Recap: Cavs 102, Pistons 93(Or, The Resiliency of Love)

The Cavaliers rolled into the Palace at Auburn Hills looking like a budding title contender. The Wine and Gold looked to sweep their three game road trip after destroying D.C. and NYC.  The Detroit Pistons, fresh off a roster makeover, wanted to continue their momentum toward a playoff spot. With Tayshaun Prince and LeBron James back with their original teams, it felt like old times. Let’s get to it.

1st Quarter: The game’s scoring started in rather emblematic fashion. Reggie Jackson used a double screen to get himself a 15 footer off the bounce with a semi-contest from Kyrie Irving. Yes, he made it, but it was a theme throughout the evening. The Cavs were happy to let Jackson try to beat them with Heroball.

On the other end, LeBron got out into early transition for a layup. His extra step wasn’t as bad as Sweet Lou’s balletic jaunt in New York, but it was still rather humorous. That “gather step” is getting longer and longer in the NBA. Shortly after Kyrie blew by Greg Monroe on a left hand drive off Pick and Roll, Kyrie delivered an Oop to Mozgov off a baseline inbound play. It was the first of two such quick hitting alley-oops to Mozzy on the evening. LeBron atoned for a lazy turnover by ripping the subsequent outlet pass and taking it in for a dunk. He had two quick steals in first minutes of the game. Swarming defense, solid rim protection in the form of Mozgov blocks and two Kevin Love three balls pushed the lead to 17-8 and a Piston timeout at the 6:36 mark.

Unfortunately, Detroit went on a quick 9-0 run that included a throwback jam by old/new Piston Tayshaun Prince and a dagger three from the quietly emerging Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Kevin Love again had the answer by nailing a right corner three from LeBron’s kickout pass. The new Cavalier bench rarely sits down. They were in full throat cheering early and often. LeBron’s rest came a touch later than in recent games when Iman Shumpert and Tristan Thompson checked in at the 4:11 mark of the quarter.

The Cavalier defensive intensity picked up with the substitution. A great hedged screen by Love, quick hands by Shump, and a fantastic contest from J.R. led to a 24 second violation. The Cavs were playing good ball, getting better shots and challenging everything, but Detroit got some tough possessions to miraculously end in points to keep the Pistons even. Bron and Delly entered at the :59 mark and promptly hooked up for a Delly-trey. Anthony Tolliver answered with one of his own before the Cavs finished the period with a beautiful passing sequence that ended with a right wing three from pseudo backup PF James Jones. 30-27 Cavs after one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdEOjG27RPQ&t=2m19s

2nd Quarter: Delly, Shump, Jones, Bron, and TT started the second quarter. Both David Blatt and Stan Van Gundy rolled with only one true bigman on the floor. Shumpert did a nice job chasing Jodie Meeks around multiple screens on a possession that ultimately ended with a tough Caron Butler three. Dellavedova did a great job digging in for a defensive rebound that was somehow credited to LeBron, who took it in transition for an and-1 opportunity. It is a play like that that endears Delly to so many basketball people. Another fan favorite, T-Moz rejected a Greg Monroe layup attempt and released for a rim run. Though the Pistons stopped the break, Mozzy got his second alley-oop off an inbound play -this time from a LeBron pass- to put the Cavs up 39-33.

Even the Cavs’ offensive misses came off great action. Love blew his easiest chance of the night when LeBron found him over the top after Shump sucked the defense to him on a baseline curl off Love’s screen. Kevin was left with a wide open layup that spilled off. Still, it was a beautiful play. Defensively, Mozgov straight owned Greg Monroe. If not for a cheap foul that sent Timofey to the bench, the Cavs might have been on their way to another blowout. Instead, the Pistons regained their footing late in the quarter.

Before that however, LeBron’s assist to Kevin Love for yet another left wing three put the King ahead of Scottie Pippen as the all-time assist leader for a forward. I wonder whether they are counting his rookie year assists when he was listed as a point guard. Regardless, it is an amazing accomplishment. Congrats, Bron.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L1nr3k4SE4

The Love three had put the Cavs up 44-37. A Pistons 14-0 run punctuated by a Tayshaun Prince left corner three put the home crowd in a frenzy. Kyrie Irving couldn’t get anything to fall. The ball movement didn’t completely stop, but wasn’t humming like before. The Pistons couldn’t miss. The Cavs’ defensive pressure wasn’t all that bad. It was simply one of those runs. J.R. finally broke the seal with great hanging finish off a hard C-cut.

At 2:19, Kendrick Perkins made his Cavalier debut. Wearing Dion’s old number 3 had me confused. They might as well be twins. Alas, he didn’t wave his hands around for a perimeter pass. Instead, Kyrie found the big fella for his first and only bucket on a baseline drop pass. Of course, Perkins followed that up by picking up fouls on each end in the screen game. He is who we thought he was. After a 1-3 PnR led to foul shots for Kyrie and a three point deficit, the Cavs old “end of the quarter blues” made an ugly return. A Kyrie miss, the aforementioned offensive screen foul on Perk, and a fouled three point shooter later, and the road team found itself down nine points. In all, the Cavs gave up 25 points over the last six minutes of the quarter. Heading to the break, 62-53 Pistons.

3rd Quarter: The first minute and a half of the third was as sloppy as the end of the second quarter. Mozgov had a bad sequence where he passed up a three-foot layup attempt against Prince to kick it out to LeBron with only two seconds to shoot. It didn’t help that Bron was 30 feet away from the bucket. The rebound led to Piston early offense. Both Love and Mozgov leaned toward Monroe on the early break leaving Andre Drummond alone to throw down a lob from Jackson. David Blatt had seen enough when Caldwell-Pope drilled a pull-up three to go ahead 67-53 with 10:30 remaining.

Out of the timeout, it was all Cavs. James found Mozzy for another alley-oop. The Cavalier defense got nasty. Hounding ball pressure and properly funneled drives put the Pistons offense on lock down. On the other end, it was the Kevin Love show. LeBron and the rest of the Cavs looked for the GQ model and he delivered with four three pointers in the period. On the occasion that the Pistons defense closed out in time to disrupt his flow, Love found Mozgov down low for a no nonsense dunk. Kyrie got his jumper going a bit as well. All in all, the Cavs ended the quarter on a 24-7 run by playing insanely good defense and pick and popping the Pistons to death. Even with some questionable calls going against Cleveland, the Cavs rolled into the fourth leading 77-74.

4th Quarter: Delly, Shump, Jones, Bron, and TT started the fourth quarter with tremendous defensive pressure. Shump finally got a three to fall that pushed the lead to six. A slick hesitation dribble from LeBron netted an and-1. Delly made a push in transition that led to a LeBron assisted left wing three from James Jones that put the Cavs up 86-78 with 8:41 left.

When James made a driving layup to put the Cavs up 12 with 6:33 remaining, it felt over. The Cavs defense held the Pistons without a point from 9:42 to 4:43. It wasn’t a fluke. Kyrie went Uncle Drew on the Pistons with a sick split of the double team and finish. He got Tristan a dunk with a slick baseline drive and dish. Reggie Jackson hero-balled his way into some numbers, but it was over.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdEOjG27RPQ&t=8m4s

Thoughts: Iman Shumpert played thirty minutes of meaningful ball in this one. His shot wasn’t falling for much of the contest, but he was a beast defensively. He narrowly missed out on a highlight alley-oop opportunity from LeBron. It would have been nice to get him a sweet dunk to reward his strong defensive work.

I still love how supportive J.R. Smith is even when he isn’t getting huge minutes. Blatt rode the Delly/Shump backcourt for much of the fourth quarter, but J.R. and the rest of the bench guys were completely in the game. Great chemistry.

Kevin Love had an interesting game. He did as good of a job hedging on Pick and Roll than I have seen since he has been a Cav. It seems that Blatt has decided to hedge with Love depending on the PnR combo. With Mozzy behind him, he can afford to take some risks. Kevin was quick laterally and got back to his man with far more (dare I say) vigor! Offensively, Love scored all of his points from behind the arc connecting on 8-14. Though there were probably instances that a post opportunity would have been successful against Van Gundy small ball, Love stuck to Pick and Pop. Tristan and Moz are doing a good job of rolling hard as the secondary screener. Love fired when open and hit the roll man if the defense closed out in time. It might not have been what Charles Barkley wants, but if Love hits 8-14 from behind the long line and his three assists lead to dunks, it sure is effective.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHMCloLmmwU

James Jones got a lot of run playing behind Kevin Love in this game. Considering how the Cavs used Love against the Pistons, it makes sense. He got beat on the defensive glass a few times, but in general he played well. His two threes came at important junctures of the game.

LeBron had a rather strange game. He tallied nine of the team’s 14 turnovers. Some of them were simple miscommunication and some were poor ball handling. Still, he didn’t hold the ball that often and his defensive pressure was fantastic. After averaging about 31 minutes in the month of February, it was almost strange to see him play 39 minutes.

The Cavs played much better basketball than the Pistons for almost the entire game. It was nice to see that the timeout in the first two minutes of the third had an effect. Good win.