AUBURN HILLS, Mich. _ When LeBron James stepped onto the court at the Palace of Auburn Hills Thursday morning and starting firing up shots at set spots beyond the arc, he said, "This is my second home."
If Thursday night turns out to be his farewell to the Palace, where 10 years ago he turned in perhaps his greatest performance, James put on another show.
It wasn't a phenomenal scoring display like the one seen on May 31, 2007. Instead, at age 32, James awed the crowd with a thunderous display of power, one of his rim-rattling dunks drawing a technical foul.
Coming off a game when James and Kyrie Irving both scored 30, the two continued their dynamic duo routine. But James and Irving needed more help in a 106-101 loss to the Detroit Pistons.
Again showing a maddening tendency this season to let average opponents hang around, even a 12-point third quarter from Channing Frye wasn't enough to put away the Pistons.
The Cavs lost their third in a row and fell to 1-4 in March, with their lone victory Friday in Atlanta, after going a league-best 9-2 in February.
The Cavs built a 15-point lead in the first quarter, but the Pistons ended the first half with a 10-0 run to go ahead, 55-52.
The Pistons led 68-60 before Frye got going, making three consecutive 3-pointers to give the Cavs a one-point lead at 69-68. Frye made all four of his shots in the third quarter as the Cavs went into the final 12 minutes ahead 80-73.
Monday night's home loss to the Miami Heat was the third time this season Irving and James have scored 30 in a game and they followed that blueprint against the Pistons. James posted his eighth triple-double of the season with 29 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists. He made 12-of-22 from the field, but went 0-for-6 from 3-point range. Irving was right with him with 27 points, five rebounds and three assists, but scored just eight points in the second half.
The Cavs showed they have a ways to go to become a cohesive team and they still await the return of Kevin Love from arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on Feb. 14. Three-point specialist Kyle Korver sat out with a sore left foot that might be a factor on the remainder of this three-game road trip in Orlando and Houston. Cavs coach Tyronn Lue was back on the sideline after staying home Monday with a sinus/ear infection.
The game also featured the return of J.R. Smith, sidelined with a fractured right thumb since Dec. 20. Playing on a minutes restriction, Smith missed his first three shots before connecting on his first basket, a fall-away 3-pointer with 2:24 left in the second quarter. He finished with three points on 1-of-9 shooting in 18 minutes.
Unless the Cavs and Pistons meet in the playoffs, James made his final appearance in the Palace, which opened in 1988. Next season the Pistons move downtown to the new Little Caesars Arena.
Part of James' feeling about the Pistons' home for the last 30 years comes from what is arguably his signature night, Game 5 of the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals. James scored 48 points, including the Cavs' final 25, in a 109-107 double overtime victory.
James said he still has memorabilia from that game, when he played 50 minutes and shot 18 of 33 from the field, 2 of 3 from 3-point range and added nine rebounds, seven assists and two steals.
