Cleveland Cavaliers(14-8) @ Detroit Pistons(11-10) December 16th, 8:00 pm Eastern The Palace of Auburn Hills TV: TNT Previous Game Blazers 88 @ Cavs 112 Pistons 94 @ Knicks 93 Series: Cavs lead season series 1-0. Last Meeting: Pistons 76 @ Cavaliers 92 Streaks Cavaliers: Won 2 Pistons: Won 1 Head Coaches vs. Paul Silas vs. Larry Brown Probable Starters PG: vs. Jeff McInnis /Chauncey Billups SG: vs. Lebron James/Richard Hamilton SF: vs. Ira Newble/Tayshaun Prince PF: vs. Drew Gooden/Rasheed Wallace C: vs. Zydrunas Ilgauskas/Ben Wallace 6th Men vs. Locious Harris/Antonio Mcdyess Players to Watch vs. James: 25.1 Points , 6.8 Assists, 6.9 Rebounds, 2.64 Steals Hamilton: 20.6 Points , 3.8 Assists, 3.7 Rebounds, 1.24 Steals Injury Report Cleveland Cavaliers Robert Traylor Luke Jackson Detroit Pistons Derrick Coleman Smush Parker Keys to the Game <u>Cleveland Cavaliers</u> <ul> [*]play Perimeter defense on guys like Billups, Prince, Hamilton and even Rasheed Wallace when he manages to step out. [*]Get Ilgauskas involved early and get the ball inside and get the Pistons big men in foul trouble [*]Box out on Wallace and don't allow 2nd chance points [*]get Lebron the ball and let him go to work by attacking the Detroit defense. Lebron scored 43 on the Pistons in the last meeting and It will be his job to score plenty again but also get guys involved. [/list] <u>Detroit Pistons</u> <ul> [*]Stop Lebron, Probably the most important key is to stop Lebron in many ways. He scored 43 in the last meeting.The Pistons need to make sure that this does not happen again. [*]Limit Zydrunas Ilgauskas' and Drew Gooden's production .Big Z can still hurt the Pistons if he allowed to play his style of game by getting the ball in the post and knocking down the 15 footer. [*]Dominate the boards, The Pistons will need to get some extra second chance points. Also, they do not want to allow the Cavaliers to get free offensive possesions. [*]Get good production from Hamilton and Billups. When these two play well, the team plays well and because of this, it is important for them to remain consistent. They will need to get good looks at the basket to maximize their efficiency.[/list] Game Thoughts The Pistons head into this game ater winning last night @ New York 94-93 in a game where the Pistons trailed by as many as 16 points at HT. They made a run and got back into the game thanks to defense. Had they played defense for the full 48 minutes then the game likely wouldn't of been so close. Pistons main problem this year is not playing hard for the full 48 minutes. A slow start again tonight and It will be that much harder to comeback on a back to back night. Lebron James and his Cavs are coming off a 112-88 win over the Blazers so they will likely be less tired than the Pistons so they will be looking to get out of the blocks and start well. Lebron had a career high 43 against the Pistons earlier in the season back in Cleveland but this time Ben Wallace is back, lets see how his presents effects Lebron's performance tonight, If at all. I expect the Pistons to come out strong mainly because they know they have to. Cleveland are an up and down team on the road with this game being at the palace and the fact Pistons will be looking for revenge after the last meeting, I will go with the Pistons in a close one.
<font face="Times New Roman"><font size="3">I am going with the Pistons in this one. Although LeBron had a career high against this team last game, they are to good of a defensive team to let it happen again. </font></font>
Does anyone know what Snow said to Silas? It must have been pretty bad if he got sent to the locker room. I thought Eric snow was a pretty miled manored guy. I would never expect him to do something like this... I expect Detroit to come back and win it in a nail biting 90-88 victory. The same thing they did to NY, Cleaveland will experience.
They are doing what they have done all season, playing with no heart or effort and still expect to turn It on in the 4th and win the game. The sad thing is the Pistons are a much better team than the Cavs but other teams below the level of the Pistons actually manage to play with heart and effort while the Pistons fail to do so. Thats the difference. Where's the freaking team that won the championship last year? Billups is playing like trash, basically what he has done all month. Dumars seriously needs to get another scorer.
Detroit had James on smash. He was 4-21. The only other team that gave him a hard time was NY . I knew Detroit would win but, not by so many points.
Well that championship team turned up in the 2nd half...Holding the Cavs to just 6 3rd quarter points. Outscoring the Cavs 21-6 to take a 5 point lead into the 4th. Thats the 2nd time in two days they have slacked off in the first half only to make huge runs to win the game in the 2nd half. I really wish they would play for 48 minutes, way less stressful. Lebron finally came back down to earth tonight (for at least one game) he shot 4-21 from the field including two air-balls. Pistons are starting to get back where they should be, very good win in the end.
Apparently, Snow spewed a profanity and Silas tossed him out for the first half. Good for Paul Silas. I am sick and tired of players disrespecting coaches. Silas did the right thing. I did love Silas outburst with the media where he went off at a writer for asking a question about Eric Snow. He ended with him saying if he is speaking Chinese. Now that meltdown is not like Jim Mora when he had that playoff rant in his final year as the Colts coach, but nevertheless it was funny.
" Jesus, am I speaking Chinese? " This was a good game for the Pistons. They played like a chapionship team and even shut down LeBron to a season low, 11 points on 4-21 shooting. I expect the Pistons to rebound their mediocre start with a few game, winning streak.
Yeah what exactly happened between Snow and Coach Silas? I didn't see the game but did see Snow walking off the court in game highlight.
What an embarassing 3rd qtr for the Cavs! That was clearly the reason for their loss. Good job by the Pistons too.
Great game by the Pistons. Well, actually great second half by the Pistons. They played that stifling defense that we seen all year last year, and that was the key to the victory. Our offense was great too. The thing is, is if our defense is great, our offense is great. When we play stifling defense, we are playing with energy, and that means we'll get the rebounds, and we'll cause turnovers, and that gives us transition opportunities, and then we're just so much more patient on offense. We showed it in the second half against the Cavs, and if we can do this consistently for 48 minutes, we'd be blowing teams out. It was just a great overall effort from everyone on both ends of the court.
