Cavaliers Make a Mess of Wallace’s Guarantee

CLEVELAND — Here’s the latest playoff guarantee: The Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers will play a Game 6.

And, who knows? Maybe even a Game 7.

Rasheed Wallace’s defiant prediction of a Detroit victory backfired when LeBron James scored 22 points and the Cavaliers beat the Pistons, 74-72, to even their best-of-seven second-round playoff series at 2-2 on Monday night.

After Detroit’s loss in Game 3, Wallace had pledged the Pistons would not only win Game 4 but that the Cavaliers would be playing in front of their fans for the last time this season. But Cleveland has at least one more game at home after winning its second straight over the favored Eastern Conference champions.

“We’re not feeling the pressure,” James said. “The Pistons are feeling the pressure.”

With Wallace watching from the bench because of a sprained right ankle, James made two free throws -- the last with 1.3 seconds left -- and the Pistons threw away their final inbounds pass to James.

Afterward, Wallace remained confident the Pistons would get the job done.

“I ain’t worried about these cats,” said Wallace, who sprained his right ankle in the second quarter and finished with seven points on three-of-13 shooting. “There’s no way ... they beat us in a series. They played well. I give them credit. We lost. We shot 30% and they had to play their best to beat us.”

James also had nine assists and eight rebounds.

Richard Hamilton scored 30 points for the Pistons, who suddenly find themselves in a tense series after dominating at home in Games 1 and 2.

“We can’t let the man go out and predict a win and then go out and stink it up like we did,” Pistons center Ben Wallace said.

Wallace came in 4-0 in playoff games he has guaranteed. His first came in Game 2 of the 2004 conference finals against Indiana, and he made another in ’05 in Game 4 of a second-round series with the Pacers.