USA - Pistons shut down James to win game one

DETROIT (NBA) - Team USA star LeBron James had a rough night at the office as he was all but shutdown by the Detroit Pistons in a 79-76 defeat for the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game One of the Eastern Conference finals.

James was coming off a virtuoso performance in Friday's 88-72 win over the New Jersey Nets - having collected 23 points, eight rebounds and eight assists to help secure Cleveland's ticket to the Conference finals.

But on Monday night, with a trip to the NBA finals up for grabs, James was sluggish as he was held to a career play-off low of 10 points on five of 15 shooting. He did not attempt a free throw.

"It was definitely a physical game tonight," James said afterwards. 

"You know, fouls were called at times and weren't called at times. This is what it's all about. You can't look to get fouls and you've got to try to be as aggressive as possible."

Despite James's struggles, the Cavaliers still had chances to win the game in the final minutes.

Trailing by two points with 36 seconds left, James posted up Pistons defensive specialist Tayshaun Prince on the left block and seemingly waited for a double-team before kicking to Lithuania international Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who front-rimmed a jumper.

Larry Hughes flew across the lane, anticipating the miss to snatch the offensive rebound, and called a timeout.

After the break, James took the ball to the basket - looking like he had a clear path to the basket - but instead whipped a pass to Donyell Marshall, who bricked a three-pointer from the right corner.

"Nothing to it, I missed. It was a great shot," Marshall said. "I was just telling Eric (Snow) that probably felt better than any (three-pointers) that I hit in New Jersey but that's the way the game goes sometimes. You're going to miss those."

Pistons guard Chauncey Billups then was fouled in pursuit of the long rebound and split a pair of free throws with 2.8 seconds left. 

Cleveland's Brazilian forward Anderson Varejao misfired on a desperation heave from beyond half-court as time expired.

Richard Hamilton scored 24 points and Rasheed Wallace added 15 and 12 rebounds for the tough-minded Pistons. Billups finished with 13 points and five assists.

"It was a bad game but it was a good win," Billups said.

"It was about as ugly a game as I've seen us play in a long, long time.  You come away with a win and that's great."

Hamilton was 11 of 21, Wallace shot seven of 13 and Billups four of six, including two of four on three-pointers, for the Pistons.

But Billups also committed seven turnovers and Prince was one of 11 from the field, making the squad look out of sync.

"Chauncey is the least of my worries," Wallace said of his team-mates struggles defensively.

"He had some turnovers, but he came through in the stretch when we needed.  That's what he does.  This was a rare game with the turnovers, but he'll be better in Game Two."

Detroit shot just 43% (31 of 72) from the field, including five of 14 from the arc, but escaped with the win.

Ilgauskas had 22 points and 11 rebounds and Hughes and Varejao netted 13 points apiece for the Cavaliers, who shot a miserable 37% (32 of 86) from the field, including one of 10 on three-pointers.

"It is just one game and it is a long series," Ilgauskas said. "Everybody realises that and this game is just a mirror of what I think is going to come here or in Cleveland. 

"It is great for the fans and these teams know each other really well, and we match up well and it will be an interesting series."

Despite the outcome, James thinks his team can take some positives from the loss.

"We definitely played pretty well," James said.  "Both teams are going to make adjustments, you just do that in the play-offs.

"But as a whole we played pretty well. You can't ask for nothing more than what we did tonight.

"We always want to win the ballgame, but we always say if we play as hard as we did tonight for 48 minutes, like we did, we're not satisfied but we can look back and say, 'OK, we're OK with this loss tonight.'"

FIBA