Pistons 96, Cavaliers 89

TAKE FIVE
A five-point dissection of the Pistons’ exhilarating comeback win

1. - One of Joe Dumars’ underlying reasons for making the trade for Allen Iverson was to make the Pistons less predictable and harder to defend in the muck and mire of playoff basketball. Nobody epitomizes that hand-to-hand style of combat more than the Cleveland Cavaliers.

For two quarters of their first meeting since the cataclysmic deal that swapped out Chauncey Billups for Iverson, not much looked different. The Pistons struggled to find any spark offensively, grinding their way to 38 first-half points and trailing by as many as 13 in both the second and third quarters.

But the light came on a few minutes after halftime and the Pistons morphed into the team Iverson left behind, the Denver Nuggets – offensively, at least – scoring 58 points in the second half and outscoring Cleveland by 26 over a 20-minute stretch to lock up their first Palace win with Iverson, 96-89 over the Cavs on Wednesday night.

Iverson scored 23 points and Rasheed Wallace added 21 – including 10 in the fourth quarter – but equally uplifting was the play of second-year guards Rodney Stuckey and Arron Afflalo down the stretch.

So effective was the fourth-quarter unit of Wallace, Iverson, Stuckey, Afflalo and Jason Maxiell that Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince virtually took the quarter off. Afflalo scored five points and effectively shackled LeBron James, who finished with 25 points but shot 1 for 6 in the fourth quarter. Stuckey scored seven of his nine points in the fourth quarter, when he also picked up two assists.

“I have confidence in those guys just as well as I have in Rip and Tay,” said Iverson, who was 3 for 3 in the fourth quarter, scoring seven points and dishing off two of his four assists.

“Rodney is a good basketball player. He can make so many things happen, penetrating the ball to the basket. You’ve got to stay honest on him. It’s just as easy as it is having (Prince and Hamilton) out there. It spreads the court out. You’ve got more than one guy who can penetrate the ball. Once he puts pressure on the defense, it makes it easy for everybody else. He obviously made it easier for me in the fourth quarter by just penetrating and kicking and my man would have to recover from me and I could run right by him.”

“I thought I was going to bring Rip back in after about three minutes (of the fourth quarter) for Allen, give Allen about three minutes rest, then let him finish the last six minutes of the game,” Michael Curry said. “I was giving Tayshaun a break, let Arron hold down the fort for a little bit. But that group got rolling, Stuckey did a tremendous job in pick and roll. When he didn’t have it, he was able to hit Rasheed up top for a couple of shots and swing it over to the weak side and let Allen attack.”

Hamilton and Prince both wound up playing just 33 minutes, which they should appreciate Thursday night in Boston when they’re chasing Ray Allen and Paul Pierce around for 40 minutes – unless Stuckey and Afflalo convince Curry to let them ride out another fourth-quarter wave.

TEAM COLORS
The story of the game in Pistons red, white and blue

2. - Wallace started out that way. And he ended that way. He had three baskets – a 9-footer in the lane, a deep 2-pointer from the left wing, an 18-footer from the right baseline – in the first three minutes of the game as the Pistons took a 6-0 lead. By halftime, those still were his only three baskets

The Pistons didn’t go to him much after that – even though he found himself with mismatches on guards on a few occasions – but when they rediscovered him on back-to-back possessions midway through the fourth quarter, he drained consecutive 3-point bombs to break a 76-all tie and give the Pistons the six-point lead that matched their biggest of the night. The one Wallace gave them with those first three baskets.

Wallace finished with not just the 21 points but 15 big rebounds, as well, in 42 minutes. Six of his boards came in the fourth quarter, when he knocked down all three of his shots and both of his free throws.

“It’s just simple basketball,” he said. “They can’t stop the outside shot – no matter if it’s myself, Rip, Stuck or Arron – they can’t stop the penetration and the shot from out top.”

“For the whole night, Rasheed was really big,” Curry said. “Rasheed has really been rebounding the basketball for us and we’re going to need that.”

3. BLUE COLLAR - Arron Afflalo didn’t take off his warmups until 1:54 remained in the third quarter – and then he never went back to the bench.

He guarded James for the final nine minutes, forcing him into tough shots – contesting his jump shots or forcing him to spin away from the basket on drives instead of allowing him to continue to the rim.

He also hit two big jumpers – his 3-pointer late in the third tied the game at 66 after Cleveland had led since midway through the first – but it was his affect on the defensive intensity that was most notable.

“Just that energy he brings to us,” Iverson said. “Obviously, he can shoot the basketball, but he added a whole ’nother dimension to our team as far as playing with a lot of heart and a lot of guts and just scrapping for everything.”

4. RED FLAG - Not much to quibble with on a night the Pistons knock off the NBA’s hottest team – the Cavs came in with an eight-game win streak – five nights after knocking off the NBA’s hottest team of that moment, snapping the Lakers’ seven-game win streak.

But it’s a little ominous that Wallace, at 34, had to play 42 minutes and now has to match up against Boston’s Kevin Garnett – who got to sit out the Celtics’ win against New York on Tuesday while serving his one-game suspension.

THE LAST CALL
A little perspective on a big win over their Central Division rival

5. ALMOST THERE - Michael Curry knew the first 12 games of the schedule were going to present major challenges to his team – and that was before the trade that changed his offense and disrupted his frontcourt rotation.

That 12-game stretch ends Thursday night – and in fitting fashion, with a road game to end a back-to-back at defending NBA champion Boston.

Remember, the Pistons were already undergoing an offensive transformation, one that spread the ballhandling and decision-making more evenly, even before they traded Chauncey Billups. Adding Iverson to the mix took it from a significant change to a radical one.

And losing Antonio McDyess has had ripple effects, as Curry has frequently noted, influencing not only the frontcourt pairings but also the combinations Curry can use among his perimeter players now that he’s missing McDyess’ shooting range.

But if the worst happens at Boston, the Pistons will take an 8-4 record back to The Palace, where they’ll have a welcome few days off before opening a four-game home stand that will keep them in their own beds for more than a week.

All in all, that’s a wildly successful start to a stretch that could have treated the Pistons very harshly.