Rival cities Detroit and Cleveland played a most interesting double-header on Saturday.  The Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers tipped off Game 3 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series at 5 pm local time.  Then, at 7 pm, the Detroit Tigers took on the Cleveland Indians in the second game of their three-game weekend series.

The result - a split decision, but not exactly in the fashion most would figure.

Another Game 3 Road Lapse

Going into Saturday's contest, the Detroit Pistons - despite all their recent playoff success - had lost nine of their last ten Game 3's on the road.  Since a victory at Portland in the 1990 NBA Finals, the Pistons only Game 3 playoff road victory came during their latest championship season (2004) when they beat Milwaukee in the first round after losing Game 2 of that series at home.

Detroit was hoping to turn around their Game 3 woes Saturday afternoon at Quicken Loans Arena against LeBron James and the Cavs.

That looked to be the case through the first three quarters of basketball.  After sputtering a bit early on, the Pistons righted the ship by outscoring Cleveland 25-18 in the second quarter to take a six-point lead into the locker room.  Detroit came out strong in the second half as well knocking down five of their first eight shots from the field to open a ten-point lead, 54-44.

The Cavs, however, answered with a quick 9-0 run to close to within one and the game was tight the rest of the way.  Heading into the fourth, with the Pistons clinging to a tenuous three-point lead, LeBron James - who was passive offensively through the first three periods - took over the game.

LeBron scored 15 of his 21 points in the fourth and led the Cavs on several spurts that would ultimately lead to an all-important win.

LeBron's fourth quarter heroics ignited his teammates as well.  The Cavs made 10-of-14  field goal attempts in the final stanza and shot a perfect 9-of-9 from the free throw line.  Meanwhile, the Pistons shot a porous 33 percent, helping the Cavs turn what was once a ten-point deficit into a nine-point triumph, 86-77.

For the game, Detroit shot just 39 percent and turned the ball over an uncharacteristic 16 times, by far their highest output of the playoffs thus far.

The series is now 2-1 in favor of Detroit with Game 4 on Monday night from the "Q" ... more on that later.

Tigers Wring out a Win Against the Indians

Across the street, on-lookers from the Pistons/Cavs game came pouring into Jacob's Field almost as quickly as the rain poured from the sky as the Tigers and Indians game was already underway.

Jeremy Bonderman and C.C. Sabathia dueled for eight innings in the harshest conditions.  While the steady rain continued to cascade from above, the two starting pitchers carved up opposing batters with a potent mix of live fastballs and darting sliders.

Sabathia struck out ten Tiger batters in eight innings while allowing only one walk and six hits.  Unfortunately for Sabathia, one of those hits was a long home run off the bat of Chris Shelton - his first homer since April 28th.  

Sabathia didn't make any more mistakes like he did to Shelton for the rest of the game.  The same, however, could not be said about the Indians' defense behind him.  Cleveland committed three errors in total, two of which - a fielding miscue by Aaron Boone and a throwing error by Ronnie Belliard - led to another Tigers' run and put the Tribe in a hole they couldn't climb out of.

The reason they couldn't climb out that hole was because of the right arm of Jeremy Bonderman.  Bonderman hurled eight strong innings for manager Jim Leyland.  He stuck out eight while allowing just three Indian hits - the first of which didn't come until the fifth inning.

Bonderman did walk three batters and hit another, but he was able to pitch out of every jam and was never seriously threatened by the explosive Cleveland offense.  In fact, at one point Bonderman retired 12 consecutive hitters.

Moreover, the Tigers' ace right hander completely shut down the middle of the Indians' order - one of the most lethal in baseball.  The 3-4-5 combination of Jhonny Peralta, Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez went a collective 0-for-11 with five strikouts and seven men left on base.

Needless to say, J.B. was dealin'!

In the meantime, the Tigers notched their 15th road win of the season and are now an impressive ten games over the .500 mark.  They'll look for win number 16 on the road this afternoon as they attempt to sweep the Tribe in Cleveland.  

Mike Maroth (4-2, 2.55 ERA) takes the mound for Detroit against his former rotation mate Jason Johnson (2-2, 5.82 ERA), who now pitches for Cleveland.

Uh-oh... He Did It Again!

That's right!  Rasheed Wallace has once again cast himself as Nostradamus. 

After dropping Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals series against Cleveland, Rasheed Wallace calmly praised the Cavs' effort before he lit into them with yet another bold postseason prediction of his opponents' fate.

"We're gonna bust their ass," proclaimed Wallace when asked what lies ahead for the Cleveland Cavaliers.  "We're still going to win this series," boasted the Piston power forward who then added, "Monday will be their last home game this year and then we'll close it out at home (on Wednesday)."

Whether or not that intrepid prognostication comes to fruition is anyone's guess.  But if recent history tells us anything, expect the Pistons to respond to 'Sheed's claims.

After a Reggie Miller jumper in the final seconds sealed the Pistons' Game 1 fate in the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals, Rasheed Wallace bellowed these famous words to the reporters in attendance:

"They will not win Game 2!"

Wallace was then asked if that was a guarantee for victory.  He responded in kind:

"They will not win Game 2.  You can put that on the front page, back page, middle of the page, whatever.  They will not win Game 2!"

Of course, the Pacers did not win Game 2, thanks in large part to Tayshaun Prince's incredible block of a Reggie Miller break-away layup attempt that would've tied the game late.  The Pistons eventually won the series 4-2 and went on to win the franchises' third NBA Title.

Last year, Rasheed tested fate once again... and once again he did so against the Indiana Pacers.  After losing Game 3 on the road (imagine that) and subsequently falling behind 2-1 in the series, Wallace guaranteed a Piston win in Game 4.  And for the second year in a row the Pistons responded with a convincing victory.  From there, Detroit would steal the momentum and reel off two more wins in succession to finish off the Pacers and move on to the Eastern Conference Finals for the third straight season.

Now we come to the present.  It seems that the Pistons are in need of a spark, or a side challenge to motivate them to play their best.  And Rasheed Wallace has stepped up to the plate like he often does to provide that spark.  This time the potential "victim" will be the Cleveland Cavaliers, not Indiana.

Will it work again?  Time will tell.  But rest assured, people from all over the country will be tuning in Monday night to see if 'Sheed is truly the second coming of Nostradamus.  Some will root for him.  Many will root against him.  It's only natural.

If the Pistons win Monday night, perhaps this will become an annual omen, a playoff ritual for Detroit.  If they lose, it's likely that Wallace will bite his tongue the next time he feels the urge to splurge.  Either way, the Detroit Pistons will have his back - in Game 4 and beyond.

If nothing else, that ... is Guaran-sheed!