Cleveland gets back into series thanks to James

May 28, 2007, 3:25 GMT

Cleveland, OH - LeBron James poured in 32 points -- 12 in the crucial fourth quarter -- grabbed nine rebounds and tallied nine assists to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to an 88-82 win over the Detroit Pistons in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

'It's all or nothing at this point,' said James. 'For me, it was the biggest game of my career.'

Zydrunas Ilgauskas added 16 points and seven boards for the Cavs, who will try to even the series at two games apiece in Tuesday's Game 4. Sasha Pavlovic scored 13 and Drew Gooden added 12 points for Cleveland.

Rasheed Wallace led the Pistons with 16 points, and Chris Webber scored 15 points and pulled down seven rebounds for Detroit. Chauncey Billups and Tayshaun Prince added 13 points each for the Pistons.

'I thought the difference was they made big shots down the stretch. LeBron made a couple unbelievable shots,' said Pistons head coach Flip Saunders.

Billups drilled a three to pull the Pistons to within 79-76 with 3:34 left, but Ilgauskas answered with a jumper and James drilled a trey to hand the Cavs their largest lead of the game, 84-76, with 2:33 left. Detroit clamped down on defense, though, and scored six straight, four by Billups, who drained an off- balance jumper to cut the deficit to 84-82 with 37.5 seconds left.

James answered, though, sinking a pull-up jumper over Hamilton to put Cleveland up 86-82 with 16.3 ticks left. Prince clanged a three-point shot off the rim, and Gooden pulled down the rebound and sank two free throws with 6.3 seconds left to ice the game.

'Wow, that's all I can say,' said Cavs head coach Mike Brown of James' last basket. 'Unbelievable play.'

'He was aggressive the entire ballgame, he set the tone for us offensively,' said Brown. 'We need that aggressiveness from him.'

James scored only one point in the third quarter, but Ilgauskas took over early, scoring six straight points to put the Cavs up 53-45 with 8:35 left. Wallace answered with back-to-back threes, though, slicing the Cleveland lead to two points and two Prince baskets late in the quarter put the Pistons on top, 63-62, entering the final 12 minutes.

'We fell behind, we fought our way back, took the lead, but never got in a situation where we could extend it,' said Saunders. 'We've got to score more points.'

A more aggressive James dominated early, throwing down two emphatic dunks as Cleveland ran out to a 7-0 lead. The Cavs lead stood at 18-11 after a Pavlovic finger roll with 3:39 left, but Webber hit back-to-back shots, and the Pistons closed the quarter with an 11-4 run to knot the game at 22-22 entering the second.

'We did a great job ... of getting into our offense a lot quicker, and attacking before their defense had a chance to get set,' said James. 'They're very, very good when you allow them to set up. I was very aggressive early and tried to attack before their five guys could get set on the defensive end.'

The teams traded leads throughout the second quarter, with James pouring in 12 points to lead the Cavs offense. He scored the last six Cleveland points of the half, and had 19 at the break. The Pistons hung tight, though, and the Cavs lead was 46-43 at the half.

Game Notes

Detroit has never lost a playoff series in 18 tries when going up 2-0. The Cavs did win three straight after falling behind 2-0 in last year's conference semifinals against the Pistons, but lost the series in seven games...Cleveland is 9-0 in this postseason when James scores 21-plus points, and 0-4 when he scores 20 or less...There were a few delays in the first quarter as debris from the arena rafters, apparently created by the pre-game fireworks, fell to the court.

© 2007 The Sports Network

Game Notes

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