Going down - or moving on - swinging

In baseball parlance, Ray Allen would be credited with a hold, not a save. A hold is what they give relief pitchers who come in and protect a lead before handing the ball to the closer, who saves it – or not.

So that shot Allen made late last night – the one from the left corner, just inside the 3-point arc, when he shook just free enough from Rip Hamilton to take the inbounds pass and drain a rainbow jumper, the kind he’s made for 12 NBA seasons, but never one with quite that much riding on it, one that snuffed out Pistons momentum after Rodney Stuckey had cut it to a point with a bloodless triple – put a hold on the series for Boston.

But it doesn’t save it. Not just yet.

But the Pistons can’t get too far ahead of themselves, either. As much as they probably felt like pressing the fast forward button and speeding about 93 hours ahead to the tipoff of Game 7 on Sunday night as they left the TD Banknorth Garden in the wee hours, there’s another little matter that first requires their rapt attention: Game 6.

Chauncey Billups wouldn’t take the bait after the 106-102 Game 5 loss – when the Pistons chopped 16 points off a 17-point deficit but ran out of time – as someone asked him if the comeback (one word) gave him confidence his team could come back (two words) to Boston and win Game 7.

“We can’t worry about a game 7 right now,” he said. “We’ve got to worry about Game 6.”

To be sure, the Pistons can’t look back – to the missed opportunities of Game 1, when they had a Boston team still giddy from escaping Cleveland in another Game 7, or Game 3, when they handed home-court advantage back to the Celtics 48 hours after taking it for themselves – nor ahead.

There are ample reasons for optimism that the Pistons can get this done – no matter that NBA history says 83 percent of the time the Game 5 winner of a 2-2 series prevails.

Billups, for one. He looked better than good for much of Game 5 and seems to have pushed the hamstring strain out of his mind.

“This is the best I’ve felt,” he said. “I felt really good in Game 2 before I tweaked it. This is the best I’ve felt, movement-wise and being able to explode and get that step by people and hopefully I continue to get better. I feel good about it.”

What else to feel good about?

Rasheed Wallace found his 3-point stroke, which might have been Game 5’s story if Allen hadn’t found his more emphatically.

Rodney Stuckey played with poise that keeps surprising even though it no longer should. Stuckey scored the Pistons’ last eight points, including a 3-pointer under the most withering pressure from a kid who made three 3-pointers – three! – all season. I’ve maintained all along that Stuckey, as almost all young players do, will develop his perimeter game as he matures, adding a foot or two to his reliable shooting range for the next few seasons. But to drain the one he hit with 1:17 left and the Pistons down four says something else: It says Stuckey’s destined to be one of those players who has an answer for whatever the situation demands – and it says the Pistons have a real shot to maintain the franchise’s already remarkable consistency even as the core veterans slide into less significant roles.

Rip Hamilton continues to put up 20-something points no matter how he has to get them. Lindsey Hunter has been a factor in every game even without scoring. Jason Maxiell, who hit Boston with six quick points before getting slapped with a foul that never should have been called, is a load for Boston to handle.

What the Pistons hit the Celtics with in Game 5 would have buckled their knees nine nights out of 10, but Allen’s crazy shotmaking and a handful of tough jump shots Kevin Garnett contributed – including three with the shot clock buzzing, one a triple that he, ahem, banked in – kept pushing the Pistons farther back.

The Celtics are in the desired position, no question. They also look a little fragile, despite their star power. Allen’s clutch jumper bailed them out when they were showing signs of cracking, missing free throws and playing hot potato with the basketball as the Pistons kept coming at them, the defensive heat brought by Lindsey Hunter and Stuckey and Hamilton as the lead went from 15 to 12 to eight to four to … one freaking point after Stuckey’s triple.

There are concerns, too. The biggest one is Hamilton’s elbow, the one he appeared to hyperextend in the final 10 seconds, forcing him to the bench for the final possession. The Pistons can't afford their leading scorer to have a damaged shooting arm in their biggest game - games, hopefully - of the season.

The other, and perhaps the even more pressing, is living in the moment – staring so hard at Game 6, Friday night, that nothing that came before matters and nothing scheduled beyond is recognized.

Credit Ray Allen with a hold. But the Pistons have two more hacks at Boston’s closer.

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