Got ’em right where they want them. Yup, everything is going just as the Detroit Pistons planned.
The Pistons are like a guy driving a car with no brakes and no steering down a steep decline while assuring everyone he’s in control. They’re Edward Smith, the captain of the Titanic, who supposedly was advising everyone just to “Be British” with the hull under water.
Once again, the Pistons were the Pistons, a little indifferent and a little overconfident until it’s too late.
The result Tuesday night was the Cleveland Cavaliers were able to make the big plays in the fourth quarter to win 91-87 and even the Eastern Conference finals at two games apiece.
LeBron James scored 25 points, 14 in the fourth quarter, and rookie guard Daniel Gibson added 21 to offset 23 points from Chauncey Billups, the usually poised guard who made questionable plays down the stretch while James, criticized for his free throw shooting under pressure, converted two with four seconds left to clinch the victory.
“I had to be aggressive in the fourth quarter and I had to step up,” said James, who seemingly endured taunts from Richard Hamilton at the line as he waited to shoot. “It was big. My teammates look at me to go [in] there and knock down those shots. It’s very big to get the monkey off my back. I knocked down two big free throws. I stayed focused and went up there and knocked them down. I’m more focused than I’ve ever been in my life.”
It was something of a breakthrough game for the Cavs. The Pistons led 75-71 with about eight minutes left after the Cavs appeared to be panicking with a Drew Gooden technical foul (though Gooden scored 19 points and had two big jumpers down the stretch).
But the Pistons took some wild, out-of-control shots and fell behind 87-79 before pulling within 88-85 with a minute left. Billups then threw up an ill-advised three-pointer after a crucial turnover and questionable purposeful foul with more than a minute left.
This game Billups was supposed to come up big after three passive efforts and comments after the Game 3 loss that it was no big deal and the Pistons were in good shape.
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‘I’ll be ready.’ That’s it,” Pistons coach Flip Saunders said in relating Billups’ pregame comments. “He’s anxious to play.”
Billups came out that way, scoring 10 first-quarter points, and his three-pointer a minute into the second quarter gave him 13, as many as he had had in any game in the series. That open Billups three also gave the Pistons a 27-26 lead and what looked like a wrestling three-count for the Cavaliers.
But to think that would be a boo-boo.
Or Booby. Or Bootsie. Or whatever the Cavaliers call their backup point guard, Gibson, who has been making his own name in this series.
The rookie second-round draft pick was picking up extra time for Larry Hughes, who started despite his foot injury but had difficulty with movement and left for good early in the second half. The Cavs began to put it into higher gear behind Gibson.
“He’s tough, he’s quick, he’ll stick his nose in,” Cavs coach Mike Brown said.
With the Cavs leading 30-29, James dislodged the ball from Billups and threw to Gibson and took off, finishing a slam dunk on a pass from Gibson to go ahead 32-29 with 8:50 left in the second quarter.
James then went out for more than four minutes and Gibson, driving for a pull-up and taking the ball at the Pistons interior and getting fouled, helped the Cavs move ahead 45-33 before James returned.
Gibson had 11 points off the bench by halftime.
Meanwhile, the Pistons went more than eight minutes without a field goal before Billups, with 18 in the half, scored after a turnover and the Pistons closed to within 50-43 at the half.
But once again, as they have in every game in the series, the Cavs came out soft in the second half with Hughes missing three straight to allow the Pistons to score the first eight of the quarter and take a 51-50 lead.
The Pistons went on to outscore the Cavs 24-15 in the third quarter, giving Detroit a plus-29 edge combined in the third quarters of the four games. It enabled the Pistons to go into the fourth quarter leading 67-65.
“They understand the situation and what needs to be done,” Saunders said of his team. “They rely on their experience to pull them through having been in those situations before.”
But they’re continuing to experience losses in those situations now.
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