Jerry Stackhouse scored 29 points and Cliff Robinson broke out of a prolonged scoring slump with 22 as the Detroit Pistons posted a 101-91 triumph over the Cavaliers.
Stackhouse scored 22 points in the second half as Detroit broke open the contest with a big third quarter and sealed just its second win in 11 games by making all the plays down the stretch.
The Pistons were able to get straight against a Cavaliers squad that was coming off its 10th straight loss to Toronto on Friday. Cleveland is just 2-9 this season in the tail end of back-to-backs and has dropped five of its last six meetings with Detroit.
| from Cavs-Pistons: 56k | 300k  Jerry Stackhouse's 29 points led the Pistons over the Cavs. |
"We're having a tough month," Cavaliers coach John Lucas said. "Right now, we can't beat the teams that are over .500. We beat Detroit earlier at our place and we were in a position to beat them tonight. ... They beat us on the boards and they got a lot of second-shot opportunities off rebounds."
Zydrunas Ilgauskas led Cleveland with 20 points and Lamond Murray added 18. The health of the 7-3 Ilgauskas has been one of few bright spots for the Cavaliers of late.
"I feel pretty good," Ilgauskas said. "They've been increasing my minutes. I've been practicing with the team since training camp so I'm in pretty good shape."
While Ilgauskas has been rounding into form, point guard Andre Miller seems to have hit a wall. He was just 2-of-11 from the field and had five turnovers.
"When I'm not playing well, you have to sit me down and put somebody else in to pick up the slack," Miller said. "I was a little bit too impatient tonight. I didn't let the game come to me. I kind of forced the issue a little bit."
Detroit held a 51-39 edge on the boards as Ben Wallace grabbed 14 rebounds and Corliss Williamson a season-high 11.
"We doing a better job on the boards now," Cavaliers coach Randy Carisle said. "Maybe it's Corliss' presence. I'm sure it has something to do with it. He had 11 rebounds in 24 minutes but when he's in there, even if he doesn't get the rebounds, somebody has to put a body on him."
Detroit led 44-42 at the half and the lead was just 62-59 midway through the third quarter. But Williamson sank a seven-footer to ignite a 13-6 run to end the period.
The Pistons pushed their lead to 80-69 following a free throw by rookie Zeljko Rebraca with 9:48 left. But a jumper by Ilgauskas sparked a 13-4 burst that got the Cavaliers within a basket with 6:37 remaining.
That is when Stackhouse took over, scoring on a 16-foot jumper, blocking Ilgauskas' shot, drawing a foul and hitting both free throws for a 90-82 cushion. Chucky Atkins delivered the knockout blow with a long 3-pointer with 4:17 left that extended the lead to 11.
Cleveland never got closer than seven points down the stretch and trailed by as many as 14 in the final moments.
"A lot of teams don't do well in the second game of back-to-backs, especially on the road," Ilgauskas said. "It's a tough spot but we can't look for excuses. We have to try and win every game we can. Today we just weren't able to pull it out."
"A lot of teams struggle in that situation," Miller added. "We gave ourselves a chance to win tonight. We just didn't play well enough during some stretches."
Cliff Robinson, who made 8-of-14 shots and grabbed nine rebounds, had not scored more than 20 points since he had 30 against Orlando on November 26 -- the Pistons' 13th game of the season.
The win kept the Pistons from falling below .500 for the first time since dropping their season opener to Dallas.
"We just needed to come out and execute," Robinson said. "We did a good job of that tonight. In this league, when you fall below .500, it's hard to make it back. We knew we were too good a team to let that happen. It's a long season. When you're losing, you just have to be patient and get back on track."
"It doesn't matter whether we're home or on the road right now," Wallace said. "We're just going out and trying to get a win. We were right at .500 and we didn't want to get under it. Then it's hard to get back on top."