The Pressbox

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the Detroit Pistons’ series against Cleveland is the game-by-game development of LeBron James.

The young superstar is growing up right in front of our eyes.

In Game 1, he passed up an opportunity for the winning shot to pass off to a teammate. In Game 2, he took the shot himself, but was unable to finish. In Games 3 and 4, he took his team on his shoulders and carried it to victory.

It will be interesting to see how he fares tonight when the Cavaliers return to the hostile environment of The Palace of Auburn Hills.

The Pistons need to find a way to stunt the growth of this rising star.

The Detroit Tigers led a charmed existence last year.

Other than an injury to Mike Maroth, they had their entire team on the field for the vast majority of the season.

That has changed this year with Kenny Rogers, Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney facing extended stays on the diabled list and others such as Placido Polanco, Jason Grilli and Jeremy Bonderman dealing with less severe injuries.

So far they have weathered the storm fairly well, but the series with Cleveland this past weekend may be a bad omen. The bullpen has been stripped of its power with Rodney and Zumaya out.

It will be interesting to see how manager Jim Leyland and the Tigers deal with this adversity.

Chris Chelios has created a stir by not shaking the hands of the Anaheim Ducks after the Red Wings fell Tuesday night in the Western Conference finals.

Frankly, I don’t understand the uproar. Sure, it is tradition to shake hands after a Stanley Cup playoff series, but who cares if Chelios didn’t want to get in line. Maybe he was afraid that something bad would happen.

Sometimes it is better just to head to the lockerroom.

I was covering a high school football game a few years ago that got so nasty that the referees decided to call the game early. The team that was behind was going for cheap shots on nearly every play and openly boasting about how they were going to hurt someone.

When the referees wisely ended this advertisement for bad sportsmanship, the coaches decided for some reason to line up their players for the traditional postgame handshakes. It was recipe for trouble and everyone knew it. I heard the coach of the winning team tell his players to keep their helmets on and mouthguards in for the handshake.

Sure enough, someone from the losing team took a swing at one of his opponents and a fight broke out. The police had to be called to break up the melee.

Sometimes NOT shaking hands is a good idea.

The National Hockey League initiated a package with Versus/NBC primarily because of money, but hockey is suffering as a consequence.

Vs. does not nearly have the viewers that ESPN does. And we were witness to just how important the NHL is to NBA Saturday. The final game of the Ottawa-Buffalo series went to sudden-death overtime, yet NBC cut off the broadcast for a Preakness Stakes pregame show.

That was an embarrassment to hockey which has sold its soul for some additional cash. At the very least, NBC could have put the rest of the game on one of its cable affiliates.

The Pistons are one of the NBA’s elite teams, but their radio network is second to everyone.

If you live in Monroe County and are trying to follow any of the playoff games at night, forget it. Flagship station WDFN in Detroit powers down after sunset and is just about impossible to pick up beyond a 20-mile radius to the south.

There is an alternative for the Cleveland Cavaliers series. Cleveland’s WTAM (1100-AM) is a 50-watt, clear-channel blowtorch station that can be heard in 38 states and Canada. It can easily be pulled in on most radios in Monroe County. It also hosts a pretty good postgame show until 1 a.m.

Cavaliers announcer Joe Tait, who used to be the voice of the Cleveland Indians, is one of the best in the business (better than George Blaha). It’s a nice alternative if you’re in your car and can’t follow the Pistons.

So the Detroit Pistons now know their foe for the Eastern Conference finals.

They will take on LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in a rematch of last year’s semifinals where Cleveland stretched Detroit to seven games. We could have a nice little rivalry brewing here with a young Cleveland team trying to claw their way past the Pistons, who will be playing in the conference finals for the fifth straight year.

Some people have told me they get sick of the constant attention paid to James. But that really doesn’t bother me. He deserves it. For all the pressure he endured coming into the league as perhaps the most heralded high school player ever, he has remained amazingly well grounded.

For some reason the guy who bugs me is Anderson Varejao. Maybe it is the wild hair or his aggressive style, but for some reason he rubs me the wrong way.

Is there are player on the Cavs, the Pistons or any other team that you love to hate?

Robert Horry blasted Steve Nash with one of the most blatant cheap shots I’ve seen in the NBA in a long time and the Phoenix Suns paid the price.

In the closing seconds of the Suns’ victory Monday night, Horry shoved Nash into the scorer’s table with an unnecessarilly hard foul. Amare Stoudamire and Boris Diaw, seated only a few feet away on the Phoenix bench, did the natural thing and leapt to their feet to help their teammate.

Tuesday the NBA suspended Horry for two games and Stoudmire and Diaw for one. I can understand the league rule calling for an automatic one-game suspension for anyone who leaves the bench during an altercation, but a little common sense could have been used here.

The Suns lose two of their top players for a game while all San Antonio must do is replace a seldom used reserve.

Only a handful of local prep athletes have thrown the shot-put 55 feet. George Flanner of Whiteford is one of them, but he doesn’t fit the mold of a king-sized shot-putter. Flanner, who had a 55-9 effort earlier this season, also is a sprinter. He was part of the 400-meter relay team that broke Whiteford’s school record Saturday with a 44.68. Todd Lezon of Bedford is the only other local athlete who comes to mind with such unique talents in the shot-put and sprints.

The announcement came early this week that Bedford graduate Krissy Sheets had been named to the Louisville Slugger National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Central Regional softball team. An email and a phone call later, the story was in our sports section, with quotes from Sheets.

It would be nice if the bigger colleges offered such easy access to athletes. We have tried to contact local athletes playing at Michigan or Michigan State with no success. You’d think they were in the Witness Protection Program.

The Red Wings are headed to the conference finals after Monday night’s 2-0 win over San Jose.

The Piston might not be far behind. They have dominated Chicago in the first two games of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Which team do you think has the best chance to bring home a championship?