Maddux Sports Blog

Okay, first here are two major mistakes by the Pistons.Rasheed Wallace throwing his headband for a technical foul. Dumb.

Chauncy Billups taking a downtown shot with the Pistons only a few down and plenty of time left. Really dumb, rookie mistake.

Sorry, guys, but you gave the Cavs 3 points right there and they only won by four—91- 87.

Billups—16 assists, 22 turnovers by the man who was second best in TO/A ratio during the regular season. The question is often asked—what’s wrong with Billups? The real question is—what are the Cavaliers doing right?

Give Cleveland credit, they have gotten into the game and head of this team, making Detroit’s vets play like rookies—Gibson– and seeing one of their rookies come up big.

For Cleveland:

An injured Larry Hughes at shooting guard defied all odds and started. He only played 16 minutes and scored a mere 2 points. But he came to play.

Daniel Gibson replaced him, playing 35 minutes. He scored 21 points! He went 12 for 12 from the foul line, 4 of 7 from the court and 1 of 4 from three-point land. He posted 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals. What a great game!

Power forward Drew Gooden scored 19 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. He was big tonight.

LeBron James played 44 minutes and posted a double-double with 25 points and 11 assists. He also had 7 rebounds and 3 steals.

James hit two big frees with four seconds left to secure the Cleveland victory.

The Cavs shot 82% from the charity stripe, scoring a total of 27 points. The Pistons put in 76%, hitting for 22 points. (There’s the game!) The rest of the shooting was fairly even and although Detroit seemed to have the upper hand in rebounding and defense, they could not win the game. This was despite the fact that James went absolutely cold in the third period—not scoring one point—and the Cavaliers almost gave the game away at that time, being outscored 24- 15! The Pistons went into the fourth 2 points up and then the wheels came off their wagon.

Overall, Billups shot well but had 5 turnovers! Tayshaun Prince gave the ball up 4 times! Billups scored 23 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. Richard Hamilton put in 19 points and took down 8 rebounds. Wallace was good for 9 points and 5 rebbies. Prince 15 points and 7 rebbies. But center Chris Webber only played 20 minutes, hitting for 2 points and taking down 3 rebounds. Power Forward Antonio McDyess came off the bench for 24 minutes of game time, putting in 12 points and handling 5 rebounds. None of this was enough.

Game six will be played in Detroit on Thursday, May 31 at 8 pm ET.

Here are the questions—

Can Gibson continue to play like some magically?

Will James step up again?

Can Billups find his game?

Can Wallace control himself? (Very important with the margin of victory over the first four games averaging a mere four points. One technical can ruin an entire championship run.)

Will Hughes be a factor?

Can the Detroit fans make the difference?

This looks like a seven game series to me! With defenses dwindling from physical play and exhaustion and offenses getting the upper hand.

This series does not come down to “who’s the man?� It comes down to “who’s the team?�

Technorati Tags: LeBron James, Chauncy Billups, Rasheed Wallace, Larry Hughes, Daniel Gibson, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, NBA Conference Finals

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1. Cleveland Cavaliers Versus Detroit Pistons The first
2. Cleveland Cavaliers Versus Atlanta Hawks The first
3. NBA Eastern Conference Finals The Cleve

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 at 12:08 am and is filed under NBA Handicapping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.