AUBURN HILLS -- The Cleveland Cavaliers gave the Pistons a chance early in Tuesday night's game.
LeBron James and Kyrie Irving weren't about to give Detroit a second one.
The Pistons held Cleveland to 17 first-quarter points, but only managed 19 of their own, allowing Cleveland's two stars to take control in the final three periods. Irving finished with 38 points and James had 32 in the Cavaliers' 103-95 win.
"We defended okay -- their overall numbers weren't very good at all," Stan Van Gundy said. "Their shooting percentage wasn't that high, and while Kyrie and LeBron obviously got off, we shut everyone else down. But the two things that took away our chance to win were our 18 turnovers and their 20 second-chance points. If we cut our turnovers by a third and hold them to 10 second-chance points, we have a chance to win that game."
Detroit got stop after stop in the opening moments of the game, holding Cleveland to six points in the first six minutes on 3-of-12 shooting, but could only build an 11-6 lead. The Cavaliers outscored Detroit 97-84 in the final 42 minutes to win their sixth straight game.
"We couldn't make a shot at the beginning of the game, so we had to get stops to even stay close," said James. "That's how great teams win in this league. You have to go out there every night and play defense, because that's all you can control. There are going to be nights where your shot doesn't fall, and there's nothing you can do about it. That's how basketball works, but great teams always play defense."
Even with Cleveland's tough defense, the Pistons were able to get the ball inside on a consistent basis, but they couldn't finish at the rim. Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond missed a combined 19 field-goal attempts, most of them at point-blank range.
As a team, the Pistons shot 46 percent in the paint and 38 percent on second-chance opportunities, as opposed to Cleveland's 52 percent and 64 percent, respectively.
"Those are fundamental things that we have to do better," Van Gundy said. "We didn't make makeable shots, we didn't rebound as well as we needed, and we didn't take care of the ball. Those are things that take away your chance to win a game."
The Pistons will get a quick chance to fix things, as they got on a plane to Philadelphia after the game. They face the hapless 76ers Wednesday night.
