The Cavaliers had topped the Wizards in six games in their first-round series, culminating with Damon Jones game-winning 17-footer in Washington. But after that, it was on to bigger game -- the heavyweight Detroit Pistons. The Eastern Conference Champs had topped Cleveland three straight times to end the regular season, but neither the Pistons nor Cavalier fans were prepared for the two-week journey that will live in Cavaliers playoff history for the ages...

Game 1

For the first time since the final postseason appearance of the Price-Daugherty-Nance Era Cavaliers back in 1993, the Wine and Gold advanced to the second round of the NBA playoffs.

Their 2006 journey to the next level was a memorable one. Cleveland’s first round matchup with the Washington Wizards was filled with jaw-dropping offensive performances and heart-stopping finishes and featured some spectacular individual efforts – notably by LeBron James and Gilbert Arenas.

In round two, however, the Cavaliers would have to contend with a “team” of stars – the heavyweight Detroit Pistons, who ended the regular season with an NBA-best 64 wins and had dropped Cleveland three straight times to end the season.

The Cavaliers came into Game 1 in Detroit both physically and emotionally drained after the six-game slugfest against Washington that ended in dramatic fashion just two days earlier in the nation’s capital.

Against the Wizards, just about every game was decided in the final minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime. In the first game of their second-round matchup with the Pistons, the game was decided in the final minutes of the first quarter.

Cleveland and Detroit were knotted at 16-16 with just over two minutes to go in the opening period at Auburn Hills. But the Pistons caught fire from that point on, went on a quick 10-0 run, and proceeded to dismantle the weary Wine and Gold for the remainder of the afternoon.

Cleveland didn’t necessarily play a bad game, but the Pistons – who polished off the Bucks in five games in their first-round matchup – simply couldn’t miss.

In the second quarter alone, Detroit set a franchise playoff record with 43 points. Reserves Lindsey Hunter and Antonio McDyess scored 12 points apiece in the second stanza – each going 5-for-6 from the floor.

Detroit led by 21 at the half and continued the Game 1 drubbing from there, making short work of the Cavaliers in the opening contest, 113-86.

LeBron James came into the second-round matchup as the NBA Playoffs’ leading scorer, but was held without a point in the second half. He still managed to lead the Cavaliers with 22 points, going 9-for-18 from the floor to go with four boards and four dimes.

Cleveland got clobbered in Game 1, but the fact that Detroit shot 65 percent in a half – including going 10-for-11 from beyond the arc – was encouraging. The Cavaliers knew that even the heavyweight Pistons couldn’t keep up that pace.

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Game 2

For 36 minutes of basketball in the Motor City, Game 2 looked like a repeat performance of Game 1 for the Eastern Conference Champs. But the Cavaliers made a valiant run that, in retrospect, might have changed the complexion of the seven-game series.

The Pistons led the Cavaliers by 18 points after three quarters, but behind a late charge by LeBron James, Donyell Marshall and Anderson Varejao, the Wine and Gold mounted a fourth-quarter comeback that let the Pistons know that getting to the Eastern Conference Finals wasn’t going to be easy.

LeBron scored 23 of his game-high 30 points in the second half – including 14 in the fourth quarter – and the Cavaliers got it as close as four points in the final period.

Detroit led by seven after one quarter and by 16 at the half, but the Cavaliers seemed to find a combination that worked for them as the game developed and by the fourth, it looked like it was the Pistons who didn’t have an answer for the Cavaliers offensively.

“The one thing I like about our team is we kept our composure tonight and gave them a run for their money,” James said, following the loss. “We just kept playing hard.”

The Cavaliers played hard in the second half of Game 2, but they still found themselves in a two-game hole. That was the bad news.

The good news was that the series was heading back to Cleveland, where the Cavaliers had found success all year and through the first round. And 20,000 screaming fans at The Q made sure that it would continue.

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Game 3

LeBron James often talks about not paying attention to statistics. But there has been one statistical certainty surrounding the young King: When James has registered a triple-double, the Cleveland Cavaliers have won the ballgame.

Every time.

In his brilliant three-year career, the Chosen One had registered 10 triple-doubles and the Cavaliers had won 10 times. In Cleveland’s pivotal Game 3 matchup with the Pistons, LeBron went to 11.

The Cavaliers faced an 0-3 hole and a 10-point deficit against the Pistons in Game 3 at The Q, but James – who had only six points through the first three quarters – took over down the stretch, scoring 15 of his team-high 21 points in the fourth. The Chosen One went 6-for-8 from the floor in the fourth, including the three-pointer to put the Cavaliers up seven with just over a minute to play.

LeBron added 10 boards and 10 assists for his second triple-double of the postseason.

The Cavaliers played Game 3 without the services of starting shooting guard, Larry Hughes, who was back in St. Louis following the sudden death of his younger brother, Justin, who passed away mid-week from complications from a heart transplant.

Flip Murray got the start in place of Hughes and went on to net 13 points and seven boards.

But he was just one of the heroes for the Wine and Gold on this evening. Anderson Varejao, who had been having a solid playoff run, continued his strong play from Game 2 in Detroit, and finished with 16 points on 6-for-7 shooting.

"I feel that it gives me more and more confidence to play," said Varejao. "I feel that the team understands that. They give me the ball. I get the ball more now. I am just going to keep trying to do what I am doing and help the team."

Overall, the Cavaliers frontline – including Z (4-6), Drew Gooden (4-6) and Donyell Marshall (3-8) – did the majority of the damage, shooting 58 percent from the floor.

The Cavaliers took the 86-77 win and were suddenly back in business in the seven-game second-round series with Game 4 set for Monday night at The Q.

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Game 4

All season long, the Cavaliers prided themselves on being able to play – and win – any type of game. In their first-round matchup with Washington, it was a six-game shootout, Western Conference style. But against the rough-and-tumble Pistons, it was bound to be a bare-knuckle Eastern Conference brawl.

The Pistons, who shot 51 percent and scored 113 points in Game 1 in Auburn Hills, were held to 13 fourth-quarter points by a withering Cavaliers’ defense in Game 4.

The ballgame wasn’t a thing of beauty and the Pistons looked like they were ready to pull away, leading by seven early in the fourth quarter. But a layup by Varejao and a Donyell Marshall three-pointer gave the Cavaliers new life.

Soon it was the Cavaliers who had built up a six-point lead, 70-64, with James and the Wild Thing leading the charge.

But the Pistons came back to tie the game at 70-70 with just under three minutes to play.

Cavaliers defense and a pair of free throws by James, however, iced the 74-72 win in front of a deafening throng at The Q.

LeBron led the Cavaliers in scoring, but it wasn’t one of his more stellar offensive performances. The young King netted 22 points in 48 minutes and flirted with his second straight triple-double – finishing with nine assists and eight boards to go with a pair of steals and a pair of blocked shots. James struggled from the field, going 8-for-23, and committed eight turnovers, but, as always, the Chosen One came up big when it counted most.

"It’s one day, one game at a time and if we continue to focus on one day, one game at a time, who knows what will happen," said Coach Mike Brown after the dramatic win.

The Cavaliers had tied the series after they were left for dead following the Game 1 blowout in Detroit. Now, full of confidence and with nothing to lose, the Wine and Gold were heading back to the scene of the crime.

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Game 5

Drew Gooden hit two buckets in the pivotal Game 5 at the Palace. The first one was a 13-foot baseline jumper with just over nine minutes to play in the third quarter. The second put the Cavaliers one game away from the Eastern Conference Finals.

Cleveland looked to be folding up shop after seven quarters had passed in their second-round matchup with the Pistons, but their fourth-quarter run in Game 2 proved crucial in breathing life back into the Wine and Gold.

And after their hostile territory heroics in Game 5, they found themselves in the driver’s seat in the series.

The Pistons led early, but the Cavaliers fought back to take a lead that they never relinquished in the second half of the game. Cleveland eventually pushed their lead to 10 points, but Detroit continued to claw back.

Antonio McDyess split a pair of free throws and his layup with 1:20 to play tied the game at 84-84, setting up Gooden’s dramatic game-winning basket.

With 27 seconds remaining in regulation, LeBron James curled around a screen and found Gooden under the basket and the forward from Kansas dropped it in the hole to give the Cavaliers an 86-84 lead. Detroit got the ball back, but Tayshaun Prince and Lindsey Hunter each missed shots and Rip Hamilton lost the ball with 1.9 seconds to play as the Cavaliers closed in on one of the greatest – and most unlikely – accomplishments in franchise history.

"It's not that they're the big bad wolf," James quipped. "We came back from 2-0 and everyone was against us and our backs were against the wall. But to be able to fight back and lead the series, we accomplished something."

The Cavaliers now had the opportunity to clinch the Eastern Conference Semifinal series with a single win – and the seven-gamer was heading back to Cleveland for them to attempt just that.

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Game 6

The Miami Heat had already polished off the New Jersey Nets and awaited the winner of the Cavaliers-Pistons series.

Larry Hughes returned from St. Louis to join the club after grieving the loss of his brother. Hughes suited up for the Friday night affair, but didn’t play.

Quicken Loans Arena was absolutely pulsating for Game 6, and with the Cavaliers winning three straight against Detroit, the crowd was ready to close out the Pistons and the series.

But the Bad Boys had different ideas and, after weathering Cleveland’s initial salvo, looked like the Pistons of old. As usual, the game would come down to the closing seconds.

Each team battled throughout the evening and by the time the fourth quarter rolled around, it was destined to be a white-knuckled final 12 minutes in Cleveland.

In the final period alone, there were six lead changes and five ties. Chauncey Billups’ miracle three-pointer, beating the shot-clock with just over two minutes to play, gave the Pistons a huge shot in the arm. But it wasn’t a basket that spelled the Cavaliers’ doom in Game 6.

With just over a minute to play and the Pistons clinging to a two-point lead, they got an amazing four offensive rebounds in a single possession. Chauncey Billups was eventually fouled.

Billups split the free throws giving the Cavaliers one final opportunity, but LeBron was fouled before he could dish to Flip Murray on the final possession. James hit the first free throw, but intentionally missed the second. The ball was tipped around, but Ben Wallace eventually batted it away, giving the Pistons the 84-82 win and new life as the series shifted back to Detroit’s favor.

“We're not ready to go home and they're not ready to go home," Donyell Marshall said following the heartbreaking loss. "Nobody is going to come in there and give up and say, here is the game. Everybody is going to go in there and fight until that last whistle blows."

The deciding Game 7 would take place back at Auburn Hills two days later.

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Game 7

The Cavaliers had the Pistons on their heels in the seven-game semis, but after failing to close them out in Game 6, the pressure to survive was once again back on the Wine and Gold.

And Detroit used just that weapon – pressure – to surge past the Cavaliers in the elimination game on a sunny Sunday at the Palace.

Cleveland was within a bucket, 40-38, at the half and trailed by only two with 3:23 left in the third period. But as he did two weeks earlier in Game 1, Lindsey Hunter led a late-quarter Pistons push that gave them a 10-point lead heading into the fourth.

At that point, the vaunted Detroit defense took over the game and swallowed the overachieving Cavaliers up whole.

LeBron James had 21 points at intermission, but Detroit threw everything they had at him in the second half. James went just 1-for-9 in the second stanza, finishing with a game-high 27 points. James added eight boards and a pair of assists before being lifted late in the fourth quarter and the game in-hand for the Pistons.

“You’ve got to keep your head up,” said LeBron following the tough loss. “We did a wonderful job in this series and the playoffs, so we have no reason to hang our heads about anything.”

The Cavaliers played tough defense with Detroit throughout the entire series, but they got a clinic in tenacious D on that particular Sunday afternoon in Auburn Hills. The Pistons held the Cavaliers to 30 percent shooting – including a dominating 8 percent (1-12) from three-point range. They out-rebounded Cleveland, 48-36, and forced the Cavaliers into 12 turnovers.

Mike Brown’s squad scored 23 points in the second quarter and 38 in the other three combined. The Cavaliers’ 61-point output was a franchise low in the postseason.

Aside from the returning Larry Hughes, the Cavaliers’ backcourt – Eric Snow, Flip Murray and Damon Jones – went a combined 2-for-14 from the floor. Meanwhile, Cleveland’s power forwards – Donyell Marshall and Drew Gooden – combined to go 0-for-9.

The Cavaliers battled the Pistons for seven hard-fought games, but came up just a quarter short. Still, it was one of the most memorable postseason runs in franchise history and one Cavalier fans will never forget.

2005-06 Recaps: November - December | January - February | March - April | Playoffs Round 1 | Playoffs Round 2