
CLEVELAND -- The Detroit Pistons were reminded Tuesday what happened the last time they played in Cleveland.
The words, "Do you remember?" were scribbled above the numbers "67-34" on the locker room eraser board by coaches. That was the halftime deficit the Pistons faced the last time they were at Quicken Loans Arena.
Tuesday's game was closer, but the Cavaliers still pulled away in the second half for a 79-73 victory.
"Every game is not going to be pretty, but you find a way to win," said Cleveland's LeBron James, who led all scorers with 25 points and added 12 rebounds.
James keyed a 10-0 run midway through the fourth quarter with a pair of three-point plays.
With the victory, Cleveland (61-13) extended its franchise-record winning streak to 13. The Cavaliers became the sixth NBA team to win 16 games in a month.
For Detroit (36-38), the loss snapped a two-game winning streak.
James came up with big plays down the stretch for the Cavs, but Detroit lost this game well before James got cooking.
The Pistons committed 15 turnovers that led to 18 points for the Cavaliers.
"Our turnovers, you can't come in here and turn the ball over (15) times against this team," Pistons coach Michael Curry said.
Most of the Pistons expressed similar sentiments after the loss.
"We've just got to be better," said Pistons guard Richard Hamilton, who had 13 points and a team-high four turnovers. "We were a little indecisive. We have to figure a way to take care of the ball, but more indecisive than anything."
Those turnovers played a major role in the game being tied at half, despite Detroit dominating the action.
"We probably should have been up eight points in the first half, but we had (nine) turnovers," Curry said.
The score still was relatively close through the third quarter, but the game's momentum clearly had swung in Cleveland's favor.
Not only did Detroit struggle to make plays, but the Pistons began to lose their cool as well.
Rasheed Wallace, who returned to action after missing the past 11 games with a strained left calf, picked up his 16th technical foul of the season. He will serve a one-game suspension tonight.
Said Curry: "He (Wallace) came back and was pretty good. But we knew he was one tech away."
Wallace finished with nine points and nine rebounds.
Even with the technical foul, the Pistons trailed only 62-58 heading into the fourth quarter.
But the turnover problems Detroit had became even more pronounced when the game mattered most.
The biggest Pistons miscue of the night came when James stripped the ball from Will Bynum and scored while Bynum fouled him. The three-point play gave the Cavs a 70-69 lead and was the start of a 10-0 run. The Cavaliers never trailed afterward.
"It was a good, ugly, physical, grind-it-out-type of game," Cavs coach Mike Brown said. "We used to have a lot of those in the past, so it was fun to get back to that tonight."