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Sunday, May 21, 2006 at The Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, MI

Round Two, Game Seven: Detroit Pistons 79, Cleveland Cavaliers 61

Boxscore | Recap | More Photos | Video
Tayshaun Prince scored seven of his 20 points in a third-quarter run to help capture a 79-61 home victory over Cleveland on Sunday. Rip Hamilton added 15. Detroit hosts Miami in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Tuesday (8 p.m. on ESPN). Tickets for Games 1 and Game 2 at The Palace are on sale now.
Game Seven Leaders
Points:(DET) Tayshaun Prince, 20
(CLE) LeBron James, 27
Rebounds:(DET) Ben Wallace, 9
(CLE) LeBron James, 8
Assists:(DET) Two Players Tied, 3
(CLE) Larry Hughes, 5
Blocks:(DET) Ben Wallace, 3
(CLE) Zydrunas Ilgauskas, 1
POSTGAME QUOTES
PISTONS.COM
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Tayshaun Prince
Points: 20
FGM-A: 7-16
Rebounds: 7
Assists: 3
Blocks: 1
Minutes: 47
Pistons Head Coach Flip Saunders

On tonight’s game:
“In pressure situations you always do what you do best and for us it’s defend. As I’ve said the whole series, I thought we’ve been excellent defensively. Our offense has been stagnant at times. Sometimes its tough to play both ends at a high level in a high intensity situation, but tonight we locked down.”

On Lindsey Hunter:
Lindsey just energized us, energized the arena…. He was huge in the first game we won here against Cleveland and he was huge tonight.”

On LeBron James:
(We) tried to challenge him more to shoot perimeter instead of giving him lanes to the basket. He was getting too aggressive to the basket. We protected more of the paint and I think the adjustment helped us - he just couldn’t get into a comfort zone.”

Pistons Guard Chauncey Billups

On what triggered the Game 7 win:
“Our defense. ‘Bron (LeBron James) was kind of having his way a little bit that first half; he had it going. We made a couple of adjustments at half time. We shut everything down. It was our defense.”

On the Game 7 win:
“It’s just will. Anytime you get to a Game 7, it’s just will. You’re not going to trick them with anything that you do and they’re not going to trick us with any plays. We know them inside out. I know what those dudes had for breakfast. You’re not going to trick them so it’s going to come down to will.”

On Lindsey Hunter’s play:
“Linds (Lindsey Hunter) was huge. He’s been chomping at the bit so many times during this season. He’s had some big, big nights for us and his energy is everything for us - obviously not just in the third quarter but also in the first half, playing LeBron defensively. We love it when Linds comes in and gives you so much.”

On winning Game 7:
“It’s always a relief to win it. Game 7 brings a lot of pressure. Like I always said, for us, pressure is not that big of a deal. We don’t put any added pressure on ourselves; we just go out and play. If we win, we win. If not, then we go home, but we go home knowing that we gave all we had.”

On the series going seven games:
“That’s us. You all know my saying, ‘If it ain’t rough, it ain’t right.’ That’s what we always, for whatever reason, subject ourselves to.”

Pistons Guard Lindsey Hunter

On the difference between Dwayne Wade and LeBron James:
“D-Wade’s (Dwayne Wade) not as big as LeBron, but they do a lot of the same things. They both bring the ball up and handle the ball a lot. The difference is D-Wade has Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal) behind him. It’s a little tougher because he’s got another guy that can dominate the game. We’ll do what we have to do.”

Pistons Center Ben Wallace

On the game:
“When we’re out there playing hard on the defensive end, making guys take tough shots, it’s tough to score on teams when you take away a team’s first and second options. That’s what we’ve got to do.”

On Tayshaun Prince’s game:
“Tayshaun was big for us. Tayshaun came out with a lot of energy on both ends of the floor. Knowing he was going to have to guard LeBron, we definitely wanted to make him work on the defensive end of the floor and Tayshaun did a great job of guarding him on one end and going after him on another end for him to play some defense.”

On the difference between LeBron James and Dwayne Wade:
“His skills are similar to LeBron, but he’s going to be the second option. LeBron didn’t have Shaq on the block, taking up space in the paint. It’s going to be a little bit tougher. We’re going to ask guys to come out with a lot of energy and play hard. We’re just going to do what we do.”

Pistons Forward Tayshaun Prince

On playing 48 minutes:
“I felt great and I didn’t feel like coming out. I knew the position we were in and we didn’t want to let it slip away once again. I just thought I needed to be out there and make plays.”

On Lindsey Hunter:
“Points were hard to come by throughout the whole game…. We were saying, once somebody off the bench could come in and get some extended amount of time - that they would be able to come through for us. Obviously, Lindsey, with his experience and having been in this position before, we knew he had that capability.”

On LeBron James:
“We just tried to keep him out of the paint as much as we possibly could the second half, tried to make him take some jump shots.”

Cavaliers Head Coach Mike Brown

“The first thing I want to do is give the Pistons credit. That’s a good basketball team, a good coach, a veteran group that’s been there and done that. They know how to play the game the right way. They played a great series. I’m not satisfied. This hurts me and it hurts everybody in that locker room. The one thing I told our guys is that I’m not satisfied and I hope they’re not satisfied. Looking into their eyes, feeling that locker room, I don’t feel like any of us were satisfied. The one thing I can say for sure is that I’m proud of every guy in that locker room.”

On the game:
“I thought our effort was there, I thought our focus was there. Detroit showed why they are champions and they were able to turn it up a notch. We just couldn’t get it done. But I’m proud of every single one of those guys in a Cavs uniform.”

On the Pistons ‘defense:
“It was great. Like I said, they turned it up a notch and we have to give them credit - great team defense on LeBron (James). LeBron logged a lot of minutes and he just ran out of gas. I thought there was a period throughout the course of the game where we had some decent looks, but they just didn’t go in. I’ve got to give the Pistons credit.”

On the crowd:
“When you have a crowd like they have, the energy they receive from the crowd helps out.”

On the Cavaliers’ improved defense:
“We got better as the season went along defensively. … That first series against Washington was up and down and was a high scoring series, and we were able to play that way. I truly believe that if you’re going to be a good basketball team - when you play the Phoenix Suns, when you play the Washington Wizards - there are going to be nights when you have to score.”

Cavaliers Forward LeBron James

On the Pistons’ defense in the second half:
“They doubled me as soon as I got the ball if I was in the half court or if I was in the full court, so me being the player I am, me being the person I am, I had to give the ball up and rely on my teammates. They did a great job of trying to stick to the game plan.”

On taking positives from this series:
“You can take positives from anything. Even if it doesn’t look that good, you’ve got to take a positive from it. You’ve got to keep your head up. We did a wonderful job in this series and the playoffs, so we have no reason to hang our heads about anything.”

On his emotions when walking off the court:
“I don’t know. I was disappointed that we lost of course. We were right there, we had a chance to win the series at home, but things happen. This is a great team; you’ve got to give much credit to the Pistons. They worked hard all year for home court, they took care of business the other night in Cleveland and it paid off for them tonight.”

Cavaliers Guard Damon Jones

On the disappointment and if there is any satisfaction to take from it:
“There’s never satisfaction when we lose, especially when you had opportunities to advance. We didn’t take advantage of those situations and when you’re facing a team like the Pistons that has championship experience you only get so many chances. We didn’t take advantage of them. So you have to take your hat off to those guys, they played well, took care of home court in Game 7. It’s very disappointing.”

On Pistons’ third quarter run:
“The crowd got into the game and we had really done a great job at that point in the last four or five games closing quarters out in the right way, and then they went on a run there and got some offensive rebounds and made some big shots. From that point on the crowd got into it and the momentum shifted in their favor.”

On what the Cavaliers could have done different:
“I think that everyone went out and played hard and we tried to stay on the game plan as close as possible. But I just think the Pistons came out and played really well.”