Game 7s have been kind to Cavaliers, Pistons over the years. But one will fall on Sunday

Game 7. That's a phrase that surely brings back a lot of good memories for fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons.

Of course, only one of those groups will be happy on Sunday night.

For the second consecutive round, the Cavaliers and Pistons are heading to a winner-take-all contest. Detroit plays host to Cleveland on Sunday night in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series, with the winner set to face New York in the East finals starting Tuesday.

Detroit is 6-1 in Game 7s since 1990, while Cleveland is 5-0 in Game 7s since 2016 — with two of those wins coming in road games.

“I’ve seen this movie before,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “It’s tough. It’s hard. And it should be hard. The good thing is we’ve put ourselves in a position to have a Game 7. But this is what it’s about. Playoffs are hard. We’ve got to close it out in Game 7.”

Cleveland's seven-game win in Round 1 this season was over Toronto; Detroit's seven-game win in Round 1 this season was over Orlando. The Cavaliers and Pistons both got to be at home for those games; Cleveland doesn't have that luxury this time around.

The Cavs won Game 5 in Detroit to take command — albeit briefly — of the series, then lost 115-94 with a chance to close out the series at home on Friday. So, back to Detroit they go.

“It’s one game on the road. There’s no other way to put it,” Cavaliers guard James Harden said. “You’ve got to be detailed, you’ve got to get off for a really good start, and you’ve got to maintain and sustain it for an entire game, however long that takes. It really is just one game. Not saying you’ve got to be perfect, but we’ve got to do the details that we’ve been preaching.”

The Pistons are now 4-0 this season when facing elimination after Friday's victory. They won four elimination games — total — in the last 20 seasons combined, though in fairness most of those years came and went without Detroit even making the playoffs.

But this team is different. A 14-win laughingstock of a club two seasons ago held the No. 1 seed in the East for almost this entire season, and a sense of poise seems to have grown from that success.

“We stay in the moment,” Pistons guard Cade Cunningham said. “We don't get ahead of ourselves. But most importantly, we stick together. When things get ugly or whatever, we come together, we talk, we get back in the moment and then we move forward from there.”

Added Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff: "They just don't quit. The resolve that they have, the belief that they have in one another, they just have the ability to bounce back mentally where they don't hang onto things. Quarters don't bother them. Halves don't bother them. They just move on to the next play, stay moment to moment and try to win what's in front of them.”

Sunday's winner will be the sixth team in this playoff format (the NBA began using best-of-seven series in Round 1 in 2003) to advance to the conference finals after winning Game 7s in both Round 1 and Round 2.

The others:

— Dallas, 2003

The Mavs went 60-22 in the 2002-03 season and were the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference playoffs. They beat Portland 4-3 in Round 1, Sacramento 4-3 in Round 2, but fell in six games to San Antonio in the West finals.

— Phoenix, 2006

The Suns went 54-28 in the 2005-06 season and were the No. 2 seed in the West. They beat the Lakers 4-3 in Round 1, the Clippers 4-3 in Round 2, but fell in six games to Dallas in the West finals.

— Boston, 2008

The Celtics won the NBA title in 2007-08 the hard — really hard — way. Boston went 66-16 to grab the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, then needed seven games to topple both Atlanta in Round 1 and Cleveland in Round 2. The Celtics beat Detroit in six games to win the East finals, then beat the Lakers in six games in the NBA Finals.

Toronto, 2016

The Raptors went 56-26 in 2015-16 and were the No. 2 seed in the East. They needed seven games to beat Indiana in Round 1 and Miami in Round 2, then lost in six games to Cleveland in the East finals.

Denver, 2020

In the bubble season the Nuggets finished 46-27 to grab the West's No. 3 seed. They beat Utah 4-3 in Round 1, the Clippers 4-3 in Round 2 — rallying from 3-1 down in both of those series — then lost to the Lakers 4-1 in the West finals.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

Cleveland Cavaliers' James Harden (1) shoots as Detroit Pistons' Caris LeVert (8) defends in the second half of Game 6 of a second-round NBA basketball playoffs series Friday, May 15, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham, right, shoots past Cleveland Cavaliers center Evan Mobley, left, in the second half of Game 6 of a second-round NBA basketball playoffs series Friday, May 15, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson shouts in the first half of Game 6 of a second-round NBA basketball playoffs series against the Detroit Pistons Friday, May 15, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Max Strus (2) gestures as he comes back into the game in the second half of Game 6 of a second-round NBA basketball playoffs series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Friday, May 15, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Detroit Pistons' Ausar Thompson, left, and Cleveland Cavalirs' Max Strus, center, reach for the ball over Caris LeVert, right, in the first half of Game 6 of a second-round NBA basketball playoffs series Friday, May 15, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

NEW YORK (AP) — Fifty years after Sylvester Stallone pulled off one of Hollywood's all-time long shots with “Rocky,” the Oscar-winning star still identifies with the character who for many embodies the outsider proving all the naysayers wrong.

But he no longer claims to be an underdog.

“It would be so disingenuous to say you’re an underdog, ‘as he said from his penthouse,’" Stallone said during a recent interview, on a high floor of a luxury Manhattan hotel. "Yeah. Come on. I am a lucky dog.”

Stallone, who turned 80 in July, is among the most successful movie stars and filmmakers in history. He has generated billions of dollars through such blockbuster franchises as “Rocky,” “Rambo” and “The Expendables” and portrayed some of the most memorable film characters. And he is still working, starring as mobster Dwight “The General" Manfredi in the Paramount+ series “Tulsa King.”

By choice and otherwise, Stallone has been reliving his early years as a struggling actor-writer who somehow convinced United Artists to back his modest story of a journeyman boxer's shot at the heavyweight championship, and even allow him to play the lead despite having little acting experience. His memoir “Steps,” published Tuesday, arrives less than two months before a fictionalized and semi-authorized version of his story, Peter Farrelly's “I Play Rocky," arrives in theaters, with Anthony Ippolito in the starring role. (Farrelly spoke about the film with Stallone, who was otherwise uninvolved.)

“Rocky," which beat out “Taxi Driver” and “All the President Men's” among others to win the best picture Oscar, is one of those classic movies that only seem to benefit from the back story; Stallone's own journey from the streets of Philadelphia to the Oscars stage echoes so well his character's improbable rise.

As he writes in “Steps,” he was a hard-luck case, an unplanned and unwanted child who seemed to face endless discouragement right through the production of “Rocky," when he feared every day on the set might be his last.

Stallone was in Manhattan to promote his book, but spends much of his time at the Palm Beach, Florida estate he shares with his wife, Jennifer Flavin. Even when — especially when — he's talking about his rare fortune, Stallone speaks in a warm, rumbly, offhand manner, a kind of private street talk that suggests he doesn't believe it all.

Last year, he was a Kennedy Center honoree, his award presented to him by President Donald Trump, who had previously named Stallone, Jon Voight and Mel Gibson his “ambassadors” from an otherwise liberal Hollywood. Stallone has called Trump “the second George Washington,” but he has contributed to both Republicans and Democrats and broken with conservatives by calling for stronger gun control laws. He also condemns war, including the Iran War, as a story of sending people into a "meat grinder while the military complex is making zillions of dollars."

“I do believe that you have to defend yourself. But to go on the offensive?” he says, adding that he would prefer not to be known as a ”political figure."

“I love the common architecture of trying to just survive. That’s noble," he says. "To be a politician, that’s a different animal.”

During his interview, he also talked about fate, insecurity and why he was probably better off for his unhappy childhood.

Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

STALLONE: I was approached a few times (over the years) and the one thing I didn’t want to write about is my life. It’s this ambivalent roller coaster ride. It's not always the most pleasurable ride. And I thought, ‘What am I known for?’ Pulling off this minor miracle in 1976, which falls under the heading of inspiration. That’s what I want to do. Because the character was an inspiration, I wanted to tell the people how it all came to be.

STALLONE: It was very hard because I spent 50 years burying that stuff. And it’s like you come across a lost city, and you start to become your own spiritual archaeologist, digging down. And it’s not pretty. But I didn’t want this to be, ‘Oh, woe is me.’ Everyone has issues and a lot worse than me. I just wanted to touch on the essence because I still have this conundrum. If everything was really nice, maybe I wouldn’t be here, you know what I mean? If I didn’t have that insecurity which drives us. You know, insecurity is a great motivator.

STALLONE: I think so — especially the ones that are desperate to do better and constantly pushing it. For example, I don’t have to do my dialogue for another month before we start “Tulsa King.” I'm up every morning at 5:00 o'clock, studying until literally it’s like breathing. Now, that’s probably insecurity, but that’s the way I approach it.

STALLONE: No, I didn't. You know what I see. You're sitting there and going through messages and somebody who's 18 has put it on the internet or on TikTok. And how would this person relate to an 80-year-old guy? They're not, though. They're not relating to me. It's that character.

STALLONE: In retrospect, that to me is the greatest gift. You know, you write something — I’m just trying to get some footage on myself. I'm just trying to write something really simple. I didn’t ever expect it to be in more than one or two theaters. So all this is a tsunami of good luck. It ('Rocky') tapped into something that I cannot take credit for.

STALLONE: A lot of it, yeah.

STALLONE: I was thinking while I was working (on the book). “You were really at the end of your rope.” Nothing was working. I was 29 years old. And I had this epiphany, like in the backyard, pounding the soil, asking for spiritual help. I had always avoided it. And I had thought, you know, “To each his own.” I don’t want to rely upon some idol, god, symbol, anything. But maybe we need something that makes us believe in the invisible — faith. I had no faith. I was agnostic, and then it came literally back that night.

And that's why I pay homage in the “Rocky” movie. The first scene is, you know, at “The Resurrection” (gym). It's amazing we found that place. A boxing club called "The Resurrection."

STALLONE: It's the way I’m built, I think. There are no free lunches. I’ve had back operations, neck surgeries, both shoulders, heart — you name it. And it’s all because ... you do it yourself. There was a necessity to feel it. You’re not going to be like the other guys. You’re going to do it, which is completely wrong (laughs).

STALLONE: How strange is this? A movie about me being in a movie.

STALLONE: It’s fantastic. And the kid (Ippolito) did a great job. This is so odd. They usually do this when you’re dead and gone. It's 50 years almost to the day when it came out and if he gets nominated ... It’s so surreal. I have to give Peter Farrelly, the director (credit). I never in a million years had any confidence this would work. But he said that to the everyday person, this is kind of a fantastic journey. Rocky is fiction, this is real. And that's what people are holding on to.

FILE - Sylvester Stallone appears at Veterans Stadium prior to a Philadelphia Phillies' home game to promote his film "Rocky II" on June 14, 1979. (AP Photo/Gene Puskar, File)

FILE - Sylvester Stallone works over a punching bag in Los Angeles, Feb. 9, 1981. (AP Photo/Randy Rasmussen, File)

Actor Sylvester Stallone discusses his memoir "The Steps" at The 92nd Street Y on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, in New York. (Photo by CJ Rivera/Invision/AP)

Actor Sylvester Stallone poses backstage before discussing his memoir "The Steps" at The 92nd Street Y on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, in New York. (Photo by CJ Rivera/Invision/AP)