CLEVELAND (AP) -- The Detroit Pistons will win Game 4 -- guaran-Sheed.
One day after an 86-77 loss to the Cavaliers cut Detroit's series lead in half, forward Rasheed Wallace, the irrepressible motor mouth from the Motor City, boldly declared the Pistons would win Game 4.
On top of that, Wallace proclaimed the best-of-seven series over.
"I know we're going to win it," Wallace said sitting on the scorer's table following Sunday practice at Quicken Loans Arena. "We're going to bust their (butt). Tomorrow night is the last game here in this building for this year."
Sheesh, Sheed. Anything else big fella?
"Y'all can quote me, put it back page, front page, whatever," Wallace said. "They can send whoever they want to send. I know the crew I think they're going to send. But it don't matter. I know we can do it, and they know we can do it. We know what we've got to do."
Although he said he respects the Cavs, Wallace isn't worried about giving them any motivation. "It ain't bulletin board material, it's a fact," he said bluntly. "They can put it on the bulletin board. They can put it on a video. I don't care. I know what we're capable of doing, that's all that it is."
Wallace has gone prognosticator before in the playoffs, placing his neck on the line to inspire his teammates. And, the Pistons have responded with a win every time.
"That's what we do," Wallace said.
The Pistons, up 2-1 in the Eastern Conference series, will have to take better care of the ball and do more to contain LeBron James or they'll have make another trip to Ohio. Game 5 is Wednesday night in Auburn Hills, Mich.
James, who scored 15 points in the fourth on Saturday while recording his second triple-double in his first playoffs, laughed off Wallace's boasts.
"That's Rasheed," James said. "Every playoffs, you know you're going to get at least one good quote out of him. We can't get caught up in that."
The Pistons are accustomed to hearing Wallace spout off. And, they know when he does, they'd better come through. "You have to go out there and play even harder and get a win for him," Richard Hamilton said. "We have to have his back, do what we do, and get a win."
The Cavaliers' hopes rest with James, who in Game 3 had perhaps his finest all-around 48 minutes this season. Although tempted to take over, James didn't until he had no other choice. For three quarters, he sat back and let things unfold before him. He entered the final 12 minutes with just six points on 3-of-10 shooting before seizing the game.
With a Wilt Chamberlain-like finger roll, James gave the Cavs their first lead of the second half, and over the next 6:36, he scored 11 with two assists -- the last to Damon Jones for a 3-point dagger to put Cleveland ahead by 10.
"It's the best game he's played," Cavs forward Donyell Marshall said. "He didn't press the issue. He found people, he rebounded and he scored when he needed to score."
For the second straight game, the Cavaliers will be without guard Larry Hughes. He remains with his grieving family following the death of his 20-year-old brother, Justin, from heart failure on Thursday.
Cleveland coach Mike Brown said the club is planning to attend the funeral on Tuesday in St. Louis before heading to Detroit for Game 5.
Other than James, the Pistons' biggest problem in Game 3 was, well, the Pistons.
They made 17 turnovers -- only one less than their combined total in the series' first two games -- and missed shots that were ripped the nets in Games 1 and 2. For all their playoff experience, the Pistons looked like postseason newcomers down the stretch. However, coach Flip Saunders isn't too concerned.
"It's a matter of getting back to meat-and-potatoes basketball," he said. "We tried to do too much. We played out of character."
While Wallace may have been the only Detroit player to publicly predict a victory in Game 4, the Pistons, who are 6-0 in Game 4s the past two seasons, are equally confident they still control the series.
Chauncey Billups praised the Cavs for winning a Detroit-style, low-scoring game. Cleveland had to change its game plan to do so. Don't look for the Pistons to make major adjustments.
"Nothing's got to change," Billups said. "We just have to be a little more disciplined in what we're doing. We don't have to change none of our Xs and Os. We just have to not take any chances."
Wallace doesn't see his prediction as risky. He relishes the role of villain, and will be treated with the usual disdain by Cleveland fans, who are still angry at him for a flagrant foul against center Zydrunas Ilgauskas this season. Wallace isn't afraid of the Cavs, or anyone else.
"There's only one team out there, two teams tops, that can really give us that good challenge that it's like, 'All right, we know we can't make no mistakes against those teams,"' he said.
The Cavaliers aren't one? "Nah," he said.
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***NBA Playoffs - 2nd Round - Cavs vs. Pistons***
