That’s more like it.

You had to have a good feeling about this one right from the outset. The Pistons caught the Cavs off guard to start the game getting run out transition buckets. It wasn’t the lathargic jump shooting team that played the Cavs back on the 19th. This time it was Detroit getting to the hustle plays and beating Cleveland on the boards (43-37).

Rip Hamilton was still nursing a sore hip, but this is a game he wanted to play in. Rip led the Piston scoring with 14, but more important were his contributions to defending LeBron James.

Rip and co. held Cleveland’s King to a season low 13 points on 4/17 shooting. That’s a good 17+ points below James’ season average. This loss probably shut the door on LeBron’s candidacy for league MVP as the Cavs can no longer have a 50 win season. Without looking it up I can’t remember a player in recent memory winning the MVP when his team is sub-50 wins.

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Antonio McDyess recorded a 12 point, 10 rebound double-double, 7 of those boards came in the first quarter alone.

Chauncey Billups scored 13 and it seemed like they were all on Damon Jones. I don’t think there’s a player more ill-equipped to handle Mr. Big Shot defensively than Damon Jones. DJ just needs to stick to being LeBron’s personal cheerleader and leave the game stuff to everyone else.

I don’t think this was a statement game any more than the Cavs win over us in Cleveland. The Cavs are battling through a host of injuries and still trying to find out what the net gain of their big trade is. So, no, I wouldn’t say we sent any kind of message but it’ll give Cleveland something to think about.

NOTES: The Pistons honored the Jack McCloskey, the architect of the Bad Boys teams, at half time by raising his name on a banner to the Palace rafters…Pistons announcer, and living legend George Blaha emceed the banner raising ceremony, it was also Blaha’s 63rd birthday….The Pistons finally own a regular season win over Ben Wallace this year, Ben left the game in the third quarter with back spasms….Box score