Average ticket cost for an NBA game: $35.

Average cost for a hot dog: $3.50.

Detroit's victory at Gund Arena last night: free.

Free as in free throws. Lots of them. Oodles, truck loads, and bag fulls of them.

More, in fact, than any game in the NBA this season. The Pistons took 51 charity shots last night, hitting 42. The result? Another frustrating way for the Cavs to lose, 115-107.

The Cavs trailed by as many as 20 points in the second half and scrapped and clawed to get back into it. But the hosts simply couldn't overcome those freebies, and dropped their 14th game in the past 15 tries.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas fouled out, Brian Skinner fouled out. Cavs coach John Lucas got a technical. None of it could stop the Pistons' march to the line.

The Pistons got fouled on rebounds. They got fouled near the hoop. They got fouled 80 feet from the basket. The Cavs (14-32) got to the line, too, 30 times, hitting 23. The final foul total was staggering. The Cavs committed 35, Detroit 21.

``It's hard to overcome 51 foul shots,'' Lucas said. ``We seem to attack the rim, too, but for some reason we don't seem to get the calls.''

The Cavs didn't get many breaks last night. Trailing by as many as 20 in the third quarter, the Cavs pecked away. Then they went on a 13-4 run to close the third quarter, cutting their deficit to 83-77.

Andre Miller, who finished with 20 points and eight assists, led another spurt to start the fourth and the Cavs cut it to one, at 84-83.

The Cavs stayed close and were still within two, at 88-86, several minutes later. But Ilgauskas fouled out of the game and the Pistons went on a 12-0 run, eight of which came at the line to put the game out of reach.

The Pistons (24-21) weren't exactly on fire, but were much better than the sleeping Cavs in the first half.

Even with leading-scorer Stackhouse sitting out the entire second quarter, the Pistons outscored the Cavs 34-23. Journeyman guard Jon Barry scored 13 points, including a layup at the buzzer, for a 57-40 halftime lead.

The Cavs committed 11 turnovers in the first half, thanks to more errant tosses than an average John Rocker outing. The giveaways, many of which were unforced, led to 13 Detroit points. Meanwhile, the Cavs turned the Pistons' six turnovers into nothing.

Lucas responded by benching starters Wesley Person, Chris Mihm, Miller and Bryant Stith to start the second half. Miller came back, Person sat out almost all of the third quarter, and Mihm and Stith weren't heard from the rest of the night.

Reserves Ricky Davis, who finished with a season-high 28 points and nine assists, and Lamond Murray, who scored 24 in his first game back after suffering a broken nose on Jan. 18, were the sparks Lucas was seeking. Their play, along with Miller, enabled the Cavs to climb back into it.

``On defense, we were struggling so for the second half I wanted to change up,'' Lucas said. ``That group in the second half played better.''

But Stackhouse, who finished with 23 points on 7-of-19 shooting, also got active and so did the Pistons' bench. Barry (14 points), Corliss Williamson (17), Damon Jones (12) and Zeljko Rebraca (14) all did damage off the bench to equalize the Cavs' production. Of those bench points, 26 came on foul shots.

LANGDON PUT ON IL -- Guard Trajan Langdon was put on the injured list before last night's game with a right ankle sprain. The move was to make room for Lamond Murray, who was activated before the game. Langdon, who is averaging 3.1 points, missed nine games with the same injury last month.


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