Recap: Cavs 106, Pistons 101 (or, The Rule of Three)
2016-04-18
[Editor’s Note: For those of you expecting the regularly scheduled Sunday night/Monday morning podcast, please be advised that it will now be a Monday night/Tuesday morning podcast.]
In writing, the rule of three is a principle that suggests things that come in threes are more entertaining, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things. This is because having three entities combines both brevity and rhythm with having the most impactful amount of information to create a pattern. The same can be true in basketball, when the combination of three superlative talents operating in unison can create a memorable result… which just happened to be on display at the core of the inaugural playoff game of this Cavalier post-season.
The Cavs took on the young, hungry and fearless Detroit Pistons, who came into the game with all of the YOLO chutzpah of an eight seed with nothing to lose, and immediately found that they had their hands full with Stan Van Gundy’s current three-point blueprint of a team (dominant big man, speedy PnR triggerman, and a bevy of spot up three point shooters). Fortunately for the wine & gold (and white), they countered with a dazzling, demonstrative and devastating attack from their Big Three of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. It was one game in which the two legs of the virtual tripod that succumbed to injury last post-season, had the opportunity to step up and begin their road to redemption by making a statement with their play… and make it they did. Both Kyrie and Kev had their playoff scoring highs, while LeBron did his best to orchestrate it all with patience, persistence and precise passing.
The Latin phrase, “omne trium perfectum” (everything that comes in threes is perfect) comes to mind, and while it wasn’t quite a perfect performance, it was a strong one in the face of a flurry of frustrating shots from downtown by the Pistons that nearly triggered some frighteningly familiar flashbacks.
First Quarter:
Even though Timofey Mozgov was not in the starting lineup, the Cavs continued their tradition of losing the opening tip. The Pistons broke the seal first with a Marcus Morris jumper, but the Cavs got a second chance offensive board from Tristan Thompson, and LBJ found KLove for a corner three. LBJ then repeatedly took the ball to the rack (in fact all 10 of his points in the period came off of layups). Kyrie had a cold start, missing his first four attempts, but Kev stayed hot knocking in a nifty turnaround banker.
Overall, the Cavs were moving bodies on both ends, but in their efforts to pack the paint to stop the Reggie Jackson/Andre Drummond pick and roll action, they wound up being a step slow guarding the perimeter. As a result, the Pistons were not missing many shots early. Despite Kyrie finding LBJ on a sweet give and go, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope poured in seven straight (including an uncontested three) to help fuel a 12-2 Detroit run. Kyrie finally answered with a triple, then managed to keep his pivot foot er, not get called for a travel to find a cutting LBJ for a bail-out bucket. Delly checked in just in time to hoist up a perfect flob.
TT kept the clamps on Drummond (zero points and one rebound in the first) while pulling down a couple of boards of his own. Then a J.R. Swish gave Cavs the lead back, before KCP reclaimed it with another straight-on triple (and the ghosts of ’09 began to stir). Delly snuck in with a second layup, then he put the screws to KCP. After Kyrie hit another jumper to deadlock the score, he drove into traffic on the next possession and missed. The Cavs caught a break though since Drummond was out of bounds on the rebound. With 1.6 left, Ty Lue astutely subbed LBJ back in to catch the inbounds and drop in one last layup over Andre the Giant. Cavs led after one, 27-25.
Second Quarter:
The Cavs’ second unit, led by Kyrie Irving, started out the second frame cold (they made just 2-10 shots, both by Kyrie) including a pair of misses from Shump and Delly from downtown on the same possession. Fortunately, both of Uncle Drew’s buckets were of the three point variety (one from deep in the Q, and the other a more traditional and one), but he still engaged in some maddening over-dribbling. Moz, in his limited time on the court, got mostly abused by a ridiculously coiffed Aaron Baynes (what is it with this Hitler youth haircut trend in the NBA?), and wound up -5 in his five minutes of play. Meanwhile, Reggie Bullock and Stanley Johnson were doing their best impressions of Mikael Pietrus and Rafer Alston, throwing up ridiculous YOLO triples like it was 2009 (they were a combined 6-7 and a perfect 5-5 from beyond the arc for the game).
This one’s for you, Tom!
With only Kyrie at the helm, the Cavs featured too much ISO ball and not enough defense. I kept hoping maybe there would be a Channing Frye sighting, or maybe even a call for the Orange Mamba against this torrid Pistons second unit that seemed more unconscious than the entire cast of the movie Inception. At least Ty Lue took a timeout to check LBJ and KLove back in to stop the bleeding. Kevin responded with a strongman finish in the post for the and-one, and the next four minutes of game time featured a whole lotta Love. KLove turned into a monster on the block, and the Cavs kept feeding him the ball for more. Some improved defense led to another three from Kyrie and the Cavs capped an 8-0 run.
But, alas, YOLO fever spread to Marcus Morris (who may have actually had his eyes closed on the last of his three straight triples (in the name of Hedo Turkoglu… someone give that man a blood test!). A KLove three (he had 18 points in the half to lead the Cavs) and a ridiculous back door pass from LBJ to JR kept the Cavs close, but KCP knocked down Detroit’s 10th three of the half (they fired away at a 61% clip, and an even hotter 62.5% from deep) to lead the Cavs 58-53 at the half.
Third Quarter:
The second half started with an Uncle Drew blitzkrieg. Kyrie, with a couple of assists from LeBron, hit three straight buckets (two from downtown for eight total points) to slingshot the Cavs back into the lead.
But the Pistons finally started getting Drummond going on the high-handoff pick and roll with Reggie Jackson (he had nine points in the quarter). Up until this point, Drummond and TT had mostly canceled each other out, but Andre started getting deeper into the post. LBJ was still dishing and getting the ball to shooters his shooters, hitting Kevin for a fadeaway, but the Pistons’ magic from the outside continued to be just this side of blistering. JR then hit a ridiculous triple off an assist from Kyrie to give the Cavs some breathing room. But, Stanley Johnson forgot he was merely a 19 year old rookie and threw in another triple to knot things up again a few minutes later. The Cavs spent a few fruitless possessions jacking up threes as the shot clock wound down.
Shockingly, JR actually drew an offensive foul call on Morris, which led to an even more shocking off the dribble pullup for Shump (his only bucket of the game). Ty Lue opted to keep things close by utilizing the “hack-a-Drummond” strategy which half worked. The Cavs got the final shot of the quarter, which was an ISO pullup for three. The shot selection wasn’t surprising, but the identity of the guy who took it was (Delly — who was 0-4 from downtown on the night). Overall though, it was an improved defensive effort by the Cavs as they held Detroit to just 20 points in the quarter. Pistons still led 78-76.
Fourth Quarter (Yeah, I know I said Rule of Three but there had to be one more):
Ty Lue ran an interesting experiment by putting KLove and TT on the floor to run with the bench bunch of Shump, Delly and RJ, instead of Kyrie (since Kyrie had played the entire third quarter and LBJ had played all but the last 1:15). The experiment ended exactly 56 seconds into the quarter with a Detroit 5-0 run capped by another YOLO contested three from Reggie Bullock to increase the deficit to seven. After a quick timeout, Lue swapped LBJ back in for Tristan and went with KLove at the five. This experiment worked significantly better. RJ hit one of the bigger shots of the game with a much needed triple off an assist from Kev, then an unbelievable flurry of ball movement (nine passes, or 3×3 for those counting along at home) ended with a Delly trey (nevermind, his foot was on the line).
BEAUTIFUL ball movement 🔥😱 #CavsNation #Cavs #Pistons #NBA pic.twitter.com/VpxPjJVvqp
— Cavs Nation (@CavsNationCP) April 17, 2016
The Cavs forced a turnover, then LBJ appeared to get an and one… but it was waved off… only to be regained on a tip in off a Delly miss on the next shot. Detroit kept trying to take advantage of the super small lineup by going to Drummond down low but KLove did a solid job of denying the big man position. Delly and LeBron then got to the line in succession with aggressive drives (LBJ’s through a bear hug by Bullock). RJ hit another big corner three long-foot-on-the-line-two, then had a great defense of Morris on the other end. Unfortunately, Jackson nailed a Pietrus-esque three in transition, tying the game at 88, and leading to another timeout by Lue. Then, it was Kevin Love to the rescue with two HUGE threes (giving him his playoff high of 28), including one following his own amazing save on the baseline.
The Cavs didn’t take full advantage, with successive defensive breakdowns, first on a Jackson layup off an inbounds play and then with bad position on a KCP drive (which led to LBJ lecturing Kyrie on defense). The impact was felt, however, as Kyrie had a terrific block on Tobias Harris (with an assist from LBJ). A minute later, Reggie Jackson’s frustration over the Cavs shutting down his pick and roll game with Drummond finally boiled over and he got himself T-ed up (he actually should have been thanking refs for not calling his double dribbles). On the next possession, the Cavs finally figured out how to force Kyrie to use a screen (by setting what Ben identified as the Clippers’ L double screen), and he got to the line. After a Jackson and-one, Uncle Drew returned with some more wizardry.
With YOLO luck finally starting to abandon the Pistons, LBJ decided to abuse Reggie with an awesome turnaround post move for a layup over the much smaller guard. KLove then followed with an epic defense on Jackson, forcing a shot clock violation! Lue then went ultra small with LBJ at the five (Delly in for Love) for last 35 seconds, and LeBron forced a Jackson miss at the rim. The Pistons had to foul and Cavs made it academic with freebees to ice it. Cavs win a hard fought one, 106-101.
The Evil:
I’d Love To Stop Writing “YOLO.” What is it about SVG teams when it comes to playing the Cavs in the playoffs? They seem to go from decent shooters to dead eye shooters overnight. It’s like they turn up all of their NBA2K sliders to 100 before the series starts… to the point that it wouldn’t shock me if Andre Drummond even knocked one down. I know this is borderline hyperbole, but c’mon… are Reggie Bullock and Stanley Johnson really going to not miss from beyond the arc in every game? Is Marcus Morris going to come out and shoot blindfolded next game? It’s just a little ridiculous…
I’d Love To See Some Closeouts. For all of my complaining about the Magic er, Pistons shooters, the Cavs really were a step (or three) slow on their perimeter defense. Granted, they were heavily focusing on taking away the pick and roll by packing the paint, and daring the Pistons to take those outside shots, but they should still be able to close out with a bit more alacrity. After giving up 10-16 from downtown in the first half, they did limit Detroit to 5-13 from deep in the second (and one of those was of the garbage variety). So, they did pick things up. Still, they’re going to need to make those adjustments going forward.
I’d Love To Stop Writing About Kyrie’s Defense. Wouldn’t we all? I mean, Reggie Jackson is maybe the 15th or 16th best PG that Kyrie could wind up facing in the post-season, and he can’t even force him to go to his left. I’m not going to belabor it, but it’s just a shame that he doesn’t play better fundamental defense… mainly because he’s certainly capable of doing so. The good news is that he was mostly great on the other side of the ball, canceling out his defense with his offense. He even got back to zero on the plus/minus scale with his last few free throws. And, he did team up with LBJ for that terrific block on Harris.
I’d Love For Ty Lue To Figure Out His Rotations. Okay, so no sign of Channing Frye… Richard Jefferson, who seemed to be out of the rotation toward the end of the season plays 12 minutes (including half of the fourth quarter)… and Timo sees five awful minutes and never returns. I get that with Love playing so well, there was less of a need for Frye, but why not give him minutes over RJ and Moz, especially to counter the Pistons’ hot shooting? And also, WTH was that strange experiment to start the fourth? I get that Kyrie and LBJ were probably gassed from playing the entire third quarter, but why did that happen in the first place? Fortunately, he rectified that quickly, and his use of KLove at the five paid off in the fourth. So, at least there was good with the bad.
I’d Love The Hedgehog To Stop Crying About Fouls. And at least SVG backed off his initial statements about the officials not calling offensive fouls on LeBron in his post-game presser. When I first heard him complain, it again flashed me back to his act back in 2009 when he got in the officials’ heads. Just give it a rest and coach, man.
https://twitter.com/CavsNationTV/status/721788250231181312
The Genius:
I’d Love For This To Be The Kevin Love We See From Now On. This was the Kevin Love I envisioned when it was first announced that the Cavs were going to trade for him. He was straight up awesome in this game, and (as LeBron said) affected every aspect of it. He set up on the block and demanded the ball. He scored with a variety of post moves. He flared out and hit crucial threes (4-8). He scored his playoff high (28) and got 22 shots. He pulled down 13 boards. But, maybe best of all, he showed he could play dominantly at the five in a small-ball lineup. I mean, just look at this…
Final tally on Kevin Love at center:
12 minutes, 28 seconds
Plus-8
126.1 offensive rating
90.9 defensive rating— Kevin Pelton (@kpelton) April 17, 2016
I’d Love There To Be An MVP Award For Each Conference. Because LeBron James deserves to win at least an Eastern Conference MVP every year. He was once again locked in on keeping his shots efficient, his passing laser-like and his drives aggressive. He didn’t look to score as much (taking 17 shots to Kev’s 22 and Kyrie’s 24), probably because he knew how important it was to build up confidence in the two younger members of his triumvirate. Give him 11 dimes, six boards two steals, two blocks and just one turnover. And, though he was a little lax on a closeout or two in the first half, he picked things up in the second, helping shut down Morris (19 points in the first half, but just one in the second), or switching onto Jackson and KCP when needed in the fourth.
I’d Love To See Kyrie Use More Screens For Open Looks. There’s no denying that Kyrie’s shot has been getting better and better. He shot 10-24 and 5-10, although it was 10-20 and 5-8 after he missed his first four shots. Imagine how much that percentage would improve if he just used the picks available to him. LBJ and KLove finally resorted to setting a side-by-side double screen to force him to use it in the fourth quarter. He’s such a deadly shooter when he’s open, and could be devastating. Still, scoring a game high (and personal playoff record) 31 is nothing to sneeze at, and he also mixed in six dimes, five boards, two steals and only one turnover.
I’d Love To See The Ratio Of Assists To Turnovers Continue. The Cavs hit and surpassed their NOMAD-ic number of 23 assists (25 total), while turning the ball over a scant, team playoff record five times. Taking that much care of the ball will always go a long way in countering a hot shooting night by an opponent, and probably made as much of a difference as anything in the final result.
I’d Love To Eat My Words About Ty Lue’s Inexperience. For all of the stilted rotations, timeout burning and difficulty adjusting to the Pistons’ outside shooting in the first half, Lue still seemed to out-maneuver SVG with his fourth quarter move to a small lineup with Kevin Love at the five. Obviously, it took Kev to execute on his end of things, but the results were impressive, and left Van Gundy as the coach scratching his head and looking for answers in the post-game press conference. Of course, this lineup was bourne out of a near disastrous lineup to start the fourth, but at least it didn’t take Lue long to scrap it. As much as I question his decision to not play Channing Frye over RJ or an ineffective Mozgov, I really did love his decision to end the first quarter with a sub-in of LBJ for a layup. And, his defense did adjust and step up in the second half and in crunch time. He wasn’t without his flaws, but he also made some positive moves.
Final Thought:
There was some sentiment in the media and on the Live Thread that this may well have been the Pistons’ best shot. I would tend to concur with this notion, mostly because I believe that it’s doubtful they can shoot that well from the outside again this series. Of course, I vividly remember saying something eerily similar about seven years ago. The difference is, of course, that ’09 Magic team actually stole Game 1 from the Cavs in Cleveland (also, they were a lot more talented/medicated than this upstart Pistons team). The other difference is that, while the 2009 Cavaliers were mainly a King and his court… this Cavalier team is built on the strength of the rule of three.
And after all… 3 is a Magic number…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU4pyiB-kq0
One down… 15 more to go…
GO CAVS!
Curry impact on the Warriors is nothing compared to Lebron’s impact on Cavs.
Agreed that Lebron is more important to his team, but that’s just another way of saying that the Warriors are a better team overall outside of their biggest star.
or that Curry is hella’ over-rated
I sure don’t believe that….
Thunder are so over rated. Have always been so.
No Curry tonight for the Warriors. Should be interesting to see how they play without him. I don’t think the injury is serious/I still think the Warriors will sweep, but nevertheless it’s something to watch.
If it was any other team but Houston. Even Detroit.
I just listened to Windy on Rizzo’s show. He was Colsian in his complements of the Cavs. He said they were fabulous yesteday and executed plan perfectly. The only reason itwas close was Pistons made a ton of shots. Interesting. As we all know, Windy is not afraid to throw dirt on Cavs.
Good write-up EG
Thanks DaveR!
Without Paul George, Pacers have like no offense. Detroit a much more difficult test than Indiana.
I dont want to take all the credit, but I did high five Kyrie after shootaround and my wife high fived Kevin Love after shootaround. Just sayin.
Ha. Thanks! Can you do that for next game too?
I think your high fives were worth at least 3-4 pts. Maybe that’s why KLove had so much juice.
Well done!
Well done, but upon further reflection, did you tell either one of them that you thought they sucked and should be traded?
Hahaha. Fair point :) I only say that stuff safely behind the keys of a message board
Well, I think that we would both agree that it was great to see them play well last night, and hopefully it continues.
Great to see Cols spamming the comments and making CtB unreadable…. well done Cols!
Yep, there needs to be a post season limitation of less than 50 comments per post game analysis. Cols incessant commentary did make the thread almost unreadable just now. His repetitiveness can be quite annoying. He lives in constant denial of basic basketball facts that make debating anything with him really pointless. My New Year’s resolution on Aprll 18 is to not read anything he posts, and never respond to any comments. Attended Game One yesterday, and the Q had much more energy than for Game One against Boston last year. I don’t know if it came across on television,… Read more »
Good thing we have Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder instead of Kevin Love going for 28 and 13 or whatever. Oh wait, that trade never happend because Griffin isn’t an idiot.
The entire podcast should be about how awesome Love, leb and Irving are. And Le bweg twsk’ stoo.
Did the colsbot shortout on that last sentence?
The Colsbot3000 switched on its Thai language filter for the last sentence, don’t be alarmed, techs are working on it as we speak.
I thought we played outstanding. This was a fantastic game all around. Detroit was absolutely unconscious from deep, or this game would have been over at halftime. Our offense looked good. Kyrie was huge hitting from deep, as was Love. Those two were phenomenal. LeBron was too, of course. I love love love the fact that Kyrie and Kevin were the focus of the offense for most of the 4th quarter. LeBron played off the ball a lot (until the last 5 minutes), and really let those two continue to go to work. They both delivered big time, too. When… Read more »
Great post Gordon!
Kyrie looks like such a child in the post game presser next Lebron and Love. Plays PnR defense like a child. Uses screens like a child. Stops ball movement like a child.
Go Cavs.
You do know they won, right? And Kyrie was a big part of that victory.
That recap was a lot of fun, EG. Great game.
Thanks Nate!
Key sequence and killer play were the 3 consecutive Delly Lebron pick and rolls. Our 2 best pick and roll players probably.
absolutely. The one should have been and and-1.
Yep. The Delly LeBron PnR has been just about unstoppable.
Great recap. You pretty much covered everything.
Did you notice the referee that Teed up Reggie Jackson? Jackson was carrying on in such a ridiculously demonstrative manner – he really Teed himself up. The official just kinda let Jackson flail and then really slowly and dispassionately gave a quiet ‘T’ signal. I thought it was hilarious.
That play from Kevin Love – saving the ball with one hand? HOLEE CRAP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbLPHvyLmS8#t=3m7s
Yep. I thought the ref thing was funny too. And that Love save was amazing. Just a great game.
Shump also made a great play on that save that I haven’t seen mentioned – he was in the 3pt corner position and he saw Love coming around. Not only did Shump shift to give Love room to take over the corner position, but as soon as Love got the ball, Shump ran in front of the close out defender to keep him from contesting the shot. Very good off ball work that won’t show up in his box score.
Yes!!!! I laughed so hard at the replay. Well done, Ref. hahaha
Thanks Tom, and yes that silent “T” was amazing! Tried like heck to find footage of that specific baseline save… thanks for the video!
Killer recap guy. I agree that this was probably their best shot. I don’t think the Cavs blow them out in the remaining three games, but all should be fairly competitive. I definitely got flashbacks back to 2009 from this one though.
You did? I don’t see the comparisons. This Cavs team is 100x better than that Cavs team. Like if Leb is off, we still have Love and Irving. In 2009 we had…Mo Williams. Yuck. Plus Howard>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Drummond
The only comparison is Gundy and h e just got outcoached by a rookie head coach in his first playoff game.
Advantage CLEVELANDESDFSDF
That Cavs team would have probably swept this Cavs team in a 4 game regular season series. This Cavs team has more star power but that Cavs team could really play. They won 66 games for a reason. Orlando was a good team that year and had the series of its life. They caught lightening in a bottle at the right time.
Also, 2009 LeBron is pretty much the best thing the league has seen outside of Steph this year since MJ in his prime.
You put way too much on the regular season. This Cavs team would destroy that one.
I know wait and see isn’t your style, but I’m going to go ahead and wait and see if this Cavs team ‘destroys’ this Pistons team before I make any comparisons.
Haha, indeed! Let’s see a destruction of an 8 seed with virtually zero playoff experience before suggesting that this iteration of the Cavs is so dominant.
Thanks Cory!
Talk about overpassing. That possession that ended with Delly bailing them out by making a long contested two was ugly. You can’t make an offense function like that.
Number one, It was not contested.
Number two, the only guy who really passed up a good shot was LBJ when Delly hit him cutting to the hoop, but LBJ must’ve not liked the angle and passed out of it.
Number three, Delly is an excellent option for a catch and shoot three. Its one of the best percentage plays on the team, much better than any iso possession.
1. It was contested and at the end of the shot clock
2. Leb passed up two layups and someone passed up and open corner three
3. All that passing lead to a long two at the end of the shot clock. Call it uncontestd if it makes you feel better
4. All that passing increases your chances of a turnover.
5. Overpassing is a terrible way to play offense, leads to turnovers and last second long twos.
1. Watch the video again. It was the least contested available shot of the entire sequence. 2. There were a minimum of three bodies surrounding LeBron when he “passed up” those layups, but I guess you know more about playing basketball than LeBron James. And no one passed up an open corner three. It just didn’t happen. 3. It should have been a 3 in theory. Is that what your gripe is? Delly’s toe was on the line during a wide open shot so the entire team messed up the entire possession? Call the other shots in that video LESS… Read more »
I’m not bashing them. I’m saying that was one of their very worst possessions that you are pointing at and saying it was beautiful. A long two at the shot clock buzzer is not beautiful. There were about 80 other much better possessions that should’ve been highlighted. Like the LeBron shot over Jackson.
I never said it was beautiful cuz that’s subjective, but to me it was a play that symbolizes the ball movement and teamwork so many of us were looking for most the season. It was a unique possession where the ball happened to rotate around the arc twice in a row but I also think that’s an indicator of unselfishness and chemistry. (Plus it was meant to been a 3, just pretend it was!)
Its fine if you find it ugly or whatever but insinuating its bad badketball is where I disagree and get my knickers in a bunch.
Name one person who was more open in that sequence than Delly. I’ll wait. Because Love and Shump in the corners had a guy within about 5 feet of them upon receiving the ball. Delly’s man was still in the paint when he caught the pass he shot. Delly also shoots from deep better than either Shump or Love. Plus, you don’t think LeBron is incapable of recognizing the better of two shots, do you? Also notice the Detroit defenders going all out to close in on the ball multiple times as it swings around. If I was them, playing… Read more »
Cols are you seriously UPSET with a play that ended in a bucket? Come on – admit that you’re just interested in the debate and not the results.
Was this play reviewed? I still don’t think his toe was on the line.
Also Delly’s back door pass to Lebron to really kick it off was brilliant
Also this play actually had ten passes. The first pass from Delly to Shump isn’t in the vine
it had 8 passes in 9 seconds, which is insane.
This kind of basketball is impossible to defend. It’s Pop ball. Its how the Spurs took down the Heat in 2014.
Sigh. Popovich didn’t beat that Heat team by overpassing for a long two as the shot clock expired. That’s not how it works. You cannot actually remember it being that way?!
you say “long two” like it was a Larry Hughes off-the-dribble step back. It was a rhythm J and Delly happened to have a toe on the line (maybe).
Also, what are you talking about? The Spurs overpass all the time. It’s what makes their offense Spursian.
This is literally an 8 minutes video of overpassing.
That’s one ugly video ( watched some, but it was really hard to not puke). I really hope our offense does not devolve into that. Give me Leb and Irving dribbling past guys and dunking or finding open players. Don’t give me turnover prone overpassing that leads to a long two.
As opposed to this turnover prone dribbling/ iso heavy Cavs team? The main reason they won game one was they had uncharacteristically few turnovers. That’s not going to happen every game. They should win the series, but it’s not like Detroit had everything go their way in this one, despite some narratives out there.
Turnover prone? The Cavs are 10th in the league at 13.6 precisely because they don’t overpass. And the ISO heavy Spurs are 5th. And yes, they are ISO heavy this year.
Meanwhile the overpassing GSW are the 5th worst at 15.2 because they overpass so much.
Yeah, those overpassing, turnover prone Dubs really suck. They do turn it over…they also play at a hugely faster pace than the Cavs, who are still near last in the NBA in pace.
“Give me Leb and Irving dribbling past guys and dunking or finding open players.” Did you watch the play? LeBron received Delly’s pass, dribbled, and found an open player… then that open player found a more open player… so on, so on… “Don’t give me turnover prone overpassing that leads to a long two.” So if Delly had kept his toe back another millimeter and the result was a three would you have zero problem with the Cavs passes? Also, the Cavs moved the ball around all throughout last night’s game and had the franchise’s fewest turnovers in a game… Read more »
“I want somebody to overpass” – Popovich.
Oh yeah, of course I was happy he made it and thought yes! at the time. I just don’t like that play being singled out as beautiful or great offense. Delly bailed us out there. It was a bad sequence that had a nice result.
I think Lue is getting way too much credit on his rotations. I think he rode the big three way too long in the first and 3rd quarters. This made it tough for the bench to be effective which needs Lebron or Irving on the floor.
I think he isn’t getting enough credit.
3… 2… 1… FIGHT! I’m just kidding! Interesting juxtaposition though!
I liked playing Love at the 5. But it seemed like he was gun shy to take out Irving early in the first like he usually does. I love that move it allows Irving to run that second unit. And Delly, Lebron, Tristan, Love is a devastating combination. Then he did the same thing in the 3rd and it cost us. He needs to trust his rotations and get Lebron or Irving out early enough that they ready to start the 2nd and 4th. I also like Tristan coming off the bench but thats not a criticism really. Moz has… Read more »
I like highilght vines in the recaps quite a bit.
Because you can’t read.
I live in Yolo County, predominantly a farming community that is also the home of U.C. Davis. You know, where that police officer pepper sprayed a whole bunch of defenseless undergraduate student protesters on video a few years back.
YOLO!
This is brilliant:
Winning!
TT completely shutting down Drummond and Love going nuts were my favorite things from this game.
My fingernails certainly lost in yesterday’s win. The intensity level of that game was way higher than anything I saw in the regular season. Towards the end of the game, Lebron was happy to setup his teammates, but his teammates need to hit the shot, and yesterday they did. Much better than LeIso at the end of games. Kyrie doesn’t get horizontal and fall to the ground after his driving layups anymore, which I think is a good thing. I’m guessing either he, the coaches, or management decided that this is likely to lead to injury and needs to stop.… Read more »
Yep. No matter what, this team plays hard and with heart.
I can’t really think of any negatives from the game. If the Pistons don’t go nutso from three we win by 25. Just a great game by the Cavs.
Kyrie’s D is an ongoing negative… the perimeter D was a negative for the first half, and the lineup mistake to start the fourth was also a negative… Otherwise, I agree with you…
Cols doesn’t care about Kyrie’s defense. Kyrie is awesome. Everything is awesome.
Kyrie’s PnR defense remains abysmal. This play really hacked me off. Non-chalent defensive setup, doesn’t anticipate screen direction, takes a loopy angle, and never bothers to grab/hold/contest the roller. Turns into a simple 2 on 1 Reggie Jackson/Drummond vs TT. At best, Drummond should have been shooting free throws there.
http://on.nba.com/1qSi7tr
Perhaps I should have clarified. That was my Cols impersonation.
I give Lue credit for only going with that linup for a minute before giving up on it. So to me it’s a positive. I really liked what we saw from Lue and the Cavs.
Having RJ play over Frye was more in an effort to allow easy switching. It also freed LeBron to guard Morris in the frontcourt. LeBron completely shut down Harris, and then later Morris. If Frye were out there, LeBron wouldn’t be able to toggle back and from between forward slots to shut down whomever was hot. That was a good move and RJ held up his end of the bargain. If you want to go with Frye over Mozgov, I get that, but I think it was important to give the big fella a chance. He didn’t play as awfully… Read more »
These are good points Ben. As usual, opening the rest of our eyes.
Thanks Ben, I sort of get the RJ over Frye analysis, but disagree on Moz. I rewatched the five minutes he played, and he looked just completely lost out there. I think Nate mentioned that if you’re going to play Moz at all, it should be as the starter, because he’s just unplayable off the bench for the most part…
Moz has been awful so I don’t get the want to put him in at all. TT limited Drummond so that you almost forgot Drummond was in the game.
I would like to see Frye some, but keep Moz glued to the bench.
Ok. I guess we are just seeing different things, EG. Kyrie didn’t use the off-ball screens Moz tried to set for him. Kyrie basically hi-jacked the offense during that stretch. Kyrie didn’t pick up the ball with any real vigor in transition and Delly uncharacteristically missed a chuck on the Baynes transition basket. Yes, Moz should have fouled harder. That’s about the only bad thing I saw from Mozzy, other than the fact he didn’t drill his J. Seriously. He set some good screens that were only occasionally used. He rotated properly on defense and had one particularly great contest… Read more »
It must be very isolated and lonely on Mozzy Island… ;) I don’t disagree that he was trying to set screens, but it’s debatable how well he was doing that (Kyrie’s aversion to them notwithstanding) or that they were even always in the proper scenarios. Sure, Delly could/should have chucked Baynes, but fouling guys hard enough to get called but not hard enough to make them miss has been a veritable trademark of Mozzy’s defense this year. He just still seems a step slow, too timid and lacking in both confidence and awareness in his time on the floor… which… Read more »
I’d play them both but I think I’ll give Frye heavier minutes for obvious reasons that he can pull him out on the perimeter. If he can body him up on defense decently and knock down 3’s.. Then Drummond might be useless for Detroit going forward in the series.
One knock on Lue is his rotations, and he need to explore the trio of Love/Moz/Frye more in this one imo
I kind of agree. I didn’t think Moz was horrible. Its a shame he’s had such a rough year. I have to believe it was the injury, because he just isn’t moving the same. I mean, he’s slow, but not that slow. His bad year was probably compounded when Blatt was fired. Injury + pressure of FA year – favorite coach = destroyed confidence.
I didn’t realize it ’til they happened to mention it on the broadcast last night. But Ty Lue was on the 2008-2009 Magic! So he saw SVG coaching when he pulled off the upset then, has to give him some insights now. But anyway, thought that was an insane and interesting thing…
That is cool. Didn’t know he was on that team either.
Good win for the Cavs but unlike a lot of other posters here, I don’t feel as if the Cavs won the game by playing better, I just think the immaturity of Reggie Jackson wanting to play ISOball cost them the game, along with that stupid technical. If Jackson had moved the ball on those back to back plays, and actually made something as opposed to giving the back back to the Cavs, it woulda/coulda been a completely different outcome and we could all be talking about a Cavs’ loss. At the end of the day, unless the game is… Read more »
Doesn’t having mature players who don’t blow up and get technicals as well as avoid crappy ISOball that costs you games make you a better team? Cavs played better BECAUSE they avoided some of those pitfalls. Basketball is a mental game too and Reggie Jackson exhibited a poor mental game down the stretch. The Cavs did not.
Also the Cavs took advantage of those mistakes.
It makes you a better team, yes, but it doesn’t mean the Cavs played better. It means Reggie wasn’t ready for the spotlight nor did he execute the best play for his team by going ISO. The Cavs won, so that’s all that matters. And while I’m sure(as we all are) that the Pistons won’t shoot 60%+ from 3pt range, it doesn’t negate the fact that the Cavs played lackadaisical defense and the bench production was putrid. As we move up the playoffs ladder, other more mature, seasoned and better talented teams (then the Pistons) will make us pay for… Read more »
I still think this is just saying the same thing in a different way. “. . . nor did he execute the best play for his team by going ISO.” Equates, in my head, to he did not play as well as the players who DID execute the best play for their teams.
Yeah I guess so lol. I guess I’m a “cup half empty” kinda guy.
Again good win for the team and for the morale of players who gotnhurt last year and watched us lose to GS.
If this was the best from Detroit, I think we can expect a big blowout come the second game. That will cement the point that we are the far superior team when we play to our best potential.
JRL, Deadspin had a piece relating to Reggie Jackson today:V=http://deadspin.com/the-pistons-are-never-going-to-get-those-calls-against-1771561087
Good article and completely true.
LeBron was definitely pushing off with the forearm and should had been called for a few fouls, but the stars get the treatment, which its bs but whatever.
As far as Reggie going Super Sayan on the refs, that was extremely stupid and probably cost them the game. But it’s not like the Pistons will win the series anyways, so no biggie there.
Every good offensive player uses his off hand on a regular basis. Every good defensive player holds the opponent when chasing around screens. Every good screen setter moves on a regular basis. Part of being good is knowing how to push the limits of the rules. Does that mean stars get away with more? Yeah, probably. It might also mean that players are stars precisely because they know HOW to get away with it. Chicken and egg.
For real? Not at all a chicken and egg scenario.
TT definitely shut down Drummond for the most part. That was another great move by Lue. Moz looked awful once again.
Lue had a great first game coach in wise. Love was amazing. Kyrie was really good. And Leb did a great job as secondary scorer. Distributor. And leader of the team.
Lotta heart on this team.
I don’t know who’s on the field yet among available centers but I’ll gladly welcome Moz back next year for the cheap and as long it doesn’t handcuffs us in any possible way. Hopefully he and his agent already forgotten even dreaming of a 10m/year and above. I hope the market could dry easily like JR’s last year so we can sign him for cheap. He’s still usable on this team imo.
Especially if this summer’s knee surgery heals better than last summer’s knee surgery…
More genius: Love playing solid D iso’d on Jackson on two late possessions. Can he take over the point-guard defensive duties from Kyrie?
More evil: Barely a glimpse of the death lineup, as Tom noted. Does Lue even know what their best lineup is? Does he look at what the analytics department produces?
And specifically, they should run more Delly-James PnR. They get an instant advantage. When they did it on consecutive possessions in the 4th quarter, it was a big moment in the game.
Great point on the Delly LBJ pick and roll. They run it perfectly. Kyrie should be forced to watch clips of that Clockwork Orange style.
yeah only 3.5 minutes of the Cavs “death lineup” yesterday. Also, Frye has been pretty solid this season so I was surprised he didn’t play at all. I thought Lue mismanaged the 3rd and early 4th and I’m glad he wasn’t too stubborn to make amends b4 things got out of hand. Kyrie started out white hot and that’s great but he looked worn out as the 3rd quarter progressed. I would have taken him out midway through and let him rest to be ready to start the 4th. Instead, he rode him the entire quarter, and brought Delly in… Read more »
Ok, so, my main concern is that Lue’s rotational successes he had were more of a dumb luck, “look what I found”, occurrence than actually being successful at managing rotations. Like you, I was confused as to the no Frye, especially considering he has actually been pretty decent defending in the paint this season (better than I expected). I would have been curious to see if McRae and Dahntay Jones could have disrupted the 3-point flow (isn’t that why we signed them?). I was definitely more comfortable with Blatt at the helm last postseason but hey, pressure forges diamonds. Overall… Read more »
All good points! Cavs still need a 7 footer. I am impressed on some of these young finds other teams seem to be getting. With Mozgov, it seems like he needs more than 8 minutes to get going. Idk but something has to be done in this series.
I think the Pistons will still have that 1 best game that will ultimately lead for them to win a game in this series (Cavs 4-1). A culmination of hot outside shooting, Drummond dominating and great defense. Maybe in game 4. The adjustment that should be made on game 2 for the Cavs I guess is that how they will contain Drummond. No way he’s going to be that ineffective in the first half again. He’s gonna force the action the next game. That’s why I think Moz and and Frye will get into the rotation quick in game 2.… Read more »
I’d give props to coach Lue on that 4th quarter adjustment. Huge share of that should be for him, Because you know this might be the first time I saw him dictate the first move, dictate how will the game will be played instead of just countering other teams strategy. That moment was Pop-esque or Kerr-esque. (Don’t get it twisted, he still ain’t on that level..) I mean, they can counter your strategy but at the same time they can force in a strategy where you can’t adjust in-game. Kudos coach.
Thought the Cavs played well overall. Pistons are going to be hard pressed to shoot that well from deep again in the series. Unlike the Magic from 2009, the Pistons are not a good three-point shooting team; 21st in the league in 3-point percentage. I also thought the Cavs did well defending the pick and roll which led to some open looks for Detroit.
It is possible that was Detroit’s best shot but I tend to doubt it. They are a tough, young team who has played Cleveland well all year long. I would expect that to continue.
Great win………(wait every playoff win is great) The Big 3’s best performance as a trio this year. – Kevin Love was the best player in this one, he HUSTLED from start to finish. – Kyrie can be better but he played really good in this one too. He’s bad over the course of the game on D, but at least he’s made some great defensive plays that set some tone in the game. – Lebron is Lebron but hopefully he doesn’t need to play above 40 mins for us to win. – Seems like Shumpert is still a step slow… Read more »
In my long-winded sentiment above I mention this, but LeBron’s 41 minutes this game didn’t seem to be nearly as hard on his body as last year. That will play into it a lot.
I agree, but still I’d like to see Lebron on the bench in a blowout win. Every minute saved matters. Great game from him nonetheless..
Nope. Leb’s minutes in the game do not matter.
1. His usage was way down
2. THERE ARE TWO DAYS OFF UNTIL THE NEXT GAME
1. Nah, you just like to see him for 48 mins possible because of your man-crush on him. You’re completely ignoring the risk of injury (knock on wood).
2. And there’s only 1 day between games 2 & 3. INCLUDING the travel to Detroit.
Detroit played a pretty physical (but clean) game with Lebron. A lot of grabbing and clutching on both sides. His usage may have been down but have to believe that playoff basketball minutes don’t necessarily equate to regular season minutes.
I wasn’t equating his playoff minutes with regular season. I was equating this years (albeit small sample size) playoff game with last year’s playoff minutes. In last year’s playoffs not only was it very typically physical, but LeBron’s usage was thru the roof. The man WILLED us through those playoffs. Last night he was an easy elite player who played within the game and did exactly what he needed to do when he needed to do it. He didn’t have to force the situation. Those ARE easier minutes.
Good point on Shump’s knee… I forgot to include that…
I’m not sure if I’d give Lue so much credit in the 4th as I would over Love’s impressive performance. When has Love ever done this well at center this season? It has usually ended up as a fiasco in many cases. He blew everyone away! Love catapulted to a level we have never seen on both ends. He was sensational! There were times I thought I was seeing Marc Gasol but he can shoot 3’s even better! Van Gundy will come back with another attack. He already stated he is putting Stanley in to start over Harris. I hope… Read more »
No offense TV, but you don’t seem to want to give Lue credit ever for anything… I’ve been pretty critical of Lue in the past as well, but as indicated by the graphic in the recap, I’m willing to eat some humble pie on that if he can make some good decisions with the bad… and he did last night.
Not true Evil Genius. My only criticism and it’s been consistent is on matching true BIGs. They are as follows Drummond, Whiteside and Valanciunas. It’s not like the above concerns on BIGS is in left field in outer space when you have previous coaches announcing last night saying the exact same thing. Do I express that concern a lot? Hell yes. As far as giving Lue on other credit. I’ll refresh memories. I have on expanding the number of players in the rotation. The one thing Lue wanted to do different than Blatt was get more players in the line-up.… Read more »
I’m not sure that’s been your only criticism, but fair enough. Like you, I also felt going in Lue might have made a mistake not starting Moz, but let’s be honest, Moz was a disaster in his 5 minutes even on Baynes. TT, despite the boxscore, actually did a good job neutralizing Drummond. As I said in the recap, I don’t understand why Lue didn’t play Frye, but he did make some other good decisions and adjustments, and scrapped his one awful decision pretty quickly. And, I agree that Love had to perform to make Lue look smart with the… Read more »
I’m like a freakin broken record on criticism of Lue’s line-ups on true BIGS. LoL What are the other criticisms? Seriously, I really don’t have any. to speak of. You must not have read my props of Lue in the “not a recap” last game. It was the game I was physically at. I told everyone how he was getting on Frye on defense which I said was good. Said he was there on sidelines the whole time encouraging nonstarters. I also thought he should have more help from his other coaches. Again, supported Lue with TT starting against Hawks.… Read more »
Also fair… I have been pretty pre-occupied with my job lately and yesterday was the first time in a while I’ve been able to actually watch a game, be on the Live Thread and analyze it… Apologies for not being up to speed on your positive Lue comments…
I mean for ANY coach to look good the players have to execute… Lue could be the greatest coach in the world but if he puts 8th grade girls out there on the court then things aren’t going to look all that good. I just think in situations like these you can’t really separate if it’s player execution or coaching decisions. It’s equally both. The only thing I will say is that I am not always sure if Lue gets lucky on his coaching decisions. Though, to be fair, Lue has periodically tried Love at the 5 throughout his tenure… Read more »
Great Recap Go Cavs!
If Kyrie and Love keep shooting 50% from three, no one is beating this team.
Nice write up. Cavs looked sweet. Lue out coached gund. That as nice.
I’m on pretty happy with game one.
Nice recap. I thought Ty Lue did a nice job of getting LBJ off the floor in the 3rd and using fouls, the quarter end, and a full timeout so that he had a good stretch to rest on the bench but then get back in there for the 4th quarter surge. The defense really kicked in at that point, and the Pistons didn’t score for four and half minutes. After listening for the past couple weeks to Ben W. go on about Kyrie rejecting the screen it was quite a chuckle to see the double screen by LeBron and… Read more »
Good recap. Hope KLove can keep it going!
I disagree that was Detroit’s best shot. They will definitely win Game 3. And maybe Game 4. Cavs will win in 5 or 7. But this series will be a grind.
While I agree this was probably not Detroit’s “best shot,” if they take Cleveland to seven games then something went horribly wrong.
Yeah. 7 games is low probability. It will only happen if we have a couple really cold shooting game. I think 5 games is the most likely outcome. But, generally, I don’t expect a lot of blow outs given that DET is a solid matchup for us.
I would agree with 5 games… and certainly tough games… but not really all that different from the Celtics last year, except they have a big man…
I’m surprised to hear that sentiment from you, Hot Sauce… If this series goes 7, then the Cavs have problems…
Good write up here…I think overall Van Gundy out coached Lue; but Lue always had the better talent and that always prevails in the NBA…Van Gundy knew Cavs would worry too much about Drummond in the paint and made his guys shoot the hell outta the ball and they did for at least 3/4 of the game. I do agree with the public sentiment that the Pistons can’t continue this torrid shooting but the Cavs throughout the season have not been great on close outs with 3 point shots. I also wonder if Lue will stick with Lebron at 4… Read more »
Since TT isn’t going to do anything effective against Drummond anyways , then why not at least have help the deplorable bench.
Anything effective like holding Drummond to two points and one rebound in the first half?
So why was he benched in the second half if all was great?
Am I your new Cols today because we don’t see eye to eye on TT in this series? LoL
I’m fine if we don’t see eye to eye, that’s what a healthy comments discussion is for… ;)
He was benched in the fourth, but not because he was playing poorly… because the Cavs had no facilitators on the floor to start the quarter (a mistake by Lue) and he was quickly swapped out for LBJ… Then, Love was playing so well at the five that it would have seemed silly to change it after that…
Because maybe KLove was the better option? Not by guarding him, but by making Drummond’s inside defense ineffective by Love pulling him out.
That’s why I think Lue has the bigger share of the credit in this adjustment because he took the risk. He’s seeing Love is playing well, and he used that in a dimension UNEXPECTED by Detroit. Instead of shutting down a hot guy for a player (Moz/TT) that could’ve contain him but could not provide another scoring because they need that as Detroit was leading early in the 4th.
The boxscore may have indicated that TT was “horrific” but it also indicated that Drummond was shut down until a brief run in the third, and had a subpar game overall. Certainly seemed to my eyes that TT had a lot to do with that…
I completely agree. I forgot to mention this but yes, TT played good defense AND had some pretty timely offensive boards.