Detroit dominates Cleveland [Archive]

TheDOCTORdre

05-07-2006, 07:35 PM

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -- When LeBron James had the ball, he saw Detroit Pistons defenders to his left, to his right, and straight ahead.

The Pistons also had James seeing triple at the other end of the court.

Detroit made 10 3-pointers in the first half -- one shy of an NBA playoff record -- to open up a 21-point lead at halftime before cruising to a 113-86 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday in Game 1 of their second-round series.

The Pistons finished with a franchise playoff-record 15 3-pointers, on 22 attempts, and missed only one of their 11 attempts beyond the arc before halftime.

"They're going to sweep the rest of the playoffs if they shoot like that and win the NBA championship," James said. "We shot 50 percent and had only six turnovers in the first half and were down 22. It's hard to explain that."

James scored all of his 22 points in the first half, but the 21-year-old star had to work for each one. Triple-teamed at times, James was forced to take difficult shots or defer to teammates who didn't respond by making shots of their own.

"The team has to be in a zone situation behind me," said Tayshaun Prince, who led Detroit's "LeBron Rules" defense.

James didn't play in the fourth quarter after he was held scoreless in the third while the Pistons built a 30-point lead.

Prince made James work on defense, too, scoring 24 points and tying his playoff record.

The two-time defending Eastern Conference champions turned the game into a rout with a franchise playoff-record 43 points in the second quarter against a team in the second round for the first time since 1993.

The Pistons had four double-figure scorers in the first half alone, including reserves Antonio McDyess and Lindsey Hunter. Both had 12 at halftime -- outscoring every Cavs player not named James in the first half.

Richard Hamilton scored 20, Chauncey Billups had 14 points and 10 assists and Rasheed Wallace added 10 points and seven rebounds.

Ben Wallace, the NBA Defensive Player of the Year according to an Associated Press source, had 11 rebounds and four blocks for the Pistons.

Cleveland's Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 14 points after a poor series against Washington in the first round. The Cavs, who didn't have a third double-digit scorer until the fourth quarter, got 11 points from Anderson Varejao.

The Cavs played about 40 hours after their Game 6 win at Washington in overtime, flying home and then to suburban Detroit. Meanwhile, the Pistons had a day off and two days of practices after eliminating Milwaukee in five games.

"It was up to us to jump out early after the first round they had," Prince said. "I think they had some tired legs."

The Cavs began the game with some fight, leading 12-7 and being tied late in the first quarter. Detroit went on a 10-0 run over the last 1:57 of the first quarter -- helped by James' two turnovers -- to take a 26-16 lead.

Cleveland was still hanging around, by NBA standards, trailing by 14 until the Pistons closed another quarter in dominating fashion. Hunter made three 3-pointers in just under a minute and McDyess closed the 11-4 run to put the Pistons ahead 69-48 at halftime.

"This team already has a lot of confidence," Cleveland coach Mike Brown said. "When they go on runs like that at the end of quarters, they tend to pounce on you."

Detroit went up 32 in the third quarter and emptied its bench midway through the fourth with a 37-point lead.

"Thank goodness the outcome of the series doesn't have anything to do with point differential," Brown said.

The Pistons will host Game 2 on Tuesday night in the best-of-seven series.