AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Daniel “Boobie” Gibson is no longer just a shooter.
With LeBron James watching the entire game from the bench, Gibson looked extremely impressive attacking the basket and running the offense as the Cavaliers fell 97-79 to the Detroit Pistons in exhibition action Wednesday night at The Palace of Auburn Hills.
“There weren’t a ton of bright spots tonight, but that was one of them,” Cleveland coach Mike Brown said. “He worked his tail off in the offseason trying to figure out how he can get to the hole, because teams close out on him so fast (on 3-pointers). He showed the ability to get by his guy and finish in traffic.”
Gibson, who finished third in the NBA in 3-point percentage last season (.440) and won the Long Distance Shootout over All-Star Weekend, doesn’t want to be a one-dimensional specialist.
Having added six pounds — he’s now 6-foot-2, 200 — and adopted a more aggressive mind-set, he’s attacking the basket and finishing drives much more than he did in his first two years in the league. He’s also running the offense better, though he’ll probably never be a point guard in the truest sense.
“I have a lot more to offer than just making 3s,” Gibson said after finishing with a team-high 16 points, three rebounds, four assists and no turnovers in 22 minutes. “I feel like I can do a lot more on the floor. It’s about that time for me to start doing that.”
Gibson is so committed to attacking the basket that he has passed up a number of perimeter shots in the preseason in order to work on that aspect of his game, which will make his sweet shooting touch that much more lethal.
“That’s been my focus,” the Texas product said. “I’m going to get looks on 3-pointers and I feel like they’re going to go. I want to focus on the paint and getting different looks in the paint.
“Guys are going to try to run me off the (3-point) line, run me off the line. I put my focus in the preseason on, even if I could take a shot, getting into the paint.”
The Cavaliers, who got 14 points from point guard Mo Williams and 12 off the bench from Wally Szczerbiak, managed to keep the game tied at halftime, 40-40, but the Pistons capitalized on a number of Cleveland turnovers and took control with an 11-0 run early in the third period.
James, who was given the night off to help him recuperate from his long summer with the U.S. Olympic team, wasn’t on the floor for pregame warmups, but did sit on the bench in uniform during the game. The plan is for him to play in Cleveland’s preseason finale Friday in Columbus against Washington.
With James out, Brown moved Sasha Pavlovic to small forward and inserted Delonte West at shooting guard alongside Williams.
Williams looked exactly like the player the Cavaliers thought he was in the first half, when he scored all his points. The speedy point guard scored eight points in the early going by making two 3-pointers and a pull-up 15-footer in transition, which came about four seconds after Detroit had scored at the other end.
Williams, who did not attempt a shot in the second half, actually played off the ball quite a bit, with West running the offense. Coupled with Gibson’s improvement, Brown will have a lot of options with his three smallest players, as all have shown the ability to play both guard spots.
Cleveland’s guards did struggle a bit defensively, however, particularly Gibson, who was largely responsible for Rodney Stuckey’s game-high 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting.
The Pistons, who used their core players for almost the entire game, also got 17 points from Tayshaun Prince, who made 7 of 10 shots, and 15 from Richard Hamilton, who was 7-of-11 from the field.
It was another learning experience for Cleveland first-round pick J.J. Hickson. In nine first-half minutes, the 20-year-old picked up four fouls and was 0-of-4 from the field. Worse, none of his shots drew iron — two were blocked inside, a drive banged off the side of the backboard and a baseline jumper hit nothing but air.
To Hickson’s credit, he did bounce back a bit in the third period. After being called for traveling, he ended the quarter by scoring on a reverse drive and dunking a Gibson miss.

Tip-ins

Not a single general manager picked the Cavaliers to win the championship this season in the NBA’s annual survey of GMs. The Los Angeles Lakers were the overwhelming favorite with 46.2 percent of the vote, followed by Boston (19.2), New Orleans (11.5), Houston (7.7) and San Antonio (7.7). Detroit and Orlando also received votes.
The Cavaliers did get 11.1 percent of the vote for Eastern Conference champion, tying them with Detroit for second. Boston got 74.1 percent. Cleveland got 44.4 percent of the vote for Central Division champion, with the Pistons getting the remaining 55.6 percent.
• For the third straight season, James was the preseason choice to earn MVP honors with 55.6 percent of the vote. He has yet to capture the honor. James was also the top choice for the player GMs would want if they were starting a team today (66.7 percent), most athletic player (59.3), best player in the open court (37.0) and best finisher (63.0).
• The Cavaliers received 7.4 percent of the vote (3rd overall) for the team that made the best offseason roster moves, with Philadelphia tops at 51.9 percent.
• Hickson was the top choice when it came to the rookie most likely to be a “sleeper” success with 20 percent of the vote.
• When it came to the coach with the best defensive schemes, Brown got a vote, but placed well behind San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich (65.4 percent), Boston’s Doc Rivers (30.8) and Utah’s Jerry Sloan (7.7).
• The Cavaliers must cut their roster to the league maximum of 15 today. Eric Snow counts in that total, meaning Ronald Dupree and Jawad Williams are battling for the only available spot.
Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net.

Pistons 97, Cavaliers 79

CLEVELAND (79): Pavlovic 2-7 3-4 7, B.Wallace 2-4 0-0 4, Ilgauskas 2-8 0-0 4, M.Williams 4-9 4-4 14, West 4-8 0-0 8, Varejao 0-6 0-0 0, Gibson 6-11 2-2 16, Szczerbiak 5-9 2-2 12, Hickson 2-7 4-4 8, Kinsey 2-4 2-2 6, Wright 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 29-74 17-18 79.
DETROIT (97): Prince 7-10 1-1 17, Johnson 4-6 0-1 8, R.Wallace 2-12 2-2 7, Billups 3-5 0-0 6, Hamilton 7-11 0-0 15, McDyess 4-6 0-0 8, Stuckey 8-12 4-6 20, Maxiell 1-3 2-8 4, Afflalo 1-3 0-0 2, Herrmann 1-2 2-2 5, Samb 1-1 0-0 3, Bynum 0-2 0-0 0, Acker 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 40-74 11-20 97.
Cleveland    21    19    16    23    —    79
Detroit    18    22    28    29    —    97
3-Point Goals—Cleveland 4-10 (M.Williams 2-3, Gibson 2-4, Szczerbiak 0-1, Pavlovic
0-2), Detroit 6-12 (Prince 2-3, Samb 1-1, Herrmann 1-1, Hamilton 1-2, R.Wallace 1-3, Billups 0-2). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—Cleveland 47 (Ilgauskas, B.Wallace, West 5), Detroit 42 (McDyess 7). Assists—Cleveland 18 (M.Williams,
Gibson 4), Detroit 26 (Billups 7).
Total Fouls—Cleveland 22, Detroit 19.
A—17,810 (22,076).

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