AUBURN HILLS, MICH. ? Since the Detroit Pistons don’t have a spectacular scorer, they get the ball to the man of the moment.

In Game 2 against Philadelphia, that player was Tayshaun Prince — again.

Prince, the seldom-used rookie who has thrived in the playoffs, scored seven straight points at the end of regulation and the start of overtime as Detroit defeated the 76ers, 104-97, Thursday night to take a 2-0 lead in their second-round series.

“Of course I was surprised,” Prince said. “But this is a team that doesn’t have a top star on it. Whenever a guy gets going, the coaches and the guy on the bench say, ‘Let’s get this guy the ball.’ It’s just a matter of who has the good feeling in the game, and in the overtime and just before overtime, that guy was me.”

Allen Iverson scored 31 points, but with a 92-90 lead and 15.1 seconds left in regulation he missed two free throws that gave the Pistons a chance at an improbable win.

“I take the blame for this one,” Iverson said. “If I made one or two free throws, we’re going home happy. Put this one on me.”

Detroit’s Chauncey Billups missed the game because of a sprained ankle after scoring 101 points in three games. He was replaced by Chucky Atkins, who had scored just 23 points in eight playoff games. Atkins matched that total while playing 44 minutes.

Prince, who scored 20 points in Game 7 against Orlando in the first round, made a difficult spinning four-footer with 4.2 seconds left to force overtime. He scored the first five points in the extra session on a layup and a three-pointer just before the shot clock expired.

Atkins made a three-pointer with 2:07 left to give Detroit, which set an NBA record by going 8-0 in overtime, a 100-93 lead.

Iverson said he was not surprised to see Prince and Atkins play so well.

“They don’t just grab guys off the street and put them on NBA rosters,” he said.

The series now moves to Philadelphia for Games 3 and 4 Saturday and Sunday.

It’s safe to say Prince will not be spending as much time on the bench as he did during most of the regular season and the start of the playoffs.

The native of Compton, Calif., appeared in just 42 games after being the 23rd pick in the draft out of Kentucky. He averaged 3.3 points in 10 minutes a game.

Prince didn’t play in the opening game of the playoffs against Orlando, scored two points in Games 2-3 and despite slowing down Tracy McGrady, didn’t play in Game 4.

After Detroit coach Rick Carlisle was criticized for keeping Prince on the bench, he scored 15 points in Game 5 and 20 points in Game 7 as the Pistons became the seventh team in NBA history to win a series after trailing 3-1.

Prince played a career-high 39 minutes Thursday night.

“When you don’t play much, there’s a hungriness inside of you,” Prince said. “You want to bring something to the team.

“At first, it was just defense against Orlando. But now I’ve been able to help on the other end.”

Richard Hamilton scored 23 points, Cliff Robinson scored 14 of his 16 points in the first quarter, Jon Barry had 11, and Ben Wallace had 15 rebounds, seven points and two blocked shots.