Cleveland Cavaliers Team Report - December 17

(Basketball News) - The Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Detroit Pistons, 81-69, at The Palace on Thursday.

LeBron James struggled on the night for Cleveland, scoring a season-low 11 points on 4-of-21 shooting. Drew Gooden netted 18 points with 10 rebounds for the Cavaliers, who managed just a season-low six points in the third quarter en route to having their two-game winning streak snapped

Jeff McInnis ended with 14 points in a losing cause.

The Pistons took advantage of poor shooting by Cleveland to take control of the game in the third. The Pistons opened the stanza with a 19-4 flurry, capped by Lindsey Hunter’s free throw, staking Detroit to a 46-45 lead with 4:09 left in the quarter.

Detroit then carried a 52-47 lead into the fourth as Cleveland managed only six points in the third quarter. The Pistons started to pull away in the fourth. Billups’ trey from the top of the key pushed the Detroit margin to 68-57 at the 5:52 mark of the fourth. Cleveland never recovered from that point and suffered the 12-point loss.

The Cavaliers are off until Saturday when they host the Boston Celtics. It will be the second meeting of the season between the squads. On November 26th, Cleveland beat the Celtics, 98-96, at the FleetCenter.