LOS ANGELES, 1 June 2004 — Richard "Rip' Hamilton tore the hearts out of the Indiana Pacers.
Hamilton scored a playoff-career high 33 points, sparking the visiting Detroit Pistons past the Pacers, 83-65 on Sunday night to take a 3-2 lead in pivotal Game Five of the Eastern Conference finals.
"I love these situations, I love the playoffs" said Hamilton, who came to Detroit two season ago in an off-season trade. "I never got an opportunity to play in Washington, but just watching I was licking my chops over it. Once I got here and being in a good situation, I just excel over it."
Hamilton is averaging 24.2 points through five games in a series dominated by hard-nosed defense by both clubs. "It's nothing knew, Rip's been doing it this whole series and the two previous series," teammate Rasheed Wallace said. "He's been pretty much our flow on offense." The Pistons can earn their first trip to the NBA Finals since 1990 with a victory at home in Game Six tonight.
"We're excited," Hamilton said. "We know where we want to go and we know what we need to get there. Our goal is to be in the NBA finals, and there is no better feeling than to win a big game at home. "The fans are going to be crazy, and we're going to feed off that," he continued. "We know it's going to be an all-out grind but we're going to put our hard hats on and do everything possible to get the win. "
Rasheed Wallace scored 22 points while Ben Wallace grabbed 12 rebounds for Detroit, which dropped Game Four at home but bounced back to win its second road game of the series at Conseco Fieldhouse.
Ron Artest had 13 points and 11 rebounds while Fred Jones also had 13 points off the bench for Indiana, which shot an icy 32.9 per cent from the floor, (25-of-78) en route to a playoff-record low point total.
All-Star forward Jermaine O'Neal added just 11 points and six rebounds despite a heavily swollen left knee suffered the previous game.
"I take the blame for this one," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. The Pistons were ready, especially Hamilton, whom Carlisle coached at Detroit. "We had no answers for Rip, he had a sensational game," Carlisle said. "We threw a lot of guys at him but he was that good tonight. He was a big-time clutch playoff player for me last year and he's showing it again this year."
Detroit, which never trailed, built a 25-17 lead after the opening quarter, before Hamilton got into a groove. The sharp-shooting guard scored 24 of the Pistons' next 30 points in the middle two frames during a 17-minute span to open a 55-43 bulge with five minutes left in the third quarter. The Pacers trailed 62-53 heading into the final 12 minutes but pulled within 64-59 on a 22-foot jumper by Jones with 8:22 left in the game. But that's as close as they would come.
Rasheed Wallace book-ended two free throws and jumper around a 20-footer by Chauncey Billups and a layin by Tayshaun Prince in an 8-0 run, that put the Pistons ahead 72-59 with 5:49 left to end the threat.
The Pacers must win Game 6, or will start their summer vacation early.
