http://www.nba.com/pistons/news/DETCLE_ ... recap.htmlTAKE FIVE : A five-point dissection of an ominous road trip start 1. Cavs’ lead runneth over – The Pistons hit the road Sunday – and were promptly run over. The Cavs went on 20-5 run in the first quarter and scored another 12 unanswered in the second to amass a 24-point lead just 15 minutes into the game. Rasheed Wallace picked up two personal fouls in the first six minutes, and it was downhill from there. Looking disrupted and lacking direction, Detroit’s deficit exceeded 30 points. They were nearly doubled up at halftime, 67-34. “I didn’t anticipate starting the trip off like that. Disappointed,” said Pistons coach Michael Curry, referring to the five-game road trip that is just underway. “We just talked about having trust out on the court, helping each other out on the court, defensively, offensively. We were out on the court playing like either we don’t like each other, or are we strangers? That was disappointing.” The Cavs didn’t even need a superlative effort from LeBron James, who scored a season-high 55 Friday at Milwaukee. James registered 20 points on 6-of-13 shooting and 8-of-10 at the foul line. Far more damaging were his game-high nine assists to teammates like Delonte West, who scored a game-high 25, and Wally Szczerbiak, who added 15 off the bench. Allen Iverson had 14 to lead the Pistons. Walter Herrman added 13 points – his first double-digit effort since November – while Rip Hamilton and Jason Maxiell each had 11 off the bench. The Pistons shot 37.2 percent from the field. “We just weren’t good. We stunk the gym up,” Iverson said. “We usually play together on the road, and we just acted like strangers out there tonight. We didn’t get it done.”
TEAM COLORS 2. White Hot – Scoring 25 points in your first game in two months is a nice story. But Cavs starting guard Delonte West took it to another level, notching 20 points by halftime. “Delonte was injured?” joked James. “He played like he was never out. He didn’t miss a beat. That just shows the chemistry of our team: how a guy can just automatically implement himself into the lineup after being out for awhile.” West, who missed 16 games with a wrist fracture suffered Jan. 2, sparked the Cavs with three 3-pointers in the opening six minutes. His layup at the end of the first quarter gave him 13 points. The Pistons had 17 points as a team. “I just happened to be the open man,” West said. “We really exploited the defensive zone they were trying to play and we just moved the ball well.” West scored 20 points on just six field goals in the first half. He was 4-for-4 on 3-pointers and 4-for-4 at the foul line, outperforming Detroit in both areas. The Pistons were 1-for-4 behind the line and 3-for-4 on free throws. 3. BLUE COLLAR – For the second straight game, Jason Maxiell just missed a double-double, scoring 11 points to go with a team-high nine rebounds, three coming on the offensive glass. Maxiell has 20 points and 18 rebounds over the last two games. He totaled 13 points and eight rebounds in the seven February games prior. Maxiell, a 52.5-percent free-throw shooter, was 5-for-7 at the foul line Sunday. The rest of the Pistons accounted for just 4-of-6.
4. RED FLAG – The Cavs scored 12 points on the Pistons’ first six turnovers, and with top-flight finishers like James and Mo Williams, most them came quickly. The Cavs had 15 points on the fast break before the Pistons registered in the category. Rodney Stuckey committed the first two turnovers in a 68-second span, leading to five points. Williams got the first steal and assisted on a James dunk. Then James stepped in front of a pass and drew a Stuckey foul after the layup. The sequence capped 15 unanswered points, turning the Pistons’ 9-8 deficit into 24-8. It was off to the races. THE LAST CALL : A little perspective on the end of divisional dominance 5. Goal: Contain Cleveland – The Pistons own nine modern-day Central Division titles, including six of the last seven. They have two more than any other franchise, with Milwaukee’s seven next in line. But it’s clear that the Cavaliers, now holding a 16-game lead on second-place Detroit with 28 to play, will claim the 2009 Central crown, their first since 1976. When the Bad Boys gave Detroit its first three-year divisional reign, Michael Jordan and the Bulls finished runner-up twice. It took arguably the game’s greatest player seven years to win his first Central Division title in 1991. The Bulls’ breakthrough against the Pistons was absolute and sustained; Chicago won six of the next eight Central (and NBA) titles with Jordan in the lineup. Now in his sixth NBA season, LeBron James is on the brink of a similar breakthrough. And as Sunday night illustrated, it will be as swift and certain as Jordan’s was two decades earlier. The challenge facing the Pistons is to make sure 2009 is the Cavs’ year – not the beginning of the Cavs’ era, the way the 1990s were for the Bulls. Joe Dumars – who knows better than anyone how the decline of the Bad Boys prevented the Pistons from challenging Jordan again – certainly doesn’t like to see the Pistons relegated to the rest of the pack. But it may be the price paid to ensure King James’ Central reign is one and done.
