It took three tries, but the Pistons finally put away the feisty Bulls on Thursday night, using an 95-85 Game 6 win on the road to close out their second-round series four games to two.Chicago had become the ninth team in history to force a sixth game after falling behind 0-3 in a best-of-seven series, but failed in its bid to become just the fourth squad to push that series to a winner-take-all Game 7. Of the 82 teams that have lost the first three games of a series, none have come back to win said series.
Instead, Detroit cemented its place among the all-time greats by becoming the fifth team in the last three decades to advance to five consecutive conference finals, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. These very Chicago Bulls were the last to accomplish the feat, reaching the Eastern Conference Finals every year from 1988-89 until 1992-93.
Richard Hamilton led four Pistons in double figues with 23 points and backcourt-mate Chauncey Billups added 21 and seven assists. Tayshaun Prince scored 17 with nine rebounds and Rasheed Wallace had 16 and 13.
For the Bulls, P.J. Brown had tied his playoff career high with 20 points by halftime, but failed to score after intermission. Four others reached double figures.
Detroit will host the winner of the Cavaliers-Nets series in the conference finals starting on either Monday or Wednesday.
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