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Late-game flap mars Cavs' win over Pistons

Apr 12, 2011 - 5:36 AM Auburn Hills, MI (Sports Network) - J.J. Hickson scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, as the Cleveland Cavaliers held off the Detroit Pistons, 110-101.

The story of the game was a skirmish between Detroit forward Charlie Villanueva and Cleveland center Ryan Hollins. With 5:47 to play in the fourth, Villanueva and Hollins got together and traded words. A few headlocks were exchanged before the two players were broken up.

Things got a bit interesting after both players were ejected. Villanueva started to run off the court and tried to make his way toward Hollins, who was standing near the Cavs' bench. Villanueva was restrained and escorted to the locker room, while Hollins was taken to the locker room a few minutes later. Police officers were sent to the locker room area to prevent any further activity.

"You just don't want it to escalate like that," Cavaliers guard Daniel Gibson said. "There were a lot of expletives exchanged that I don't think I can repeat, but that stuff happens when your competitive nature kicks in and you just hope it doesn't go as far as it did."

The Cavaliers are 18-63 and the Pistons are 29-52.

Detroit led by as many as 11 in the first quarter and took a 33-23 lead into the second.

Cleveland scored the first 12 points of the second stanza to take a 35-33 edge. The remainder of the frame was a back-and-forth battle that saw the Pistons take a 57-56 margin into the locker room.

With the score tied at 70-70 late in the third, the Cavs went on a 16-3 run. Gibson tallied seven points during the burst, which Hickson capped with a free throw for an 86-73 lead.

Rodney Stuckey made a pair of free throws at the end of the third to cut the gap to 86-75.

The Cavaliers held a 96-85 lead when the skirmish between Villanueva and Hollins broke out.

The Pistons never got closer than six the rest of the way.

"We've been playing good basketball and they got us on a back-to-back," Pistons head coach John Kuester said. "I thought our energy offensively early on was good and like I said defensively we couldn't stop them. They've had trouble as of late scoring points. They kept attacking and you get guys like Gibson?s coming off the bench and he did a great job four for seven from three and that hurt us."

Game Notes

Detroit and Cleveland split four meetings this season...Gibson and Ramon Sessions had 17 points apiece for the Cavaliers...Stuckey tallied 29 points and 14 assists for the Pistons...Detroit turned the ball over 16 times, leading to 22 Cleveland points.