Cavs Drop Pistons, Advance to Finals

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The end for the Detroit Pistons has come. After the first true crushing defeat of the series, the Cleveland Cavaliers, led by LeBron James, have advanced to the NBA Finals to face the San Antonio Spurs. Cleveland outscored the Pistons 31-16 in the fourth quarter, and it was all but over after just a handful of those final 12 minutes had passed. Up just a point after three, the Cavs came out of the gates in the fourth quickly, opening up the quarter on a 9-1 run through the first 90 seconds, opening up a 12 point lead with just less than 9:30 remaining. In the end, it was not LeBron James, but rather Daniel Gibson, who made the final blows against the faltering Pistons. The rookie sharpshooter finished the game with a career-high 31 points, including going five-for-five from long distance. Not long after an offensive outburst from Gibson, Rasheed Wallace could contain himself no more. Raucous Cleveland fans combined with a blatant flop from Anderson Varejao, drawing Sheed’s fifth person foul on the offensive end. Only seconds later, on the other end of the court, Rasheed picked up his final foul, completing his play in the NBA Playoffs — three personal fouls in 39 seconds.

“I just get so sick and tired of that cheating (garbage) out there,” Wallace said after the game. “All that flopping. They reward flopping. That’s not defense. I hope the league does something about that before the next series.”Wallace, also very animated on court after being ejected, was restrained by Antonio McDyess on the way to the tunnel.

Wallace pointed and yelled, “(Screw) you! (Screw) all of you!” in the direction of the Cavaliers and officials still on the floor.

You could see Wallace about ready to boil over, and after the flop by Cleveland’s fish out of water, it was apparent that nothing short of a miracle could save the Pistons. I wanted to see them go down with some sort of fire — Sheed’s explosion was at least some sign of life, a sign that the players were not completely indifferent towards their fate. If Detroit was not going to win the game, it was nice to know that some passion still existed, even if it was the end. Rasheed’s ejection was the white flag, the omen of the end, the final stand. Richard Hamilton led the Pistons with 29 points. As a team, Detroit tallied just 16 assists, shot less than 36% from the floor, and was out-rebounded 53-33. For the Cavaliers, Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 11 points & 12 boards and LeBron James had 20 points & 14 rebounds, in addition to Gibson’s 31.

Another Pistons’ season ending in relative failure. While five straight conference finals is a great feat, in comparison to year’s past and preseason expectations, this group did not perform. One has to feel sorry for Antonio McDyess; though it is only natural to feel some sort of frustration with Chauncey Billups. The leader of the Pistons may have “kept his cool,” but that also meant playing horrible. I can accept him being shut down defensively, but he also had many episodes of poor shot selection, and still seems somewhat arrogant.  Though I cannot remember just where, Smooth was quoted as saying that he believes the Pistons are the better team — they just did not show it.  His comments seemed relatively unconcerned, which was exactly the main problem with these Pistons.  Too often they allowed themselves to have their backs put up against the wall before showing up to play, too often they assumed the opposition would back down to leave open the easy road.  Too often, they did not have enough fire, enough passion, enough concern to win when it mattered.

I tip my hat to the Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James, Daniel Gibson, and the variety of supporting cast.  The Cavs earned their four straight victories in this series and had great opportunities to win the first two games as well.  Regardless of its lack of creativity, the Cavaliers certainly followed through on their “Beat Detroit” promotional campaign for the conference finals.  The Spurs will be their greatest challenge yet…

Game Six: Pistons 82, Cavaliers 98 [NBA.com]

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