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Ben Wallace dunks home two of his six points in Detroit. D. Lippett NBAE/Getty Images

The Pistons jumped all over the Cavaliers on Saturday night, scoring the first six points of the game and continuing their onslaught from there – handing the Wine and Gold their sixth straight road loss – an 85-81 thumping that was nowhere near as close as the score would indicate.

“There were times that we attacked and we tried to attack and counter-punch, but you can’t do it in spurts against a team like Detroit,” said Coach Brown. “They are a very good ballclub that you, from the opening tip, have to make sure you are punching along with them, or the result will be the same as tonight.”

If you took Ben Wallace (3-for-3) and Joe Smith (4-for-4) out of the equation, the Cavaliers shot an anemic 20-for-67 (29 percent) from the floor. Detroit’s 13-point fourth quarter was the only thing that kept the Pistons’ two-touchdown victory at The Palace from being more embarrassing.

The good news for Cleveland is that, combined with New Jersey’s loss to the Suns, the Cavaliers have clinched a postseason berth for the third consecutive season. The bad news is that with the loss to Detroit, they won’t go into the playoffs with 50 wins under their belt.

LeBron James had his streak of 49 games scoring at least 20 points snapped on Saturday as he was held – sometimes literally – by Rip Hamilton to 4-for-17 shooting, going 1-of-5 from beyond the arc and 4-of-6 from the line for a team-high 13 points.

James was bottled up from the opening tap and his frustrations reached a boiling point late in the second period when both he and Coach Brown received technical fouls for a non-call on Rasheed Wallace against LeBron.

LeBron added five dimes and four rebounds, but was also forced into five turnovers. Along with Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao, the young King was pulled with 7:49 remaining in regulation and the Cavaliers down by 24.

“They dominated us defensively, didn’t let us get into our sets,” said James. “They kept us under duress and we never got into our groove the whole game.”

Ilgauskas was the only other starter in double-figures for Cleveland, netting 11 points and five boards on just 5-for-16 shooting. Devin Brown pitched in with 11 points off the bench and Joe Smith rounded out the double-digit scoring with 10 points, going four shots from the floor without a miss.

“They came out to show something because they had been struggling a little bit the last couple of games and now they have everyone back,” said Smith. “They came out tonight and made a statement and we weren’t able to answer.”

Overall, the Cavaliers shot just 35 percent from the floor, 20 percent from long-distance and 71 percent from the stripe. Detroit out-rebounded Cleveland, 43-37 and blocked 10 shots to the Cavaliers’ four.

And in another case of unfortunate timing for the Wine and Gold, they got Daniel Gibson back for the first time in six weeks only to lose Ben Wallace, who re-injured his back on a third-quarter alley-oop from Z and had to be helped from the floor on Detroit’s ensuing possession.

At the time of Wallace’s injury, he was a perfect 3-for-3 from the floor against his old squad for six points and five rebounds. Gibson, in just 18 minutes of action, was 0-for-2 from the floor.

The Pistons didn’t exactly set the nets ablaze and were led by Rip Hamilton’s 14 points. Chauncey Billups and Jason Maxiell followed up with 13 points apiece and Tayshaun Prince and Antonio McDyess finished with a dozen points each.

The Cavaliers face the Pistons once more this season – in the campaign’s final game – and will look to get the season split at that point. On the immediate docket, the Wine and Gold will look to snap their three-game skid on Sunday night when they play the second game of the back-to-back against the red-hot Sixers at The Q.