Beat De-Troit! Beat De-Troit!

The Cavaliers were in fine form last night against the Pistons at the Q. I attended the game, sitting in the penultimate row in the upper deck, but I was still close enough to see some fine defensive intensity during the Cavs' 89-73 victory over the Detroiters. I was pretty tired last night, and didn't get a chance to write anything about it until now, when everybody's pretty concerned about March Madness, so I'll keep it short.

That said, there were a couple of plays I want to mention in particular, both involving very athletic moves you wouldn't normally expect to see out of the power forwards who made them. One was at the first-half buzzer. With the Cavs up 43-38 and about three seconds left, Zydrunas Ilgauskas missed a jumper from the corner. Ben Wallace, who is about as well-known for his scoring as Dick Vitale is for his calmness, got the rebound from about six feet away with about one second remaining. In one motion, he caught the ball and shot it, and it went right in. Ben Wallace scored exactly two points in that game, and it was those two.

The other happened with about 4:30 to go in the fourth quarter. With the shot clock winding down, Anderson Varejao took a pass at the top of the key from Delonte West. Varejao started dribbling toward the hole, and the Pistons' Antonio McDyess came out to challenge him. Varejao took the ball in his left hand, then whipped it behind his back and took it up with his right for a layup. It was a thing of beauty.

The Cavaliers are now 1-1 against the Pistons this year, each winning on their own home floor. The Cavs had to beat the Pistons in Detroit to get past them last year in the Eastern Conference Finals; if they meet them this year, it will probably be one round earlier, but they'll again have to win at least one game at the Palace of Auburn Hills. After what we saw last night, I believe they can. Boston's another matter, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.