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Cleveland guard Larry Hughes is doubtful for Tuesday’s Eastern Conference finals Game 4 in Cleveland.

Hughes suffered a strain of the left foot plantar fascia during the first quarter of Game 3 Sunday. He was re-evaluated by team physician Dr. Richard Parker at The Cleveland Clinic this morning. An MRI was performed with the result being consistent with the plantar fascia strain.

If Hughes does not play, Cleveland will likely go with rookie Daniel Gibson in his place.

“They’re winning, yet this series nonetheless feels like it’s slipping away”. Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press Writes.

The Pistons still might lose this series. Despite the 2-0 lead on the Cavaliers, the Pistons and their fans feel they got very lucky.

“They’re 2-0 in this Eastern Conference final – quite possibly the luckiest 2-0 you’ve ever seen from a team with home court — but you couldn’t help but come way from another 79-76 heart-thumper believing that if the Pistons don’t squeeze Cleveland’s throat in Game 3 they still might lose this series.

They need Chauncey Billups. They need Chris Webber.

The benefit of a team sharing the load is that you get nights like this where Rasheed Wallace had one of those I-can-be-the-superstar-when-I-want fourth quarters or Jason Maxiell can emerge from the obscurity of the bench and provide the necessary push.

But Billups is the engine, and he’s sputtering still. If Webber’s going to take 13 shots — 12 from near the basket — he had better make far more than the four he did Thursday night.

“We’re fortunate,” coach Flip Saunders said.

They are fortunate. They’re fortunate they’re not down 0-2 heading for Cleveland with Billups sporting more turnovers (12) than assists (11) and taking only 13 shots total in the two games. They’re fortunate when you consider they’re getting nothing out of Tayshaun Prince offensively (1-of-19 field goal shooting). They’re fortunate when you consider that Webber was supposed to make them a five-on-five team offensively rather than the four-on-five edition that previously featured Ben Wallace, but he’s morphed into a frightening offensive clone of Big Ben — reliable only when he’s getting the ball right underneath the basket and unable to convert on at least half of his free throws.”

Source: Detroit Free Press

James was asked Friday if he thought not getting foul calls had something to do with his and his team’s respect level compared with the Pistons. He proceeded to go off on a bit of a tangent.

“You call this playoff basketball, I do the best I can do and hopefully we get some respect at some point,” James said.

“I have a great team, and out of 30 teams we’re still here. You know, no one ever looks at that, they just look at, hey, we had an easy run, we played a team in Washington that was depleted and we played a team in New Jersey that had no inside presence, but it’s never the Cavs won these ballgames. It’s never that. Whenever anybody else wins, they did a great job of executing, they did a great job of winning ballgames down the stretch. But when we win it’s like the other team was depleted or they didn’t do a great job of making things happen. It’s just we have to earn respect. I don’t know how we do that, but I guess you do it by winning, and we’ve done nothing but win in this postseason.”

Source: Akron Beacon Journal 

“The officials get paid a lot of money, and that’s their job. If they don’t see anything, they don’t see anything. We’re a no-excuse team. We’ve got to get ready for Game 3.” Mike Brown said in the press conference after game 3.

Chris Sheridan from ESPN thinks the Mike Brown should have criticize the officials and take the fine.

“You know, Brown could have come up with a line or two like that. Sure, a few angry remarks would have cost him a fine, but at least would have earned him the gratitude of the Cavs’ fans, who will wake Friday morning feeling — and feeling it rightfully, I might add — that they were screwed.

If that had happened to someone on the Lakers, you can bet your bottom dollar Phil Jackson would have spoken frankly about it, then taken his $50,000 fine like a man. ”

Hamilton was asked in the locker room afterward if he had fouled James on the play, and Hamilton couldn’t stifle a cackle before he gave his answer: “Nah, you know. I just put my hands up.”  He cackled at the end of that answer, too.

“The non-call was so egregious, I’d expect Jimmy Clark, Bernie Fryer and Mark Wunderlich to be told by the league office that they can watch the rest of the playoffs from Joey Crawford’s man cave, since they don’t deserve to be working at this stage of the postseason if they’re too scared to call a foul on the biggest play of the game. But I’m not sure whether those three referees will be taking calls from the league office on Friday, since all three must be scheduled for surgery to have the whistles they swallowed removed from their stomachs.”

The Cavaliers and fans are tired of talking about LeBron James’ decision to pass to Donyell Marshall instead of taking a shot in the final seconds of the series opener. Game two is in few hours, so what do you expect to see?

I want to see us win and take home court advantage. We were suppose to win game 1, but that was history.

Marshall was in the same spot on the floor with 2 seconds on the shot clock during Wednesday’s practice. He made the shot and his teammates rushed onto the court.

Our team is loose and like to have fun, “That’s how we stay loose. We take something negative into a positive. We’re going to use that for motivation in Game 2.” Marshall said.

With both teams off for two days between games, Cleveland coach Mike Brown expects the playoff-tested Pistons to play much differently in the second game of the series.

“They’re going to make adjustments because they’re a great team,” Brown said. “They’re going to get to a point where they’re going to get comfortable and they’re going to be able to pick us apart.”

If Cleveland does trap Billups, Detroit coach Flip Saunders wants him to learn from his mistakes.

“He held onto the ball maybe one dribble too long,” Saunders said. “Chauncey just needs to make quicker decisions, which he did in the third quarter, and then when other guys started making plays.”

Billups intends to help his teammates bounce back. “I think a lot of that is going to be on me, trying to get them going on pick-and-rolls and stuff like that,” he said.

James was scoreless in the first quarter as he looked to set up his teammates rather than shoot. He finished with a playoff-low 10 points on 5-of-15 shooting and didn’t attempt a free throw.

“He’s going to be very aggressive,” Billups said. “They’re talking about having him shoot free throws and all of that. I’m sure he’ll find a way to get on that free throw line the next game.”

James said he likes the Cavs’ mind-set entering a pivotal game.

“We just believe we can win — on the road, at home, slowdown game, high-volume game — we just have a lot of confidence,” he said. “Winning in the playoffs helps that.”

The Lansing State Journal has a nice article about how former Spartan Eric Snow is mentoring former Spartan Shannon Brown. Both players are on the Cleveland Cavaliers, but Brown hasn’t seen any playing time this postseason while Snow, a 12-year veteran, is the team’s backup point guard.
May 21, 2007, Lansing State Journal: “It’s just not my time,” Brown said. “Of course I’d like to be playing. That’s the whole goal – I play basketball. But I know my time’s coming. I can’t hang my head, I can’t pout about it.

“It’s not that I’m bad at anything, there’s just a certain level of play I need to reach. And there’s a lot of inside things that people don’t see that explain why people aren’t playing sometimes.”

…

“He’s probably a little disappointed in the way things have gone, but he’s taking the right approach,” said Chris Jent, a Cavs assistant coach who works closely with Brown. “The concept of defense is very important to us, and he’s come a long way in understanding how we want to defend.

“Offensively, he just needs to have focus when he gets the ball. You don’t have time to think. Cut down on dribbling and use your athleticism right away to make a play.”

Years ago, the Detroit Pistons had a catchy name — “Jordan Rules” — to contain an NBA superstar.

Pistons coach won’t reveal the name for Lebron Plan, “We’ve got a name for it,” Pistons coach Flip Saunders said Saturday with a sly grin. “But I’m not going to talk about it now. Maybe later.”

Tayshaun Prince will be the primary defender, drawing his usual assignment against a star on the perimeter, but he will get plenty of help.

“It’s going to be a collective effort,” Saunders said.

“If you let him get to the basket, he can make plays for himself and other people,” Saunders said.

“At this point, no matter who it is, he’s going to get fouled hard going to the basket,” Saunders said. “You’ve seen that in the playoffs so far and as you extend in the playoffs, more is at stake. You might kind of like somebody the first game and the second game you kind of don’t like them. By the fifth game, you hate them. That’s just the playoffs.”

Source: Herald Tribune