Cavaliers rally from 10 down to win, 86-77

LeBron James led the fourth quarter spurt which cut Detroit's lead to 2-1.
By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
CLEVELAND -- They were down 2-0 in the series. They were without their second-best player. They had pretty much been written off by everyone.
On Saturday, the Cleveland Cavaliers had a lot of reasons to fold.
"I even had some of my own family coming up to me and saying, 'Well, Detroit's really tough,' " said Cleveland coach Mike Brown. "They were talking like the series is over."
It wasn't.
The Cavs rallied from a 10-point deficit midway through the third quarter to upend the Detroit Pistons 86-77 at Quicken Loans Arena.
"We can't be on Cloud Nine about Game Three," said LeBron James, who recorded his second career triple double with 21 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. "The game's over. The series continues.
"We don't want to feel too good about ourselves. We just wanted to protect home."
Hughes misses game
Starting guard Larry Hughes missed the game to be with his family after his younger brother, Justin, passed away suddenly on Thursday. Flip Murray started in Hughes' place and scored 13 points to go along with seven rebounds and three assists.
But the biggest contributor (outside of James, of course) was Anderson Varejao, who came off the bench to score 16 points -- his career high in the playoffs.
"I guess they forgot he can score," Cavs forward Drew Gooden said of Varejao. "LB did a good job finding him. He'll have to thank him for helping him out with that triple double."
Scored underneath
Many of Varejao's points came off high screen-and-rolls in which the Pistons chose to double team James on the perimeter, leaving Varejao wide open under the basket. If the first screen didn't work, Varejao would try again. And again, if necessary.
"Andy's very active," said James. "I guess you all knew that."
James struggled early on offense -- he had just eight points after three quarters -- but was more aggressive in the fourth quarter. Cleveland outscored Detroit 33-21 in the final period, going on a 10-0 run in the final minutes to put the game away.
The Cavs led by just two (72-70) with four minutes remaining when James took over. Over the next three minutes, he scored seven points and got his 10th assist on a pass to Damon Jones, who drilled a 3-pointer in the corner to give Cleveland an 84-74 lead with 41 seconds to go.
"I always want to give my team an opportunity to win," said James. "I know you hear me say that a lot, but that's what I try to do. I wasn't able to do that in the first two games, but I did it tonight."
"I can go on and on with the different contributions," added Brown, "but again, it comes back to our guy. What an effort.
"I say this all the time, he's special."
Leading the Pistons
Richard Hamilton scored 22 points and Chauncey Billups added 20 for the Pistons, whose bench was outscored 28-9. But the biggest surprise was their fourth quarter performance.
"We're used to winning close games like this," said Billups. "This is how we play. Low-scoring games. Grind-it-out. Make plays at the end.
"They did that tonight."
The teams meet again at 7 p.m. Monday in Cleveland. Detroit still holds a 2-1 edge, but the Cavs may have grown up a little on Saturday.
"We got our behinds kicked in Game One and I think we grew up a little in that game," said Brown. "And we grew up tonight.
"Every game we play, it's helping us -- now and down the road."
scalzo@vindy.com