The disappointment, frustration and despair that come with yet another less-than-stellar performance may be settling in with a team that isn't used to losing.

"I felt that in the locker room, I felt we were pretty frustrated," Pistons forward Antonio McDyess said. "You feel the energy. We were frustrated, we were mad. Normally we come in, 'Yeah, we'll be all right.' We ain't all right. We're not all right with this loss tonight."

Indeed, the Pistons (25-21) seemed well on their way to a much-needed victory against a quality opponent.

After a tightly contested first half, Detroit's Allen Iverson took over down the stretch in the third quarter. The Pistons led 66-58 after three quarters, with the last points coming on an ankle-breaking drive to the basket by Iverson past Anderson Varejao. Iverson finished with a team-high 22 points.

From there, it was all Cleveland. The Cavs opened the fourth quarter with a 15-2 run as LeBron James cheered from the bench.

"Regardless of who's on the court, we got outscored at that point," Pistons coach Michael Curry said. "The first three quarters, we had done the job and exactly what we wanted to do. Then we got to the fourth, and for whatever reason, we made too many mistakes."

While the Pistons may be fading, the Cavs (37-9) are well on their way to winning the Central Division for the first time since the 1975-76 season.

Although James led all scorers with 33 points, it was the scoring by Daniel Gibson and Mo Williams at the start of the fourth quarter that put the Cavs on the path to victory.

Gibson scored all seven of his points off the bench during Cleveland's 15-2 run to start the quarter.

Williams had eight of his 22 points during the fourth-quarter run.

"What I liked most about this game was that our guys stayed composed and they just stayed with it and kept grinding," Cleveland coach Mike Brown said. "We have scorers on our team."