AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - Darko Milicic removed a basketball from Ronald Dupree's car and calmly punted it into the woods next to the Detroit Pistons' training complex, drawing howls of laughter from his teammates.

A few yards away, the San Antonio Spurs filed off their bus with businesslike calm - no laughs, no jokes, no punts.

With the biggest game of both clubs' seasons looming Sunday night, the Pistons seemed happy and relaxed Friday atop their wave of momentum, while the Spurs searched for ways to reverse their sudden slide in the NBA Finals.

The best-of-seven series is tied at two games apiece after Detroit's 102-71 victory in Game 4 Thursday night. Unless the Spurs dramatically reverse their struggles in two straight losses, the Pistons will duplicate last season's three-game sweep of the middle section of the finals - something that had never been done before Detroit beat the Los Angeles Lakers in three straight.

"We remember what that felt like, and we would love to do it again," said Detroit's Lindsey Hunter, who scored 17 points in Game 4 in the quest for his third championship ring. "I don't think it will be a lopsided game like the other four were. I think it'll be tough, but this is what you live for, if you're a competitor.

"Both of these teams have nothing but competitors."

Hunter's scoring highlighted a balanced offensive game for the Pistons, but they've climbed back into this series with more of the hard-nosed defense that made them champions last season.

Detroit has held the Spurs' top six postseason scorers well below their averages from the first three series, with only defensive specialist Bruce Bowen increasing his statistics. San Antonio averaged 102.2 points in the Western Conference playoffs, but the Pistons have held the Spurs to 82.8 points while forcing 68 turnovers - 25 more than Detroit.

Nowhere is the Pistons' prowess more obvious than in the play of Tim Duncan, whose superb offensive skills have been thwarted by exceptional team defense. Duncan is averaging just 18 points and making just 39 percent of his shots - both well off his playoff averages and his performances in his two previous trips to the NBA Finals, when he was twice named MVP of the series.

Taking turns with remarkable fluidity, Rasheed Wallace, Ben Wallace and Antonio McDyess have taken away the Spurs' preference for generating their offense through Duncan.

"They are very different in what they do. They throw a lot of different bodies at you, and Ben and Rasheed and Dice do so many different things," Duncan said. "They have been effective, so yes, it does affect me. But at the same time, I believe I've gotten a lot of shots that on a regular basis I would knock down, and I hope to do that in the next game."

The primary defender has been Rasheed Wallace, who has the uncommon ability to anticipate Duncan's next move and disrupt it, either by poking and slapping at the ball when Duncan has it at waist level, or by altering his shot trajectory with his long arms.

"He's day, I'm night," Wallace said. "The only thing we have in common is that emotional charge, we just show it in different ways."

Though Duncan had 16 points and 16 rebounds in Game 4, he was 5-for-17 while a gang of defenders slapped and shoved him on nearly every play. His teammates were little help, never moving and finding open spaces with their usual teamwork.

"Looking at his face, and how his body language was when we made a play on him," McDyess said of Duncan, "he would kind of look around at the refs and start throwing his hands up. That's rare to see him do that."

The Pistons took a comfortable lead with a balanced offense that made all the passes San Antonio failed to make. Hunter was the star in his highest-scoring performance in nearly three years, but the veteran guard knows somebody else will carry the load in the final games of the series.

"I don't care if I don't score at all this next time out," Hunter said. "All I care about is adding to my silverware, my jewelry collection. I'll do whatever I have to do to get it done."