The Pistons hoped Zeljko Rebraca wouldn't get in foul trouble Wednesday night. He didn't, and he helped foul out two Washington Wizards to boot.

Rebraca, who has a penchant for picking up fouls in a hurry, started at center for the suspended Cliff Robinson and committed just three of the 55 fouls called in the game. He finished with 12 points on 3-of-9 shooting and eight rebounds, and his aggressive play inside helped get Brendan Haywood and Popeye Jones in foul trouble. Both eventually fouled out as the Wizards lost, 97-90.

"Without Cliff out there, who's a flow sort of player, and you put Rebraca out there, Rebraca's a guy that got them fouling early," coach Rick Carlisle said. "We got into situations where we got into the bonus early in a couple of those quarters and we really didn't do a good job of capitalizing on it.

"We wanted to play more of an opportunistic, transition game. We wanted to play inside-out as much as we could. Even though he had some tough misses, I thought Rebraca worked to get position and drew a lot of fouls on their big guys. He was a bigger influence on the game than his numbers indicated."