Pistons 96, Cavaliers 89

TAKE FIVE

A five-point dissection of the Pistons’ exhilarating comeback win
1. - One of Joe Dumars’ underlying reasons for making the
trade for Allen Iverson was to make the Pistons less predictable and
harder to defend in the muck and mire of playoff basketball. Nobody
epitomizes that hand-to-hand style of combat more than the Cleveland
Cavaliers.

For two quarters of their first meeting since the cataclysmic
deal that swapped out Chauncey Billups for Iverson, not much looked
different. The Pistons struggled to find any spark offensively,
grinding their way to 38 first-half points and trailing by as many as
13 in both the second and third quarters.

But the light came on a few minutes after halftime and the
Pistons morphed into the team Iverson left behind, the Denver Nuggets –
offensively, at least – scoring 58 points in the second half and
outscoring Cleveland by 26 over a 20-minute stretch to lock up their
first Palace win with Iverson, 96-89 over the Cavs on Wednesday night.

Iverson scored 23 points and Rasheed Wallace added 21 –
including 10 in the fourth quarter – but equally uplifting was the play
of second-year guards Rodney Stuckey and Arron Afflalo down the
stretch.

So effective was the fourth-quarter unit of Wallace, Iverson,
Stuckey, Afflalo and Jason Maxiell that Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun
Prince virtually took the quarter off. Afflalo scored five points and
effectively shackled LeBron James, who finished with 25 points but shot
1 for 6 in the fourth quarter. Stuckey scored seven of his nine points
in the fourth quarter, when he also picked up two assists.

“I have confidence in those guys just as well as I have in Rip
and Tay,” said Iverson, who was 3 for 3 in the fourth quarter, scoring
seven points and dishing off two of his four assists.
“Rodney is a good basketball player. He can make so many things
happen, penetrating the ball to the basket. You’ve got to stay honest
on him. It’s just as easy as it is having (Prince and Hamilton) out
there. It spreads the court out. You’ve got more than one guy who can
penetrate the ball. Once he puts pressure on the defense, it makes it
easy for everybody else. He obviously made it easier for me in the
fourth quarter by just penetrating and kicking and my man would have to
recover from me and I could run right by him.”

“I thought I was going to bring Rip back in after about three
minutes (of the fourth quarter) for Allen, give Allen about three
minutes rest, then let him finish the last six minutes of the game,”
Michael Curry said. “I was giving Tayshaun a break, let Arron hold down
the fort for a little bit. But that group got rolling, Stuckey did a
tremendous job in pick and roll. When he didn’t have it, he was able to
hit Rasheed up top for a couple of shots and swing it over to the weak
side and let Allen attack.”

Hamilton and Prince both wound up playing just 33 minutes,
which they should appreciate Thursday night in Boston when they’re
chasing Ray Allen and Paul Pierce around for 40 minutes – unless
Stuckey and Afflalo convince Curry to let them ride out another
fourth-quarter wave.

TEAM COLORS

The story of the game in Pistons red, white and blue

2.
- Wallace started out that way. And he ended that way. He had three
baskets – a 9-footer in the lane, a deep 2-pointer from the left wing,
an 18-footer from the right baseline – in the first three minutes of
the game as the Pistons took a 6-0 lead. By halftime, those still were
his only three baskets

The Pistons didn’t go to him much after that – even though he
found himself with mismatches on guards on a few occasions – but when
they rediscovered him on back-to-back possessions midway through the
fourth quarter, he drained consecutive 3-point bombs to break a 76-all
tie and give the Pistons the six-point lead that matched their biggest
of the night. The one Wallace gave them with those first three baskets.

Wallace finished with not just the 21 points but 15 big
rebounds, as well, in 42 minutes. Six of his boards came in the fourth
quarter, when he knocked down all three of his shots and both of his
free throws.

“It’s just simple basketball,” he said. “They can’t stop the
outside shot – no matter if it’s myself, Rip, Stuck or Arron – they
can’t stop the penetration and the shot from out top.”
“For the whole night, Rasheed was really big,” Curry said.
“Rasheed has really been rebounding the basketball for us and we’re
going to need that.”

3. BLUE COLLAR - Arron Afflalo
didn’t take off his warmups until 1:54 remained in the third quarter –
and then he never went back to the bench.

He guarded James for the final nine minutes, forcing him into
tough shots – contesting his jump shots or forcing him to spin away
from the basket on drives instead of allowing him to continue to the
rim.

He also hit two big jumpers – his 3-pointer late in the third
tied the game at 66 after Cleveland had led since midway through the
first – but it was his affect on the defensive intensity that was most
notable.

“Just that energy he brings to us,” Iverson said. “Obviously,
he can shoot the basketball, but he added a whole ’nother dimension to
our team as far as playing with a lot of heart and a lot of guts and
just scrapping for everything.”

4. RED FLAG - Not much to quibble
with on a night the Pistons knock off the NBA’s hottest team – the Cavs
came in with an eight-game win streak – five nights after knocking off
the NBA’s hottest team of that moment, snapping the Lakers’ seven-game
win streak.

But it’s a little ominous that Wallace, at 34, had to play 42
minutes and now has to match up against Boston’s Kevin Garnett – who
got to sit out the Celtics’ win against New York on Tuesday while
serving his one-game suspension.



THE LAST CALL

A little perspective on a big win over their Central Division rival


5. ALMOST THERE - Michael Curry knew the first 12 games of the
schedule were going to present major challenges to his team – and that
was before the trade that changed his offense and disrupted his
frontcourt rotation.

That 12-game stretch ends Thursday night – and in fitting fashion, with
a road game to end a back-to-back at defending NBA champion Boston.

Remember, the Pistons were already undergoing an offensive
transformation, one that spread the ballhandling and decision-making
more evenly, even before they traded Chauncey Billups. Adding Iverson
to the mix took it from a significant change to a radical one.

And losing Antonio McDyess has had ripple effects, as Curry has
frequently noted, influencing not only the frontcourt pairings but also
the combinations Curry can use among his perimeter players now that
he’s missing McDyess’ shooting range.

But if the worst happens at Boston, the Pistons will take an
8-4 record back to The Palace, where they’ll have a welcome few days
off before opening a four-game home stand that will keep them in their
own beds for more than a week.

All in all, that’s a wildly successful start to a stretch that could have treated the Pistons very harshly.