Well, that didn’t go exactly as planned. Rasheed Wallace is now 3-1 on his guarantees… and normally, three of out four isn’t bad, but you know… they’re guarantees. You’re supposed to go 100% on those. In defeat, however, Rasheed remained defiant… if also slightly conciliatory.

“I ain’t worried about these cats,” he said. “There’s no way in hell they beat us in a series. They played well. I give them credit. We lost. We shot 30 percent and they had to play their best to beat us.”

Yes, he was forced to eat a little bit of crow, but… Rasheed Wallace isn’t the kind of guy who’s going to be bothered by that. He even dropped in a “the sun even shines on a dog’s ass some days” quote. He just doesn’t care. Guys who show up to introductory press conferences wearing t-shirts that read, “FUCK WHAT YA HEARD” tend to not get bothered by a lot. In fact, Rasheed spirits remained so high that during the game, when the arena’s “Kiss Cam” zoomed in on Rasheed, he tried to kiss Chauncey Billups.

Here was Ben Wallace’s take on the game and the guarantee:

“We can’t let the man go out and predict a win and then go out and stink it up like we did,” Ben Wallace said. “That’s players, coaching staff, everybody.”

Well, since he brought up the coaching… credit Cavs coach Mike Brown for an adjustment he made, going to a smaller line-up and spreading the Pistons out, limiting some of their defensive ferociousness around the rim by keeping Rasheed/Antonio McDyess out of the game. But shame on Flip Saunders for letting him get away with that. You can’t let the Cavs dictate how these games are going to be played. You have superior personnel. You force your own mismatches. If the Cavs go small, you make them pay for it. You pust up damn near anyone on the court, with the exception of whoever LeBron is guarding, and you pound them on the offensive glass.

And when you have 8 seconds left, and you’re down one, you should have Rasheed Wallace on the floor for a tip-in attempt, bad ankle or not. I like Maurice Evans, but he’s not doing anyone a lot of good in that situation.

Game 5 is back in Detroit on Wednesday.

Here’s Rasheed’s pre-game analysis for Game Four, after the Pistons dropped game three to the Cavs a couple days ago. The series now stands at 2-1.

“I know we goin’ win. I know we goin’ bust they ass. Tomorrow night is the last game here in this building this year. Y’all can quote me, put it back page, front page, whatever.”

Well, that’s… that’s not good news for the Cleveland Cavaliers. That’s probably about the last thing they wanted to hear. Historically, when Rasheed has guaranteed things, the Pistons have cranked up the intensity… and if Detroit’s intensity is anywhere near the same as Cleveland’s, Cleveland can’t win. They just can’t.

I actually feel like the only reason that Milwaukee was able to take a game against the Pistons, and Cleveland took a game against the Pistons… is because the Pistons are a little too good. They didn’t play well in the first half of Game Three, but they were still up by 8 or 10 at the half, and they thought they could cruise. They pretty much put themselves to sleep. Cleveland’s best chance to win Game Four is to let the Pistons get out to an early lead, and then pretend to give up for a while.

Anyway, back to the Rasheed quote… that sort of thing doesn’t happen enough. Who doesn’t love that? Even Cavs fans can get behind that, because they can sit back and say, “Alright, bring it on, bastard.” It just puts a little more spring in everyone’s step.