NBA Wrap: Pistons destroy the Suns, LeBron’s cavalry arrives

First time here? Subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Pistons 116 - Suns 86

The Pistons are a team that always plays better against better competition, so of course they were gonna be ready for Shaq and the Suns but yesterdays game was ridiculous. The Pistons beat the Suns by 30 points in a 116 - 86 beatdown.

"This was a big game for us,'' Billups said. "You know how we are, man, when we play against other elite teams, we lock in. We lock in big-time. I thought everybody played great today - everybody.''

Six Pistons scored in double figures, lead by Rasheed Wallace who had 22 points and completely dominated downlow.

Cavaliers 109 - Grizzlies 89

So apparently LeBron and his new teammates didn't really need much time to get acquainted with his new squad. Now to be fair, they were playing the Grizzlies but it is what it is.

LeBron James finished the game with 25 points and 11 assists and all of the players picked up in the big trade contributed in the Cavs 109-89 win over the Grizzlies.

Ben Wallace, who started at power forward, scored 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Delonte West, the starter at point guard, scored five points with six assists. Joe Smith and Wally Szczerbiak, came off the bench. Smith scored 14 points while Szczerbiak had 10.

Heres some highlights:

Around the league

• The Magic got a huge fourth-quarter effort from their reserves in a 112-93 win over the Kings.
• Paul Pierce scored 30 points and the Boston Celtics rebounded from a slow start to beat the Portland Trail Blazers 112-102 and snap a three-game losing streak.
• Andrea Bargnani had 25 points and Chris Bosh added 17 as the Toronto Raptors rebounded from a loss to New York two days earlier and beat the Knicks 115-92.
• Jason Kidd tied his season high with 17 assists in his third game with Dallas and Dirk Nowitzki scored 29 points to lead the Mavericks to a 99-83 win over Minnesota.
• Tracy McGrady had 24 points and eight assists and the Houston Rockets extended their winning streak to 12 games with a 110-97 win over the Chicago Bulls.
• Kobe Bryant scores 21 points and hands out 10 assists despite missing the final 16 minutes after being ejected in Lakers' 111-91 rout of the Sonics.