MILWAUKEE (AP) – If the Detroit Pistons were this good on offense more often they wouldn’t have to rely so heavily on their throttling defense.

The Pistons shot 56.9 percent Monday night and got 27 points from Richard Hamilton in taking a 3-1 series lead with a 109-92 rout of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Neither team had shot better than 45 percent in the best-of-seven series that shifts to Auburn Hills, Mich., for Game 5 on Thursday night.

Embarrassed by becoming the first team to lose at home in the playoffs this season, the Pistons used their defense to turn things around with a 95-85 win in Game 3 on Saturday.

On Monday night, they intensified their offense, in part thanks to the benching of big man Brian Skinner by the Bucks, who had hoped to add some offense with Keith Van Horn’s first start of the postseason.

Van Horn scored 11 points on 5-of-13 shooting.

Rasheed Wallace added 20 points for Detroit, Chauncey Billups had 19 and Tayshaun Prince 17.

Hamilton’s layup with 6:26 left made it 89-75, and the Bucks made their last run, pulling to 95-88 on Damon Jones’s 16-footer with 2:18 left.

Prince responded with a 3-pointer and the Bucks never got closer than eight after that.

Even when the Bucks fouled, they found no comfort. The Pistons went 20-of-21 from the free throw line, including making all 12 in the fourth quarter, eight in the final 1:09.

Jones had 17 points, 10 assists and just one turnover for Milwaukee, which also got 17 points and 12 rebounds from Joe Smith.

Van Horn, who has been coming off the bench because of injuries since late March, averaged just six points as a sub in the first three games of this series. He had seven points in the first quarter, when the Bucks scored 27 points, their second-highest total in a quarter in the playoffs.

The Bucks knew they were giving up some defense with Van Horn, “but before he got hurt, he was our second-leading scorer,” coach Terry Porter said before tip-off. “It gives us another shooter on the floor.”

Van Horn, however, picked up two quick fouls midway through the second quarter, the second coming after Ben Wallace stripped him of the ball underneath the Bucks’ basket.

He sat out the final 6:50 of the first half, which ended with Smith’s buzzer-beating jumper from the top of the key that pulled the Bucks to 52-49.

The Pistons never relinquished the lead in the second half.

Kings 94, Mavericks 92

DALLAS – Peja Stojakovic came out of his shooting slump just in time to send the Sacramento Kings home on the verge of closing out their first-round playoff series.

And on the game’s final play, his defense helped, too.

Stojakovic, who felt so out of whack the previous game that he took only one shot in the second half, missed 10 straight in the first half Monday night, then came back with five straight swishes to get Sacramento rolling to a 94-92 victory over the Dallas Mavericks. The Kings lead 3-1 with Game 4 in Sacramento.

Sacramento nearly blew it, though, letting a 91-83 lead with 3:23 left come down to a final play. Steve Nash took an inbounds pass with 8.4 seconds left. Stojakovic wound up on him because of a pick-and-roll with Dirk Nowitzki and he was able to contain Nash behind the foul line. A fading 18-footer jumper at the buzzer bounced off the rim.