Written by Rich Swerbinsky

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Another year, another heartache for Cleveland fans. The Pistons took a tight game, and blew it wide open from the three minute mark of the third period on, going on to defeat the Cavs 79-61 in game seven of the teams second round series. Swerb unleashes his thoughts just minutes after the final buzzer sounded. So close, but yet so far.  

The Detroit Pistons ended the Cavs season Sunday afternoon, defeating the good guys 79-61 in game seven of the teams second round playoff series.  The Cavs had the defending Eastern Conference champs on the ropes, winning games 3, 4, and 5 to take a 3-2 series lead, then proceeding to drop games 6 and 7 against the heavily favored Pistons.

Game seven was very tight until the three minute mark of the third period.  The Pistons ended the third period with a 10-2 run that pushed their lead from 48-46 to 58-48, blocking five shots and creating nine turnovers in the period, and they never looked back from there.  The Cavs were held to 23 second half points, and LeBron James got just 6 of his game high 27 points in the second half.  The Cavs as a team shot just 5 of 23 from the floor in the second half.

LeBron finished with 8 rebounds and 2 assists to go with his 27 points on 11-24 shooting.  Amazingly, the rest of the Cavaliers shot just 9-41 from the floor.  Donyell Marshall, Damon Jones, and Drew Gooden combined to shoot 0-14 from the field, and the starting backcourt of Eric Snow and Flip Murray shot a combined 2-9.

Tayshaun Prince had 20 points and 7 rebounds to lead the Pistons, and was aided by 13 and 8 from Rasheed Wallace.  Lindsey Hunter was also very instrumental in the Pistons late third period surge, playing excellent defense on James, and scoring 7 points, all at crucial junctures of the game.

The loss ends a very successful season for the Cavs, which exceeded fan and organization expectations.  Under rookie coach Mike Brown, the team won 50 games and advanced to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in thirteen years, taking the prohibitive favorites to win the NBA Championship to the brink in a grueling seven game series.