Orlando's Darko Milicic, left, defends Detroit's Ronald Murray. The Pistons defeated the Magic, 93-77, on Thursday night in Orlando, Fla.

Orlando, Fla. ? The Detroit Pistons showed they know how to close out quarters. Now they want to close out another series.

Tayshaun Prince scored 23 points, Chauncey Billups added 21 and the Pistons beat Orlando, 93-77, Thursday night to take a 3-0 lead in the first-round playoff series.

The victory ended a postseason trend for the Pistons – they had lost their last six Game 3s when leading 2-0 – and left them one victory from advancing to the second round.

Game 4 is Saturday in Orlando.

Detroit, which has made four straight Eastern Conference finals, gave the Magic plenty of chances in this one. The Pistons trailed early, let Orlando be physical and seemingly got flustered as they were whistled for three technical fouls. Leading scorer Richard Hamilton even had an off night, scoring 10 points on 2-of-11 shooting.

But Detroit made up for it with solid three-point shooting – Prince, Billups and Rasheed Wallace were a combined 8-of-10 from behind the arc – and strong finishes to each of the first three quarters.

“They hit shots in the course of a game that normal teams don’t hit,” said Jameer Nelson, who led the Magic with 27 points.

The Pistons scored the final six points of the first quarter, tying the game at 23. They made two baskets in the closing seconds before halftime, including a three-pointer by Billups as he was falling out of bounds. And Prince hit a three on the last possession of the third.

Those 14 points essentially turned a close game into a double-digit lead.

“Those are plays that are killers when they’re against you,” Detroit coach Flip Saunders said. “When they happen for you, they give you a nice cushion.”

The biggest one may have come just before halftime. Orlando looked like it would keep it close heading into the locker room, maybe even hold a lead.

But Prince hit a 20-footer with 2.3 seconds remaining and the shot clock winding down – his second jumper in the final 45 seconds.

“He’s the one guy on our team that people don’t talk about,” Saunders said. “He’s kind of a silent assassin.”

Prince then stole an errant inbound pass from Turkoglu and fed Billups, who hit a falling-down three just before the final buzzer.

Those two shots turned a one-point game into a 48-42 advantage for Detroit.

“It was disappointing the way we finished both of the first two quarters,” Magic coach Brian Hill said. “We had essentially tie games or two-point games. It was unnecessary.”

Lakers 95, Suns 89

Los Angeles – The Lakers are back in their series against the Phoenix Suns thanks to another big game from Kobe Bryant and, believe it or not, Kwame Brown.

And Lamar Odom pitched in as well.

After falling behind by 17 points in the first quarter and drawing boos from the home crowd, the Lakers battled back and beat the Suns to cut Phoenix’s lead to 2-1 in the first-round playoff series.

Bryant scored 15 of his 45 points in the fourth quarter, and had six rebounds and six assists. Brown added a career playoff-high 19 points and Odom had 18 points and 16 rebounds. Brown scored a total of 11 points in the first two games.

Jazz 81, Rockets 67

Salt Lake City – Carlos Boozer had 22 points and 12 rebounds, and Utah held Houston without a field goal for 10 minutes in the second half and beat the Rockets in Game 3 of their playoff series.

Deron Williams added 11 points and eight assists, Matt Harpring had 13 points and rookie reserve Paul Millsap scored nine for the Jazz, who didn’t allow a point by the Rocket reserves.

Houston leads the series 2-1, with Game 4 set for Saturday night.

Yao Ming had 26 points and 14 rebounds and Tracy McGrady scored 24 points for Houston.