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Rasheed Wallace had 23 points along with 15 rebounds, as the Pistons jumped out to a big lead, and cruised past the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs for a 90-80 road victory on Thursday night.

 "Beating them is always big for us," said Pistons guard Richard Hamilton, who contributed 18 points. "There's no way we wanted to lose three in a row. We really buckled down, we really concentrated on what we wanted to accomplish and we got the win."

   Tayshaun Prince added 17 points and Chauncey Billups finished with 13 for the Pistons (27-9) who won for just the second time in the last 11 visits to San Antonio.

 Tim Duncan had 24 points and 15 rebounds, while Jacque Vaughn scored 10 for the Spurs (23-11), whose eighth loss in the last 14 contests dropped them one-half game behind idle Dallas atop the Southwest Division.

 Frenchman Tony Parker and Argentne Manu Ginobili, who average a combined 40 points, struggled for 21. Parker scored 12 on 4-of-13 field goal shooting, while Ginobili had nine points on three-of-nine from the field.

 The Pistons' 11-game winning streak was stopped by league-best Boston on Saturday night. They were embarrassed 106-86 by host Dallas on Wednesday before regrouping at the expense of the Spurs.

 "We had a couple of bad performances in Boston and Dallas, so I think there was no question that we were going to come out tonight with great focus and play well," Pistons coach Flip Saunders said.

 Trailing 15-14, Hamilton's layup triggered a game-breaking 16-0 burst. Prince converted a three-point play and Wallace nailed a three-pointer. After Antonio McDyess scored twice, Hamilton and Prince each followed with baskets, carrying the Pistons a 30-15 advantage after the opening quarter.

 "The guys did a great job of really digging deep and trying to set the tempo early in the game," Hamilton explained.

 The Pistons' lead swelled to 20 in the second period en route to 54-39 halftime advantage.

 "Our first half has not been very good the last 10 or 15 games," Duncan said. "We came out with a decent start, but then we had that lull when nothing went right for us. Defensively, we were bad, and offensively, we couldn't put the ball in the basket."

   The Spurs trailed by nine entering the final period, but drew to within 69-62 on two free throws by Vaughn. However, Lindsey Hunter's fast break layup with 6:08 opened a 78-64 advantage, and the Pistons never allowed the lead to dip below eight the rest of the way.

 "If not for a six-minute portion of the game where we were really bad, I thought we competed really well and executed well," Popovich said. "Tonight, we played, 42 minutes - not 48 - and that's not good enough against a really good team like Detroit."

   Elsewhere:    Utah Jazz 108, Phoenix Suns 86    Turkey's Mehmet Okur had 22 points and 17 rebounds while Ronnie Brewer matched his career-high with 21 points as the host Jazz crushed the short-handed Suns.

 Carlos Boozer scored 18 points and Deron Williams chipped in with 17 points and 11 assists for Utah (20-17) which took advantage of the absence of Suns starters Steve Nash (stomach flu), Grant Hill (appendectomy) and Shawn Marion (bruised shoulder) to bounce the Western Conference leaders.

 The Jazz led 58-48 at halftime and blew open the game in the third quarter by outscoring the Suns 28-12, to take a commanding 86-60 cushion into the final period.

 Brazilian speedster Leandro Barbosa led the Suns (25-11) with 25 points while Amare Stoudemire had 21 points and 14 rebounds.

 Sacramento Kings 116, Memphis Grizzlies 113    John Salmons had 28 points and 11 rebounds while Beno Udrih scored 25, helping the Kings beat the Grizzlies at Arco Arena for the 18th consecutive time.

 Sacramento trailed by two when Salmons found Francisco Garcia (22 points) for the go-ahead three-pointer for a 114-113 lead. After Memphis' Rudy Gay lost the ball out of bounds on a baseline drive to the basket, Brad Miller (22 points and 10 rebounds) made two free throws at the other end with 2.5 ticks remaining, and stole the inbounds pass to seal the win.

 Gay scored 31 points and Spain's Pau Gasol had 19 for Memphis (10- 25) which hasn't won at Sacramento since 1998 when the franchise was in Vancouver.