These two teams are really the antithesis of each other you have the established Championship contender in Detroit against the up and coming Cavs. The Cavs have a team built around Lebron James, who is arguably the best player in the league, while the Pistons have no real superstars and a team built on outcasts. It should be an exciting series all around. When the Pistons have the basketball they are going to have to rely on getting the ball close to the hoops whether it is Rasheed Wallace in the post, Billups or Hamilton on the drive or Prince in either roll. The Cavs interior defense isn?t very strong and it will be necessary for the Pistons to exploit it in order to win the series. The Cavs have Eric Snow who should do a decent job on Billups and also Hughes to chase Hamilton around.When the Cavs have the ball everything goes through Lebron James. The Pistons strategy in this series will most likely be to let Lebron be a scorer but not a playmaker. Other than Lebron, Larry Hughes may give the Pistons guards some trouble because he is just the type of quick player that Billups and Hamilton can?t stay with.It should be a good series but with the home court advantage, experience and better overall talent I am going to say Pistons in five games.
Give me Detroit in 5 also. Rasheed Wallace needs to take advantage of the Cavs big men and make them play him on the perimeter. The Wallace-Gooden matchup is a disadvantage for Cleveland because of Rasheeds range. Sheed always plays well against Cleveland.I think Detroit defends Lebron pretty well. He will still get his 20-25 points but I dont see him having one huge scoring outburst. Detroit played him well during the season.
My Game 1 Preveiw. <div align="center"> <span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%"><span style="color:#3333FF">Detroit Pistons</span> vs <span style="color:#FF0000">Cleveland Cavaliers</span></span>Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 1 Sunday May 7th, 2006Location- Palace of Auburn HillsTelevison- ABC 3PM ETStarting Lineups<span style="color:#3333FF">Detroit PistonsC- Ben WallacePF- Rasheed WallaceSF- Tayshaun PrinceSG- Richard HamiltonPG- Chauncey BillupsHead Coach- Flip Saunders6th Man- Antonio McDyess</span><span style="color:#FF0000">Cleveland CavaliersC- Zydrunas IlgaskusPF- Drew GoodenSF- LeBron JamesSG- Larry HughesPG- Eric SnowHead Coach- Mike Brown6th Man- Ronald "Flip" Murray</span>Game 1 Analysis<span style="color:#990000">The Cavs have just come off a 4-2 1st Round victory against the Washington Wizards, as the well rested Detroit Pistons have came off a 4-1 1st Round series victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. Both teams know each other well, having playing eachother 4 tims a year. The key matchup in Game 1 will be Tayshaun Prince vs LeBron James. Over the past 3 years, Tay has given LeBron some trouble getting his shot. Look for that to be a factor in this series. Another one would be Hughes vs Hamilton, and Snow (a well known defensive PG) vs the MVP Canidate Chauncey Billups.The Cavaliers are gonna have trouble stopping the Pistons on there scoring, as the Cavs arent a great defensive team. Simple as this, Detroit is well rested and at home, while the Cavs have come from Washington to Cleveland to Detroit from Friday night to Saturday night. I'll take the Detroit Pistons in Game 1 of this Semifinal series.</span>Prediction- <span style="color:#3333FF">Pistons-97</span> <span style="color:#FF0000">Cavaliers- 85</span>Leading the scoreboard in Game 1<span style="color:#FF0000">LeBron James (CLE)- 27 points 5 rebounds 4 assists</span><span style="color:#3333FF">Richard Hamilton (DET)- 22 points 5 rebounds 3 assists</span></div>
Detroit in 5 because LeBron's a great player and all but Detroit's defense will be too much for him and his teammates to handle. The Pistons are just too good for them, but I wanna see how Bron does against them
detroit in 6. lebron will manage to pull off a few wins in this series but not enough to win the series. detroit is too good to lose to the cavs.
I don't see this game going past 5, and frankly, I have a feeling it'll go 4. Not only is Cleveland simply not as good as Detroit, but they don't matchup well. Big Z will have trouble hitting the outside shot, and the only guy who will be able to create anything is LeBron. A sweep would be no surprise here
Well if the Bucks can beat them once, I'm sure the Cavs can win at least 1 game, I'm saying Detroit in 6
The Pistons play on the perimeter, shooting tons of threes. The Cavs have horrible perimeter defense. I see it going to 5 games, Pistons.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>The Cavaliers will be without guard Larry Hughes for the second straight game when they host the Detroit Pistons in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series on Monday.He remains with his grieving family following the death of his 20-year-old brother, Justin, from heart failure on Thursday.</div>LinkIt hurts the chances for the Cavs to win, but you cant blame Hughes for wanting to be with his family during the tough time. Family is more important than the playoffs IMO.
