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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Arson investigators refer to it as the "point of origin."

When Larry Brown and his Detroit Pistons retrace how the remaining shreds of their 2-0 series lead went up in smoke with another blowout loss in the Meadowlands, they will discover that Kenyon Martin was the one who lit the match in Tuesday night's series-evening 94-79 defeat.

"It's always our defense that gets us started. That gets us going -- gives us energy," Jason Collins said. "Tonight, especially in that third quarter, K-Mart really got after them. K-Mart, especially, got the crowd into it and the guys got energized from it."

There were differing opinions on what exactly fueled the Nets' fire. Some singled out Jason Kidd and his flurry of third-quarter jump shots, and, believe it or not, one coach credited a boisterous and sold-out Continental Airlines Arena. "Their crowd was great," Detroit's Larry Brown said. "I've been in this arena a lot and it was a phenomenal crowd."

What really did in Detroit, though, was the Nets' Martin-sparked defense.

For the second straight game, the Pistons shot under 40 percent, following up a 28.9-percent shooting display in Sunday's 82-64 loss with 36.9-percent shooting. In its two forgettable games in the Meadowlands, Detroit converted only 46 of 141 attempts from the field (32.6 percent) and made just two of 21 3-pointers (9.5 percent).

The pressure got turned up on the Pistons to full broil in Tuesday's decisive third quarter when the Nets closed out the period with a 22-9 run. Detroit made just four of 18 shots, three of them blocked by Martin. A turnover by Martin, of all things, got the All-Star and the 19,860 fans all worked up.

With the Nets already in control with a 72-56 lead, Martin picked off a pass at mid-court and then fumbled the ball out of bounds. Looking to vent his anger, he slammed his fist into the nearby press table three times in frustration.

"My emotions were going," explained Martin, who was glad he "didn't break nobody's computer and didn't have to pay for it."

"I thought I could've had the ball and a fast break," Martin added. "I made a good defensive play and thought I could get the ball back. But I didn't get it. So I was really ticked at myself."

In previous years, such a display by the once-anger-management-challenged Martin would've frightened those sitting courtside. Instead, it merely set off a fury of emotion around the arena.

Martin's hustle got him a slap on the butt from an appreciative Lawrence Frank. His final block, on Richard Hamilton's baseline jumper, seconds later prompted the crowd to serenade him with thunderous chants of "Ken-YON Mar-TIN!" followed by four staccato handclaps.

Only Springsteen could get Continental Airlines Arena rocking like that.

"One of our strengths is our ability to feed off K's emotion," Kidd said. "K is our emotional leader. ... When he's playing at a high level, especially on the emotional side, we all plug in to him. We just feed off of him and we kind of just go."

"I love the passion," said Frank, the Nets' interim head coach. "That is what we are all about. Kenyon feels it, and you need that. You have to enjoy and love playing this game. The passion, emotion and the fire is contagious."

Limited to 13 points, nine rebounds and 21 minutes Sunday due to foul trouble, Martin bounced back with a double-double of 16 points and 15 boards in 38 minutes. Question is, can he and the Nets ride this wave of emotion to a road victory Friday at the Palace in Auburn Hills?

"We got after these guys on the defensive end, which is what we didn't do in the first two games," Martin said. "Hopefully, our defense and intensity can continue to Game 5."

Joe Lago is the NBA editor for ESPN.com.