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player ready...Got ’em right where they want them. Yep, 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, supposedly advising everyone just to “Be British” with the hull under water.
Once again Tuesday night, the Pistons were being the Pistons, a little indifferent and a little too overconfident until it was too late.
“Nothing new,” Pistons guard Richard Hamilton said. “Our confidence is the same.”
But their lead isn’t. The Cleveland Cavaliers made the big plays in the fourth quarter to win 91-87 and even the Eastern Conference finals at two games apiece. Game 5 is Thursday in Auburn Hills, Mich.
Last year in the playoffs against the Cavs, the Pistons won the first two and then lost three straight before pulling out the last two. Deja vu all over again?
“Last year was based on us making the playoffs,” said LeBron James, who had 25 points, 14 in the fourth quarter, and 11 assists. “This year is based on us getting to the championship.”
That notion hardly seems so unlikely all of a sudden. After back-to-back three-point losses in Auburn Hills, the Cavs have come back, owning the fourth quarter and making the big plays instead of the playoff-tested Pistons.
It was the Pistons squeezing to a tight six-man rotation and kicking the ball around down the stretch, including Chauncey Billups making three turnovers. That while the Cavs got 21 points and 12 of 12 on free throws off the bench from rookie Daniel Gibson, who had more points than the entire Pistons bench.
“We couldn’t keep in front of him,” Pistons coach Flip Saunders said. “He and Drew Gooden (19 points) were the difference. Gooden made big shots. Gibson played unbelievable.”
For his part, James has played as the star he is advertised to be in the last two games.
Questioned earlier in the series for passing up a potential tying layup at the end of a game, James hit the clinching shots from the free-throw line with four seconds left to give the Cavs the final margin. Long doubted for his lack of pressure free-throw shooting, and with Hamilton bumping and talking to him before he shot, James calmly swished a pair, making it 8 of 9 for the game.
“The same thing I did to Gilbert Arenas last year (in an opening-round game in which Arenas missed both shots),” James laughed. “I invented that. No, Scottie Pippen invented that to Karl Malone (“The mailman doesn’t deliver on Sunday”). He tried to mess with me, but I stayed focused.”
That was the surprise in Game 4 more than the result or that James again came up big after scoring 32 in Game 3.
After three lackluster games, Billups promised to be more energized and scored 18 in the first half, though the Pistons trailed 50-46. But the Cavaliers inexplicably have been miserable virtually every third quarter in the playoffs. Here they again were flat, being outscored 24-15 with James scoreless despite playing the entire quarter.
When the Pistons pushed their lead to 75-71 with about eight minutes left, it seemed the veterans were right where they needed to be.
“We pretty much got to the last stretch but couldn’t finish,” said Billups, who led the Pistons with 23.
It was at that point Gooden got tangled with Rasheed Wallace and was called for a technical foul. But then Wallace threw up a wild shot and the Pistons began to unravel, missing five straight shots as Gooden hit a pair of baseline jumpers as the Cavs took an 87-79 lead with 3:21 left. Wallace received a technical of his own during the stretch.
“Besides the 18 points, the way [Gooden] played defense on Rasheed, being able to front him, enabled us to stay home,” said James, who also took a late turn on Billups, frustrating him.
Hamilton, who had 19 points, suddenly sensed the urgency, which happens late in Pistons games, and hit a pair of pull-ups in the lane. But Billups, with more turnovers than assists for the third time in four games, got caught in the air and Gooden intercepted his errant pass.
Billups, for some reason, then intentionally fouled Gooden with more than a minute left and the Pistons down only four. Then with the Pistons behind 88-85 with 44.9 seconds left, Billups, becoming known as Mr. Bad Shot, fired up a curious three-pointer on the run that missed badly. That led to an Eric Snow free throw and after an Antonio McDyess tip-in cut the Cavs’ lead to 89-87 with less than five seconds left, James sank the clinchers.
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“I love the fourth quarter,” James said. “I told my teammates to get me to the fourth and if it’s close, I’ll try my best to win the game.”
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