Eric Snow has been tenacious on both ends of the floor in Cleveland's postseason wins. David Sherman NBAE/Getty Images

The players who might be learning that lesson are probably the Wine and Gold’s young bucks. As far as the fans go, after eight years of wandering in the postseason-less desert, it’s easy to understand their frustration.

The Cavaliers veterans – players like Donyell Marshall, Damon Jones and Eric Snow – have come through in a big way during Cleveland’s scintillating postseason run that continues to unfold before our eyes. Last night’s 74-72 nail-biter was a perfect microcosm, but doesn’t encompass everything they’ve done.

Eric Snow led the Cavaliers with 10 points in the second half of last night’s thriller. The Pistons looked content to give him a lane to the basket, and the former Spartan looked content to take it. All told, Snow finished with 12 points, three rebounds, one assist and two steals. He had just a single turnover in 36 minutes of action.

In the six Cavalier playoff wins, Snow is averaging 10.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.3 steals.

But, whether he scores or not, Snow does what he’s done all year – lock down an opponent with tenacious defense. The Canton Bulldog was in Chauncey Billups’ grill for every one of those 36 minutes and wound up outscoring the man who finished fifth in the MVP voting by a point. Billups finished with 11 points and seven assists.

“We’re more in tune to their sets, and more in tune to their personnel,” opined Snow. “We are making jump shooters put the ball on the ground, and we are shrinking the court. We’re contesting shots and trying to eliminate their easy baskets because they shoot the ball well. Basically, we’re just trying to make it tough for them.”

Donyell Marshall missed five of his first six shots, but the veteran knew that his team needed him. The Cavaliers’ voice of reason in the locker room drilled three huge three-pointers and has turned up his defensive intensity as well.

“Ever since the fourth quarter of Game 2 we have been playing hard,” said Marshall, following Monday night’s win. “We kind of found something. We are going to continue to use it.

“Today, we came out and did what a lot of people thought we couldn’t do.”

Marshall is averaging nearly 10 points in the postseason and his first round heroics – a 19-point effort in the first game of the series and a momentous 29-point effort in the last game against Washington – have gotten the Cavaliers to the point they’re at now.

But the league’s top rebounding sixth man can’t be measured by his numbers. A key block here, a big board there – Marshall has done the little things and become the x-factor that he was brought in to be. And now that the Cavaliers are poised to give the Eastern Conference Champs a run for their money, the veteran forward is more valuable than ever.

“We want to win the series,” said Marshall. “We’re still not done. We’re not happy with what we have done. We haven’t proved anything yet.”

After a love-hate relationship with the Cavaliers faithful, the DJ is now a fan-favorite. Jesse D. Garrabrant NBAE/Getty Images

Early in the season, fans were suspicious of the Donyell Marshall signing. He struggled to find his range and, although he continued to do all the intangibles well, the former Huskie still had a tenuous hold on a role with his new club. The regular season was filled with ups and downs, but Marshall has found his niche and is performing admirably.

But no veteran on the Cavaliers has had more ups and downs than Damon Jones, who thrives on drama and attention. He’s gotten plenty of that during the Wine and Gold’s postseason run.

For all the peaks and valleys and the ever-evolving love-hate relationship with the fans that Jones had during the regular season, he will live indelibly in Cavalier lore for his Game 6 game-winner in Washington in what seems like an eternity ago.

Suddenly, the quotable journeyman has emerged as not only a fan favorite, but as a leader in the locker room. He acted as both benchwarmer and decoy through the first five games of the Washington series, but has stepped up in a big way since hitting the shot heard ‘round Cleveland two Friday nights ago.

He came in to harass Chauncey Billups in the fourth quarter of Game 2 and has been chipping in to the cause ever since.

“We found out something about ourselves that we can be competitive in this series,” spun the DJ. “We can come up with a game plan to do things against those guys on both ends of the floor that will give them problems. I don’t think we have figured it all out yet, but we have done enough to get the series to 2-2.”

It’s going to get more interesting for both the Cavaliers crew of seasoned veterans and young guns like LeBron James and Anderson Varejao as the series heads back to Detroit for Game 5 – and possibly Game 7. Cleveland has done the unthinkable and made a series out of what looked like a walk in the park for the Pistons.

And their veteran leadership is doing exactly what they are paid to do: lead the way there.