Cavaliers Get Out The Brooms Sweep Pistons With 99-78 Win

Posted by Matt Loede under NBA Game Recap, NBA PLAYOFFS

The Detroit Pistons have been a staple in the Eastern Conference Finals the past couple of seasons, but this season, they will have something new – an extended summer vacation. Sunday afternoon at the Palace of Auburn Hills, the Cavaliers put the Pistons out of their 2008-09 misery, topping them with their fourth straight dominant effort, 99-78 to move on to the second round of the playoffs.

It was not a pretty fall from grace for the once mighty Pistons, who were simply not good enough this time around to beat the Cavs. It didn’t help that the Pistons had no answer time after time for LeBron James, who on this day popped in a game-high 36 points, 13 rebounds and 8 assists. James showed during these four games just why he deserves to be this seasons NBA MVP.

James had plenty of help as well from his teammates, as Mo Williams, who has been playing the role of “Robin” all season to LeBron’s “Batman,” scored 24 points on 9-for-14 shooting. Delonte West hit for 12 points, including a couple big shots when the Pistons were making one last gasp effort to get back into the game in the third quarter.

The Pistons made it a game in the first quarter, as they led 27-26 at the end of one. It was a deciding second quarter that the Cavs took the game over. Led by James, Cleveland outscored the Pistons by 10 at 25-15 to take a 9-point lead into the locker room.

Detroit cut it down to three in the third, but a couple big shots by West, and a dunk by Anderson Varejao pushed the lead back to double digits, and you could feel the air go out of the Pistons balloons. It was then that James and the Cavs knew they had the Pistons on the ropes, and a couple of hoops later it was basically game, match, set for the Cavs to dispatch the Pistons to their summer vacations.

Cleveland outscored the Pistons 22-18 and then 26-18 in the final two quarters to take home the easy 21-point win. The Cavs in the four-game sweep averaged 93.5 points per game, and held Detroit to an average 78, a beating of about 15.5 points per game. Detroit’s closest loss was the 11-point loss in game three as they started the game 8-0, but quickly lost their momentum.

Now the Cavs can start to look forward to round two, where they will battle either the Hawks or Heat. Miami had an impressive win on Saturday, and lead the series 2-1 heading into game four on Monday night in Miami. If the series goes seven games, the Cavs could have a full 9-10 days off before the series on Tuesday 5/5 or Wednesday 5/6.

For now, the Cavs have made one thing obvious – they are the favorites to win the NBA Title.

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