBIs run — Steve Finley’s homer Alvarez doesn't care if he Former-Cu- b homer for San Francisco — on five hits in six innings sons matching Robin Yount’s Shawn Estes starts or relieves Cincinnati h loaded bases (4-season-higthe a record team gave up “If they want me in the striking out five and walking the in no ninth hits (2-with But seven Davis runs outs and five nine allowed one intentionally I I’ll do it want Doug just bullpen Jason Christiansen struck out walks in 2 3 innings With the score tied two runs and six hits in 6 3 and to win" he said Adam Dunn and got Ken Grifa runner on first Johnson (3-Marlins 3 Padres 1 innings Expos 4 Cardinals 2 Brad Wilkerson and Terrmel Astros 5 Braves 3 was pulled by manager Bob Mike Lowell homered twice fey Jr to line out before Matt two-ru-n hit Juan in induced (3-Castro homers Kent hit a two-ru- n Jeff to Carl Pavano Herges to back Sledge Brenly after striking out 10 in o the first inning and homer and solo homer to back 6 who allowed one run and fly out for his 10th save in 1 1 innings He had thrown chances allowed one run Kim (2-Tim Redding who in eight innings 99 pitches Short stints all the rage in the East By The Associated Press The dean of Easton Conference coaches Tory Stotts was fired Friday after 1 12 seasons with the Atlanta Hawks That must seem like an eternity to Tim Floyd who was dismissed by the New Orleans Hornets after n just one disappointing sea-so- In die rapid-fir- one-hit-!:- tet : — — (1-- PatEi'M 0) 2) 2) 2-- 19-1- 3) er 1) ks w (1-- 3) 4) 2) 2) 2-- 2-- 3) 1) Sun-wo- four-hit- 1- -3 (1-- 0) 3) Red Sox rally back for win over Royals By The Associated Press Manny Ramirez had more fun scor- ing on a teammate's double Friday night that on a home run Mark Bellhom tied the score with a two-ru- n homer in the ninth inning and Jason Varitek doubled pinch-hitthome Ramirez with the winning run leading the Boston Red Sox over the er -- i Kansas City Royals 6 “I was running hard all the way” said Ramirez who scored standing up even though it was a fairly close play “It's an unbelievable feeling when your teammates can come at you as you cross the plate I feel better than Damon leading off and Bellhom seats homered deep into the right-fiel- d “In those situations you just go up there and you have to believe in yourself and that's kind of what I did” Bellhom said “I ended up putting a good swing on it and making good homer” Boston trailed 6-- 2 in the eighth inning before rallying to win its third e straight following a season-hig- h 2-Kansas streak City losing on the road this season has lost 17 of its last 21 overall A wild performance by Royals closer Mike MacDougal helped Boston get started in the ninth walked Johnny MacDougal (0-five-gam- 13 1) 1) contact” with After David Ortiz struck out Ramirez walked Scott Sullivan Tigers 8 Rangers 7 Ivan Rodriguez hit the tiebreaking homer for Detroit in his return to 7-- w hen I hit a each hit two-ru-n homers for Toronto Cliff Politte (0-- was the loser Chicago's Miguel Olivo hit a three-ru- n homer Blue Jays outfielder Carlos Delgado had two hits to surpass Lloyd Moseby for second on the team's career list (AmericaniLeaguej relieved and got Kevin Millar to pop to second then allowed Varitek’s drive d line Ramirez down the barely beat the relay from second baseman Desi Relaford “Control wasn't there tonight” MacDougal said “It's frustrating It has been a struggle so far I just need to come in and shut the door” Blue Jays 5 White Sox 4 g Reed Johnson hit a RBI single in the ninth inning and Teny Adams (3-- 1 1 pitched the ninth for the win Orlando Hudson and Eric Hinske right-fiel- game-winnin- 1320 Texas Rodriguez who also played against the Rangers when he was with Florida tie with a last season broke a two-ru-n homer to right in the eighth off Jeff Nelson (0-It was his fifth homer of the season includCarlos Guillen went homer and an RBI ing a three-ru- n triple as the Tigers snapped a four-galosing streak Orioles 3 Indians 2 slide led Larry Bigbie in a off the 10th inning with the third g homer this season off Chad Durbin (2-Rafael Palmeiro also homered for the Orioles who won 5-- all 3) game-endin- 3) for only the fourth time in 1 1 games the sixth Baltimore Jorge Julio (1-10th for the win worked the pitcher Angels 1 Devil Rays 0 John Lackey pitched a three-hittto outduel Mark Hendrickson and David Eckstein had an RBI single to help Anaheim extend its winning streak to seven games went the distance for Lackey (3-the fourth time in 57 career starts striking out three and walking one He threw 107 pitches 73 for strikes in his 0) er 3) third shutout Mariners 6 Yankees 2 homer Edgar Martinez hit a two-ru-n and (hove in two more runs with his 500th career double leading Seattle over New York Martinez received a loud standing ovation as he stood at second in the first inning after he became the 39th player since 1900 to hit 500 doubles Ryan Franklin (2-pitched into the seventh inning and he looked good much of the night in front of the largest crowd in Safeco Field history 2) e what-hav- e- prt-- i ' fession of NBA coaching both got more time to move themselves than John Carroll ' Randy Ayers and Chris Ford —- each let go after less than a year on the job: -- NBA In fact the firing of Stotts and Floyd means all 15 teams in the Eastern Conference have changed coaches at least once since the end of last season Five coaches — all in the East — have lost their jobs since the regular season ended less than a month ago Boston (Doc Rivers) and Philadelphia (Jim O’Brien) have hired replacements Toronto is still looking for a new coach Riven and O’Brien are no strangers to the coaching carousel Rivers was fired by Orlando on Nov 18 O’Brien resigned as Boston’s coach Jan 27 “The whole atmosphere right now I don’t think is healthy for coaching" said former Milwaukee coach George Karl who is now an analyst for ESPN Since the start of the 2002-0- 3 season there have been 24 coaching changes in the ‘ NBA The reasons vary — from too many losses to personality conflicts with players and management to a team simply wanting a coach with a marquee name Floyd was let go after a combination of injuries and chemistry problems he struggled to control contributed to-1 regular season and an opening-roun- d playoff loss “We thank Tim for his hard work but we are in a bottom-lin- e business” owner Geoige a 41-4- Shinn said Of the four Eastern Confer-ence coaches remaining in the playoffs Detroit's Larry Brown has technically been on the job the longest He was hired by the Pistons on July 2 two days after they fired Rick Carlisle — who had led them to two straight n 50-wi- —46491 ‘it ‘ |