Richard Hamilton scored 24 points and Detroit's defense held
Cleveland in the final minutes for a 79-76 victory here on Monday
in their National Basketball Association playoff opener.
Detroit's Chauncey Billups scored 10 of his 13 points in the
fourth quarter while Rasheed Wallace added 15 points and 12
rebounds to spark the Pistons in the first game of the
best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals.
Game two of the series will be played here tomorrow. Cleveland
or Detroit will face San Antonio or Utah in next month's NBA
Finals. The Spurs lead Utah 1-0 in the Western Conference
finals.
Lithuanian center Zyrunas Ilgauskas scored 22 points and grabbed
13 rebounds to lead the Cavaliers, but superstar playmaker LeBron
James went scoreless for the final 6:52 as the Pistons silenced him
when it mattered most.
James finished with 10 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists but
Tayshaun Prince smothered him in key moments, espcially after the
Cavaliers led 41-35 at halftime.
"The first half we were discombobulated," Wallace said. "We
weren't moving the ball around and they were getting second shots.
At halftime we said we can't let them steal game one. We came out
in the second half with better energy.
"In the first half we were the bad Pistons. In the second half
we were the good Pistons. Rip kept us going the whole going. Tay
did a pretty good job tonight (defending James)."
James has averaged 25.9 points, 7.8 rebounds and 6.0 assists in
the playoffs as the Cavaliers won four of their first five road
playoff games.
Billups put the Pistons ahead 78-76 and the teams traded misses
and turnovers until the Cavaliers had a chance in the last seconds,
but Donyell Marshall missed a 3-point corner shot and Billups was
fouled going for the loose ball.
"LeBron going to the basket draws so much attention that
(Marshall) was wide open. We're just lucky he missed," Hamilton
said. "We're going to be aggressive. We've got to know where he is
at all times."
Billups made one free throw and missed the second with 2.4
seconds to play, but Brazilian Anderson Varejao missed a
court-length shot to force overtime.
Varejao and Larry Hughes each had 13 points and seven rebounds
for Cleveland.
The Cavaliers are in the conference finals for the first time
since 1992, when James when seven years old.
Last year, the Cavaliers won their first playoff series since
1993 in round one, then pushed the Pistons to the brink of
elimination before falling in seven games.
The Pistons, playing in their fifth consecutive conference
final, reached the NBA Finals twice, beating the Los Angeles Lakers
in 2004 and losing to San Antonio in seven games in their 2005
title defense.
The Pistons took three of four from Cleveland in the regular
season.
(China Daily via AFP May 23, 2007)