ATLANTA (Ticker) -- After a disappointing loss on Sunday, Chauncey Billups quickly got a chance to redeem himself.
Billups scored 24 points and the Detroit Pistons took advantage of a bad pass by Stephen Jackson with 15 seconds remaining to record a 94-89 victory over the Atlanta Hawks.
On Sunday, Billups - the Pistons' leading scorer and a 92 percent free throw shooter - missed a pair from the line late in an 81-80 setback to the New Orleans Hornets. But the reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week sank four free throws in the waning seconds against the Hawks.
"I'm happy for Chauncey because he was pretty down, and he comes up and makes four big free throws," Pistons coach Larry Brown said.
Billups gave Detroit an 90-89 lead with a pair of free throws with 15 seconds remaining. After a timeout, Jackson made a poor inbounds attempt and the ball went out of bounds, giving the Pistons possession.
"They were going to front Shareef (Abdur-Rahim) and we emptied out the weak side and the pass was supposed to go over the top," Hawks coach Terry Stotts said. "I couldn't tell what Shareef's position was. We just didn't quite connect on it."
Tayshaun Prince made two free throws two seconds later to put Detroit up 92-89, and, after Jason Terry missed a 3-pointer with seven seconds, Billups made another pair from the line as the Pistons continued their domination of the Hawks.
"To be able to come down to that situation was great," Billups said. "You all know me better than anybody I'm going to step up, make sure I get fouled, you know what I mean? Just to make a point like that."
Detroit has won four straight against Atlanta and 16 of the last 19.
The Pistons trailed, 69-53, with 5:47 left in the third quarter, but outscored the Hawks, 24-4, to take the lead. Billups capped the run with a jumper, giving Detroit a 77-73 advantage with 7:14 to go in the fourth.
"That was the best win of the year in my mind, because we did the things it took to get back in the game, defense and rebounding," Brown said. "We had terrible things happen, and we just gutted it out. We made some free throws."
Prince finished with a career-high 22 points and tied a personal best with eight rebounds for the Pistons, who extended their road winning streak to three games, despite the absence of second-leading scorer Richard Hamilton.
Hamilton strained his neck in the second quarter of Detroit's loss to New Orleans on Sunday.
Terry scored 25 points and Abdur-Rahim had 26 and 14 rebounds as Atlanta missed an opportunity to win consecutive games for the first time since taking four in a row from April 9-14. The Hawks have lost four of their last six games.
"It's so early in the season and it's another learning lesson," Terry said. "But we're still going to stay confident and we're playing good basketball right now, so we just have to build on that. It just didn't work out this time."
