NBA Insider with Ken Berger

Cleveland – When the Pistons walked into Quicken Loans Arena for shootaround at about 10:45 this morning, they were walking into a predicament they’ve seen – and conquered – many times before.

During their current run of Eastern Conference dominance, which began in 2003, the Pistons are 5-1 when trailing 3-2 in a series and facing elimination in Game 6. Four of those wins have come on the road.

This would explain the confidence – as close to a guarantee as you’ll hear – that Chauncey Billups expressed in the visiting locker room a couple of hours ago.

Billups didn’t go so far as to guarantee that the Pistons would win tonight to force Game 7 back in Auburn Hills. He said something more specific, and even more definitive, about the superstar who torched them with 25 straight points and 29 of Cleveland’s final 30 in the Cavs’ 109-107 double-overtime victory in Game 5 Thursday night.

Memo to LeBron James from the Pistons: You might get your 40 points or so again tonight, but you better be prepared to do it while standing 20 feet or more from the basket – not driving ferociously to the rim for a stunning assortment of dunks and layups, as you did in Game 5

“That’s never happened to us,” Billups said, a Detroit Tigers cap sitting slightly askew on his bald head. “No, that won’t happen again. I won’t say the kid can’t get 40, you know what I’m saying? But he won’t get the 40 like that again. No, no, trust me. Not like that. If he can get 40 with fadeaways and all that, then tip your hat. He won’t get that kind of 40 again.”

It was a bold and stern message to LeBron, and in case Billups wasn’t clear enough, he was basically saying what Isiah Thomas said to Carmelo Anthony back in December: Don’t go to the basket right now … wouldn’t be a good idea.

Cavs coach Mike Brown didn’t need Billups to inform him of this. He already knew.

“They’re going to hit LeBron every time he touches the ball,” Brown said. “Maybe not at the start of the game, but come that fourth quarter for sure, as soon as he touches it, they’re going to run two guys at him. And they’re going to take it out of his hands and make somebody else beat ‘em.”

A while later, I relayed Billups’ boast to the Cavs’ Eric Snow, who didn’t even blink.

“If I was in their position, I would be saying the same thing,” Snow said. “So it doesn’t surprise me. I don’t think they’re disgusted with a guy getting hot or making threes or hitting jump shots. I think what probably disgusts them the most is a guy getting layups and dunks. We would feel the same way, so it doesn’t shock me or surprise me that they feel that way.”

It might shock or surprise the Cavs, however, that Billups and the Pistons aren’t panicking in the least heading into Game 6. In fact, Billups’ spin this morning was that even with all of LeBron’s heroics, Cleveland still needed two overtimes to win Game 5.

“The game I saw the other day was like nothing I’ve ever seen,” Billups said. “And still they needed two overtimes to beat us. The way we’ve played in a few of these games, we should have gotten beat by 17, 18, 19. But they haven’t been able to really pull away like that on us. I think that’s got something to do with us, but it’s probably got something to do with them, too. We’re still in this series and like I said, if we were getting beat by 17, 16, it’s really an uphill battle. But we’re right there.”

Tonight, it sounds like they will be right there in droves whenever LeBron touches the ball. The guys with the mops and towels better be ready to wipe up a lot of sweat from the floor under the basket.