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AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- It sounds as easy as one, two, three. Dump the ball inside and if the defense sends a second defender, pass it back out to the perimeter for the open 3-pointer.

But the Detroit Pistons mess with your Xs and Os inside as well as outside.

In addition to clamping down on low-post scorers Jermaine O'Neal and Ron Artest, the Pistons have defused the other half of the Indiana Pacers' offensive arsenal -- the 3-point shot -- limiting the league's ninth-best 3-point shooting team during the regular season to just 22.2 percent in the first three games of the Eastern Conference finals.

Aside from Reggie Miller's game-winning 3-pointer in Game 1, the Pistons have demonstrated why they were the NBA's best at defending the three, holding opponents to just 30.2 percent in the regular season. Detroit's first two playoff victims -- Milwaukee (33 percent) and New Jersey (27.4 percent) -- had difficulty shooting from 3-point range as well.

"You think you're going to be open because they're doubling," Pacers point guard Jamaal Tinsley said. "But when they kick the ball out, you've got guys like Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince challenging your shot, and you're not open.

"They're so athletic and long that it looks like an open three. But it's not."

"Even when you catch the ball and you're open, there's somebody flying at you," Austin Croshere said. "They also do a good job of guarding the 24-second clock, so lots of times the threes that you are getting are at the end of the clock and rushed."

All five of Indiana's regular 3-point shooters are struggling against the Pistons, misfiring below their regular-season percentages. Miller, who led the Pacers with 134 threes and shot 40.1 percent, has made only three of 12 3-pointers. Tinsley, who shot .372 beyond the arc, is making only 16.7 percent (2 of 12).

No one has been affected by Detroit's defense more than Artest. The All-Star small forward is shooting only 26.3 percent from the field and a disastrous 7.1 percent (1 for 14) on threes, including an 0-for-5 night in Indiana's 85-78 Game 3 defeat.

"Their length and angularity puts you in deceptive situations at times," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. "You've just got to have a very heightened sense of awareness when you take the ball into the paint and you've got to be ready to make the extra pass and have people spotted up ready to knock down open shots."

	“	They're so athletic and long that it looks like an open three. But it's not. ”
		— Jamaal Tinsley on the Pistons' perimeter defenders

"It's their guards, too," Croshere said of the perimeter defense of Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton and backup Mike James. "They do a great job of recovering to open shooters."

Billups admitted that it's easy to defend the Pacers because of the familiarity with the offensive sets of Carlisle, who coached the Pistons the last two seasons. But Indiana won 61 regular-season games and five playoff games playing the same way and it isn't about to change now.

"We're going to use the same game plan that got us here," Tinsley said. "We've just got to be more stronger and just more detailed."

"I just believe we're at a point where we're going to break through here on the offensive end and get better defensively," said Carlisle, whose team has shot 33.7, 27.5 and 34.7 percent from the field. "That's the kind of positive outlook that we've got to have at this point."

And the reason why?

"The law of averages," he replied.

Facing Detroit's defense, though, the numbers are always skewed.

Joe Lago is the NBA editor at ESPN.com.