AUBURN HILLS, Mich., April 14 (Ticker) -- The Detroit Pistons have their doubters, but there is no doubt that they will be the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

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The Pistons secured home-court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs with an 89-88 win over the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers on rookie Mehmet Okur's free throw with 18 seconds left.

Detroit (50-31) earned the top seed in the East by virtue of its win and New Jersey's home loss to New Orleans. But the Pistons had to endure a series of misses by the Cavaliers on the game's final possession.

"We are obviously very pleased," Detroit coach Rick Carlisle said. "We clinched the East, I guess, with this win and with Jersey losing, so that is a real plus for us. We have one left and then all the fun begins."

After Okur's foul shot gave Detroit the lead, Cleveland's Ricky Davis hit a cutting Darius Miles, who missed a reverse layup with eight seconds left. The rebound went out of bounds off the Pistons.

Davis took the inbounds pass and drew a double-team before finding a wide-open Zydrunas Ilgauskas from 18 feet. Ilgauskas missed his jumper with two seconds left and rookie Smush Parker ran in untouched for a follow slam but mistimed his the attempt as the buzzer sounded.

"I got a shot wide open right there and I took it," Ilgauskas said. "They went to double team Ricky and left me right open. I just missed it."

"I just decided to crash the boards," Parker said. "It came out just right and unfortunately I wasn't able to put it down. It was the perfect situation, perfect bounce, perfect everything. It just didn't happen for us. It sort of explains our season and sort of explains the way I played all year.

Despite their success, the Pistons have not been mentioned among the favorites to reach the NBA Finals out of the East. But Detroit must lose at home along the way if another team is to capture the conference crown.

"We haven't gotten any credit all year but now, we finished as the number one team in the East," guard Chauncey Billups said. "I'm sure everyone still isn't jumping on the bandwagon but we've just got to out and prove it and what better time to do it than the playoffs."

The Pistons have won two in a row. They clinched their second straight Central Division title Sunday with a dramatic 110-107 double-overtime triumph at Memphis.

Reserve Corliss Williamson led the way with 18 points and Richard Hamilton added 16 for Detroit. Clifford Robinson chipped in with 15 points.

Billups had a quiet night with 11 points on 2-of-8 shooting, but Williamson was the key to Detroit enjoying a 37-8 advantage in bench points. Chucky Atkins scored nine points in 14 minutes and Jon Barry and rookie Tayshaun Prince combined for 10.

"This team just is a team," Billups said. "Like I said all along, most locker rooms preach that everybody plays like a team and nobody's selfish and everybody's pulling for one another, but most teams don't mean that. I've been on a lot of teams where guys have said that and it hasn't really been that. It's exactly that in this locker room."

Detroit improved to 2-3 without leading rebounder Ben Wallace. They were outrebounded, 45-28, but made the plays down the stretch, rallying from a five-point deficit with under seven minutes remaining.

A jumper by Davis gave Cleveland an 82-77 lead with 6:54 remaining, but the Cavaliers managed only six points the rest of the way. They had no baskets in the final 4:47 and lost their 21st straight road game, finishing with a 3-38 mark away from home.

Cleveland suffered its third tough loss of the season to Detroit, including two in overtime.

"I think we are shaping up to a nice little rivalry," Cavaliers coach Keith Smart said. "This is the team that we are chasing now. We are on their heels."

Parker's two free throws gave Cleveland an 88-86 lead with 53 seconds to go. But Billups, the hero in Sunday's win, drove the lane and was fouled. Billups tied the game with two foul shots with 39 seconds left.

Ilgauskas missed a baseline jumper for Cleveland and Okur was fouled on a layup attempt. The Turkish rookie converted his second free throw.

Carlisle, last season's NBA Coach of the Year, became the second coach in league history to win 50 games and division titles in his first two seasons. Pat Riley of the Los Angeles Lakers accomplished the feat in the 1981-82 and 1982-83 seasons.

"If you get the job, you're supposed to win," Carlisle said. "That was the plan. I didn't have any numbers in mind but when you're able to do something like that it means you've got terrific players, a great staff and obviously our president, Joe Dumars, deserves the credit for this success."

Davis just missed a triple-double with 25 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds. Ilgauskas finished with 22 points and eight rebounds.

Miles had a rough night from the floor, making 7-of-18 shots for 14 points and eight rebounds. Rookie Carlos Boozer added 13 and eight.

Detroit completed a four-game season series sweep of Cleveland and defeated the Cavaliers for the seventh straight game.