AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Allen Iverson and Tayshaun Prince stepped up for the short-handed Detroit Pistons.

Iverson scored 19 points, and Prince added 16 to help the Pistons win their fifth straight game, 83-75 over the New Jersey Nets yesterday.

"When any team in the league loses three of their top six guys, things are going to change for them," Pistons coach Michael Curry said. "Luckily, a lot of other guys stepped up."

Detroit played without Rip Hamilton (groin) and Antonio McDyess (ribs), and lost Rasheed Wallace to a first-half foot injury, but still held the Nets to a season low.

"No one was going to come in and be Sheed, Rip or Dice, but we have guys who will come off the bench and help us in their own way," Iverson said. "We just had to utilize that, even when it meant playing a totally different style."

The Nets lost some of their advantage when Vince Carter was ejected for arguing a second-quarter call with referee Derrick Stafford.

Carter argued a call on an out-of-bounds play, then appeared to get extremely angry after receiving a technical. He was quickly given a second technical and had to be restrained by coach Lawrence Frank and teammate Devin Harris.

"Vince thought the ball went off Allen (Iverson) and said something, and that's when he got a technical," Frank said. "That's when the official said something that Vince didn't think was appropriate and he reacted. We felt it was unjust that he got ejected."

Carter did not talk to the media after the game, and crew chief Dan Crawford rejected a request for a comment from Stafford about anything he might have said to Carter.

"The ejection was too quick," Harris said. "Something inappropriate was said, allegedly, but I didn't hear it."

Rookie Brook Lopez led New Jersey with 23 points and 12 rebounds, but the Nets weren't able to overcome an 11-point second quarter.

"I thought we lost a lot of rhythm in the second, especially when Vince got thrown out," Harris said.

MAGIC 113, BULLS 94

CHICAGO — Rashard Lewis scored 21 points, Hedo Turkoglu added 18 and Dwight Howard contributed eight of his 15 points in a game-opening 21-10 run as visiting Orlando rolled over Chicago for its eighth win in nine games.

Lewis hit 6 of 8 shots in the first half, including 2 of 4 3-pointers. And although he cooled off in the second half, he still managed to eclipse the 20-point mark for the third straight game.

ROCKETS 85, BUCKS 81

HOUSTON — Yao Ming had 22 points and 10 rebounds, Luis Scola added 11 points and 10 boards, and host Houston bounced back from an embarrassing loss to Washington on Monday by beating Milwaukee for the eighth straight time.

Michael Redd, who scored 20 points, hit a turnaround jumper with 2:17 left to pull the Bucks within 78-77, but Houston made 7 of 7 free throws in the final 37 seconds to seal the victory.

NUGGETS 114, RAPTORS 107

TORONTO — Nene scored 21 points, Carmelo Anthony added 20 and four more Nuggets scored in double figures as visiting Denver beat Toronto to give coach George Karl his 900th regular-season victory, 10th on the NBA career list.

Denver led 85-77 after three quarters, but a three-point play by Andrea Bargnani and a dunk by Joey Graham cut it to 90-88 with 8:59 left. Linas Kleiza scored Denver's next seven points and Toronto got no closer than three thereafter.

THUNDER 107, WARRIORS 100

OKLAHOMA CITY — Jeff Green scored 26 points and Kevin Durant added 25 points and 10 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season to lead Oklahoma City past Golden State for just its fourth victory of the season.

Trailing 55-51 at halftime, the Thunder opened the third quarter with an 11-1 run for a 62-56 lead and the Warriors got no closer than three — twice — thereafter.

76ERS 100, CLIPPERS 92

LOS ANGELES — Andre Iguodala had 28 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, helping Philadelphia end a four-game losing streak, while handing Los Angeles its fifth loss in a row.

Al Thornton scored 24 points, Eric Gordon added 21 points and Marcus Camby had 16 points and 17 rebounds for the Clippers, who fell apart after tying the game with 3 1/2 minutes remaining. They were outscored 14-6 from there.