CLEVELAND — Those weren’t the Denver Nuggets the Detroit Pistons were facing Wednesday night at Quicken Loans Arena.
The Cavaliers laid down a little bit of defense — no, make that a lot of defense — en route to an 89-73 victory over their Central Division rivals, who had torched the Nuggets for 136 points the previous night.
It wasn’t always pretty and there weren’t a lot of sensational offensive highlights, but it was exactly the kind of game Cleveland coach Mike Brown likes.
It was also the kind of rugged, slow-down game that occurs so often in the playoffs, when teams know each others’ plays inside and out.
Make no mistake, these teams know one another extremely well, as Detroit beat Cleveland in the Eastern Conference semifinals in 2006 and the Cavaliers eliminated the Pistons in the conference finals in 2007.
“It’s not a statement game,” said LeBron James, who led the Cavaliers with 30 points, seven rebounds and six assists. “It’s just another regular-season game.
“For us, we just want to continue to get better. We took more than one step forward tonight. We took five steps.”
In addition to James, the Cavaliers (39-30) got 20 points and eight boards from Zydrunas Ilgauskas and 10 points off the bench from Wally Szczerbiak while winning their eighth straight game at The Q.
Rasheed Wallace led the Pistons (49-19) with 16 points, but he was just 6-of-17 from the field as Detroit shot .397 from the floor (31-of-78).
The Pistons, who scored just 48 points over the final three periods, saw All-Star guards Richard Hamilton and Chauncey Billups combine for only seven points after the first quarter.
“Individually, everybody was in tune to guard their own man first and rely on help second,” James said. “We just locked down defensively. Everybody was on a string.”
Detroit, which attempted just seven free throws all night, led 51-50 midway through the third period, but the Cavaliers went on a 22-8 run to take a 13-point lead with 8½ minutes left in the game.
The Pistons, who had quarter scoring totals of 13, 19 and 16 points for the last three periods, never recovered.
“Tonight, we put together a complete game at the defensive end of the floor,” Brown said.
Detroit led 25-22 after the first period, which consisted mostly of the teams trading jump shots, but managed just 13 points in a brutal second quarter that looked very much like playoff basketball.
The Cavaliers weren’t a whole lot better from an offensive standpoint, but managed to close the first half on a 9-0 run to take a 45-38 lead at intermission.
The Pistons came right back and took a one-point lead midway through the third quarter, but the Cavaliers regrouped behind the offensive play of James and Ilgauskas and great defense from everyone wearing the home white uniform.
Playing against his former team, Ben Wallace had just two points for Cleveland, but helped shut down Rasheed Wallace while also recording eight rebounds, four assists and two blocks.
Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net. 

NEXT UP

WHO: Cleveland vs. Toronto
WHEN: Friday, 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: The Q
TV/RADIO: FSN Ohio; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM

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