– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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DETROIT — Though LeBron has resided out West for more than a half a decade, the Detroit Pistons finally — at least for one night — rid themselves of the near 20-year-long King James Curse on Tuesday evening.
Just 48 hours after pulling a great escape in the first round, the Detroit Pistons got off to a winning start in the Eastern Conference semifinals, forcing 20 turnovers and scoring 31 points off those takeaways in defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers 111-101 inside Little Caesars Arena in Game 1. Cade Cunningham led six Pistons players in double-figure scoring with 23 points and seven assists, while Tobias Harris had 20 points.
Duncan Robinson added 19 points for Detroit, who ended an NBA record-tying 12-game postseason losing streak against a single opponent, a drought that dated to the 2007 Eastern Conference finals and that series’ Game 5 in the Pistons’ old home, the Palace at Auburn Hills, where LeBron James had his legendary game of scoring 29 of the Cavaliers’ final 30 points that, for all intents and purposes, put an end to the Motor City’s mini dynasty led by Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton, Ben Wallace and head coach Larry Brown.
Like those champion Pistons teams, this iteration used defense and its physicality to wear down the Cavaliers, forcing James Harden into seven of Cleveland’s 20 giveaways. (Those seven turnovers were one more than the number of field goals for Harden, six.) Detroit also shot 35 free throws, compared to 16 for Cleveland.
“That’s what our physicality does to people,” said Pistons coach JB Bickerstaff. “The aim is to wear you down as much as we possibly can.”
It looked as if the Pistons were wearing down late when Cleveland went on an 11-0 run to tie the game at 93-93 with 5:28 remaining. But Detroit took the lead for good when it answered with a 6-0 run, all on dunks by Jalen Duren — six of his 11 points.
Donovan Mitchell scored 23 points for the Cavaliers, ending his NBA-record streak of scoring 30-plus points in nine straight series openers.
“You look within first,” Harden said. “Look at my turnovers and a lot of them are just on me and nothing they did.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Tuesday evening’s Game 1, with photos taken by ALOST photo editor Aaron J. Thornton. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 22 pictures in total.
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