Game 15 | Cleveland @ Detroit | November 25, 2009 | 8:00 PM EST

[Snowblind]

I think Fred's kinda offended with Dan Gilbert. Fred's never had an intelligent person sitting next to him and putting him on the spot... interesting

:detective

 

[Andrew]

I couldn't even hear the entire game, but I saw it and still say the refs totally sucked ass tonight.

With that being said, that is no excuse to let a team of no ones come back on us. Our defense needs some modifying on the perimeter especially.

LBJ was the man tonight, I bet if Shaq played he would have had a solid game.

 

[NBAfan08]

No one really knows for sure.

What do you guys think of Ben Gordon so far?

Ben Gordon has been solid. He does have his off-nights, but most of the time he is on. His defense has been better than expected. I also love the fact that he is willing to come off the bench. When he is on the floor with Hamilton, they are a dangerous duo, combine that with Stuckey and Villaneuva, the Pistons have a powerful offensive punch. The only problem is we haven't been able to see that because Hamilton has been out since the opener. To me, Gordon and Villaneuva were both good signings. I really like what Joe has done in this rebuilding effort. Waiting till 2010 could easily have turned out to be a bust since so many teams have the cap-space to make any big-name free-agent an offer.

Good game, and looking forward to a rematch. Hopefully both teams will be healthy and ready to go.

 

[Andrew]

I hope someone uploads the FSO's telecast of this game, I want to hear Gilbert.

 

[imshakheisshaq]

What about when we beat the Magic and Heat back to back on the road? When we played teams of our caliber (at least the Magic).. When we played great the entire game.. The fact is we aren't going to play these inferior teams in the playoffs, and if we do, it's the playoffs and they'll be geared and ready to go.. But I guess we should win every game in a blow out vs bad teams like we did last year.. We had a great final result on that season.

The point is... someone else has to do SOMETHING!!! Both games Shaq was playing... as you know Howard and Turk walked through you like it was a walk in the park last season! I dont need them to blow out any team but can Bron ever get a rest at the end??? Heck can he rest at all w/o worry of our lead being blown or a team running us over?? Say what you want but Bron isn't shooting the evil eye most games and having to take crazy shots for no reason. He would rather shoot from 30 feet with 3 ppl on him then pass to a teammate so he can try and get us ANY points at the end to win games!

 

[MikeSwim07]

Very unimpressed. Another 2nd half half-assed effort...

 

[MDLT]

If Delonte is ready, we need to play him, maybe even start him.

This team needs him. His defense is greatly missed. His ability to handle the ball offensively allows Mo and LBJ to play off the ball. And he has a post game that he'll go to when needed.

LBJ refuses to go to his postgame

I kinda like the way we're handling it right now. He might still be volatile outside of the public view. Also, its early and we're 11-4. I could see the benefit of sitting until its clear he's OK (and not still in preseason form). Its all about where he's at in May and June.

 

[Gunther]

Keep in mind that Detroit, even with a bad record, has been playing good overall D - keeping teams at 94 points per game. We scored 98 and held them to 88.

It wasn't pretty, but a W is a W. You'll have games like this.

Some positives:

• Boobie shooting the lights out
• Mo distributing the ball very well
• Cavs 20 assists, but should have been 25 or so, too much settling in the second half

 

[NBAfan08]

I don't think you guys have anything to worry about. Every elite team gives up these sort of leads against non-elite opponents. Boston has been doing it, Orlando has done it, I remember the Pistons use to do it all the time. It was frustrating. What matters is how the team performs in the big games against the elite opponents.

 

[NarlCavs]

Nice 1st half, not so nice 2nd half with a terrible 4th qtr. Still it's great to get a road win with that type of 2nd half performance.
LeBron played selfish basketball down the stretch and forced too much bad offense.

I didn't feel the refs had anything to do with the Pistons making it closer or that they were that bad or biased. Gilbert needs to stop the whining. He sounds like a spoiled 12 year fan. Cavs effort dropped and the offense became stagnant and relying on perimeter shots.

Gilbert also needs to just write the checks and do what he has been doing as owner but never take part in a game broadcast again. McLeod and Carr are bad enough but when you add Gilbert BSing about nonsense it makes the broadcast a pathetic joke.

 

[MDLT]

I'll take a 10 pt win on the road w/o our starting C any day of the week. And I'll take 34, 8, and 7 on 50% shooting any day as well.

 

[Obawan12]

Believe it or not, this game was a huge step forward. Usually, we give up on the offense after the first quarter. This time it took a whole half. If we keep improving, we may actually see it last a whole game later on in the year.

 

[ajz20]

Damn a couple more buckets and boards from JJ and I would have had a perfect prediction.

We are favored by 5. I see a 10 point win and a possible double double for Mr Hickson. I always love beating Detroit!

 

[Gunther]

Not a bad writeup by Jodie Valade filling in for Windy tonight:

Cavaliers start fast, lean on LeBron James at the finish in 98-88 victory over undermanned Pistons
By Jodie Valade
November 25, 2009, 10:44PM

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- After Dan Gilbert bought the Cavaliers in 2005, the Detroit-area native blatantly swiped many of the Pistons' traditions and brought them south to Cleveland.

He stole loads of the game presentation ideas, lifting fire-spouting machines during player introductions and in-arena game hosts. He brought in a former player as general manager, giving Danny Ferry control of the team much like Joe Dumars has in Detroit.

Gilbert wanted to build a winner, after all, and the Pistons had just won an NBA championship in 2004. Few teams were better.

Now, the situation is reversed.

The Pistons can only hope now to reach the Cavaliers' level -- with a three-game winning streak, 11-4 record and 11 wins in the past 13 games after Cleveland's 98-88 triumph at The Palace of Auburn Hills on Wednesday.

The one major difference, of course, is that as much as the Pistons or any other team tries to copy the Cavaliers, there's only one LeBron James.

James scored 34 points on 12-of-24 shooting, added seven assists and eight rebounds. Only he could provide a picture-perfect no-look lob to forward Jamario Moon to slam down left-handed in the first half, and an exclamation-mark dunk in the fourth quarter where he blew past and rose above every Detroit defender.

With James playing his typical role, Daniel Gibson contributing 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting off the bench and Mo Williams adding eight assists, the Cavaliers built as much as an 18-point third-quarter lead that they saw dwindle to six in the fourth quarter.

Like the Cavaliers once were, the Pistons are now the scrappy upstarts. But like the Cleveland teams of old, Detroit lacks firepower to fully finish the comeback.

The copycat maneuvers for the Pistons began the off-season, when Detroit lifted former Cavaliers assistant coach John Kuester to be its head coach.

Once the Cavaliers' offensive coordinator who boosted Cleveland's point production to 100.3 per game from 98.6 in the season before his arrival, he took his own offense back to Detroit with him. He took bits of coach Mike Brown's defense, and he even stole Brown's idea of creating a "committee" of veteran leaders whom he bounces important ideas and suggestions off before implementing anything permanent.

"He has stolen some stuff from us, and I would call 9-1-1 but I don't want to mess with those guys on Thanksgiving Day," Brown joked.

Kuester might merely be running his own offense with the Pistons, but the Cavaliers executed it better Wednesday. It helped the Cleveland cause, of course, that Detroit was without leading scorer Richard Hamilton (right ankle sprain) and Tayshaun Prince (ruptured disc in his lower back).

Making matters worse, the Pistons lost sharp-shooting guard Ben Gordon with 3:13 remaining in the first half when he rolled his left ankle on a drive to the basket. Gordon had nine points on 4-of-7 shooting and four assists in 17 minutes before leaving the game.

Even without Shaquille O'Neal in the lineup for a sixth consecutive game, even while the Pistons might have known exactly what the Cavaliers were trying to do offensively, while trying to copy it, themselves, they still couldn't stop it.

SOURCE

 

[Pioneer10]

Blah really didn't like our perimeter defense at the end of the game Bynum and particularly Stuckey were bulldozing there way to the rim. This team is clearly missing West still on defense and on offense as it would been nice to have that extra ballhandler when the Pistons went to a more pressure type defense.

Still some thoughts I had would been to switch Moon onto Stuckey since Stuckey was overpowering Parker. Also it's too bad Coach doesn't trust Hickson (probably rightfully so) against the smaller lineups as having an inside threat would be nice when our offense stagnates like it did tonight in the 4th