Live Thread: Cavaliers at Pistons
2015-02-24
Thunder No More. Welcome to the Central Division.
After turbulent starts, the Cavaliers and Pistons have experienced similar turnarounds to their seasons. The post Josh Smith Detroit squad has gone 18-10 after a 5-23 start putting them in the race for the playoffs. The recent trades for Reggie Jackson and old favorite, Tayshaun Prince have further changed the face of the Piston lineup. Jackson was “crying tears of joy” after the trade. He apparently didn’t enjoy the Dion Waiters experience. Prince joins his third team of the season after providing surprisingly solid play both in Memphis and Boston. Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond have been huge since Smith’s departure freed up floor spacing. The Detroit starting bigmen each average a double-double in roughly 30 minutes per contest.
Meanwhile, the Cavaliers are obliterating teams since the famed bowling trip. The Wine and Gold have gone 15-2 with the current starting lineup healthy and intact. Over the last 25% of games, the Cavs are plus 13.27 according to Hollinger’s rankings. Matrix is out for two weeks with an injured hip, but Kendrick Perkins could make his Cavs debut. For the first time this season, the roster appears to be set. Sound off.
Defense picked up the intensity and we’re on a 16-3 run.
Let’s continue this run and put this game away.
Okay Gordon – you called it with Love from 3pt land. 2 more and you win the chicken dinner.
I absolutely LOVE it when Love fakes the three and fires a bb inside to Moz for the JAM!
KLove is the master of the drop pass!
The Love/Moz inside out game is devastating for opposing bigs. Just too much distance to cover.
What a pass by Love!! Love’s playing a great game. So is Mozgov!
Kevin Love finding Mozgov inside – two out of the last three possessions.
Yes sir!!! Love how they’ve developed a high-low game!
Kyrie just having a tough time finishing tonight…
Its these games that he has to stay within himself and let others carrying the scoring load. Make your impact with defense and passing/setting screens. Take a note from Delly for the night.
Agreed Joey B… was thinking a simliar thing.
He’s doing the right thing driving inside with the Pistons in the penalty though…
Drummond and Monroe’s size and defensive abilities bothering him. gotta look to make plays for others off the dribble when they move over to help.
This might never happen but I would like to see Perkins and mozgov in at same time on Monroe and Drummond.
Pope can’t hit from that side…
Mozgov mugged on the way to the basket. Players complain about every call. If I were a ref I’d totally ignore them.
Our bigs are outplaying their bigs. More points, blocks, fewer turnovers.
Cavs in the bonus with more than 7 minutes left in quarter… Need to keep taking it inside and taking advantage…
Doing most of this damage without LBJ scoring…
KLOVE!!! Hitting threes in the second half!
LETS GO! Thats that Cleveland heart!
Nice recovery of focus.
Boy, pope can shoot, or at least of late. If Drummond gets behind the d at all, pretty much an automatic dunk. Unfortunately, our transition d is not good right now which is compounding the issue. Of course if pope hits threes like the last one, it might not matter.
I’m pretty sure shooting was Pope’s weakness coming out of Georgia. If this shooting is for real, he could really be a star.
They are the odd couple of inside out basketball. I still feel bad that Drummond was called out by that icarly girl years ago. That stupid sponsored ad shows up on my yahoo sports ap. I don’t know how to get rid of it. I wonder if Drummond cares but it’s like the Internet never forgets.
Cavs starting to play defense!!! Leading to some offense! Keep it going!
That was a much better drive and decision by Kyrie…
Cavs starting to fight back a little here…
More inside play like that will get them back into this…
Mobile bigs give this team trouble. It’s a bad match up. Cavs better pray they don’t play this team in the playoffs.
You have a point, but our guards are getting shown up. Outscored 31-10. If not for that, we’d be up.
I don’t think it’s that so much as the guards just haven’t played well… Moz has pretty much shut down Drummond when he’s in there…
This seems eerily similar to the first game the Cavs played against the Pistons…
Detroit’s starting guards are outscoring Kyrie and JR 31-10. Ugly.
Well that sucked. Two stup7od passes lead to five points.
This is dumb. Play some defense.
Why did Moz pass it back out when he only had Tayshaun on him?
Kyrie with another bad pass…
Cavs a little cute with their substitutions. Tristan needs to rebound second half. Cavs guards must play better.
First half thoughts:
Kevin Love has great entry passes. Great feed to Moz. He is so good and hitting his man under the basket because he doesn’t hesitate.
Kyrie is looking lost out there. Not getting to familiar spots.
LeBron is going to have to deliver tonight to pull this one out. MVP or bust.
Normally they don’t need fouls but tonight is an exception. Perk earns his keep in his first game.
Pistons outside game will run cold again in due course. Cavs need to be steady when that happens.
Yeah I don’t know if Kyrie is just off tonight or could he be frustrated that his man kcp is going off
Delly and James Jones solid off the bench… TT and Shump struggling.
@EG, you were right, guards struggling in general tonight except Delly.
Pistons shot 49% in the first half… Some of them were tough shots, but a lot of them were open threes and dunks/layups off of failed block outs…
Shot charts between first and second quarter are very telling. Mozgov affects everything. Foul trouble for him is our achilles heel right now.
Inexcusable to give up a 35 point quarter to the Pistons…
Doesn’t help that in addition to going a collective 3-15 from the floor, Kyrie, JR and Shump are also not playing smart D…
Yeah, I have kind of stopped worrying about our guard D, but tonight they are fumbling around. I will assume they are having an off night and refuse to worry about it.
I agree… I want to see how they respond to it.
Really like this Detroit team… they are a TOUGH team. Glad the Cavs have a formidable opponent tonight and going thru some adversity here in the 2nd quarter.
Cavs need to bring back the focus on the defensive end. Can’t be worried about offense tonight, Detroit’s gonna make their shots tough. This is the game where you buckle down on defense, and share the ball on offense.
Detroit has spoiler potential and I don’t know how to describe van gundys rotations but they seem to work.
Indeed they do… all they’re missing is playoff experience in my eyes. But SVG gives that to them to a degree.
Agreed, CLF. Going to be a tough game. Pistons are playing extremely well on both sides of the floor. I have been looking at their schedule and they have had some good wins recently. I think Jackson is going to help them alot. I do think the cavs need to get the ball inside more either via James or Love postups. They took a ton of jumpshots in that half.
Totally agree with Jackson… I like him a lot. Agreed with getting the ball inside, perhaps get them in some foul trouble? When they move the ball, they’ve gotten good looks. Not as worried about the offense as the defense, 53 wasn’t too bad, giving up 62 is pretty bad.
OKC is playing well with him (or despite him, it would seem) but am I the only one who is mystified by how happy the Thunder seem with Waiters? He’s been pretty bad for them.
No. You’re not the only one. He’s almost dead last in the nba in rpm.
Yeah, he’s been terrible. But he is charming, as we know.
Awful last 30 seconds by Cavs.
I have no idea where Kyrie’s head is tonight.
He’s playing like he doesn’t know what winning is
Yeah, that was some bad play from him. Shake it off KI. Deep breaths.
That. Was. Atrocious.
STOP fouling Reggie! He can’t hit 30% from 3!
Worst half of play in some time by the Cavs…
Horrible foul… Jeez Kyrie…
Kyrie looks afraid of Pistons bigs…
I don’t see how that’s not a foul though.
How was that a foul? Tayshaun slipped… smh
BALL DON’T LIE!
That was a terrible call.
This is the most first half points we’ve given up in a long while.
Pistons have hit some tough jumpers.
Way to attack the basket Kyrie!
Saint Kendrick!
WOOOOT WOOOT he scored!!!!!!!
PERK! With the 2 inch vertical!
Glad LBJ took it inside and didn’t settle for the long three there…
WOOOOT WOOOOOOT KENFRICKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It feels dirty to cheer for him. But I’m kinda dirty.
I think it’s OK, Perk is the kind of player you hate unless he is on your team.
PERK on the floor to crack some skulls!
Or give up an offensive board and bucket. come on perk, punch him next time.
This is my favorite comment of the night
Westbrook is on pace for a triple double by halftime.
THAT’S more like it! Get the ball inside!
Very impressed with the pistons. They look legit. I think jackson is a great pickup for them. Caldwell-pope can shoot it and right now, their bigs are dominating. Also love the motion in their offense, multiple cutters thru the lane. I think right now the cavs need to start playing thru love in the high post or get him the ball down low against monroe. Irving seems to be having difficulty with the psitons defense.
All I can say is that Thank God we don’t have Mike Brown running this team anymore.
Yep, good god, if people had issues with Blatt, think of the firestorm of criticism that would be directed at Brown’s bag of burning dog crap for an offense.
Stan Van much better guy to put together and run a team in 2015 than PJ or Flip. Sometimes things are just what you expect them to be.
Also very true. Always thought he was underrated as a coach.
Great take, John b…. totally agree re: Pistons.
Guard play is losing this game for the Cavs right now… on both ends…
That was unusual – Blatt calls time out and then Cavs proceed to give up 10-0 run. Back to the drawing board, methinks.
Kyrie looks like he’s pouting about something. LeBron said something to him when he checked in just now.
ever since he thought he was fouled early on he hasn’t looked right. Shake it off!
Awul foul. Just awful.
Cant leave tayshaun open this year
..
I know… he’s shooting like 50% from three…
JR with a good inside shot…
What is Kyrie doin out there?
Uh-oh. This is looking like a stumble game.
Too many jump shots and no perimeter D…
TT really getting manhandled tonight.
Cavs letting Pistons shoot higher percentage than usual… Difference in the game though is Kyrie and JR not hitting shots…
Russel Westbrook is playing like he wants to destroy the league. I think he’s the MVP right now. He is just carrying that team to the playoffs and everyone in the West is terrified of him.
Speaking of which, Andrew Sharp on Grantland is a smart kid but his rationale for why Kevin Durant is the second banana and not Westbrook is terrible. “Think about what makes a great second banana on a basketball team. He blends seamlessly into the background when it’s time for others to attack. His skills are understated. He makes the most of every opportunity, but he doesn’t force anything. He takes less so the group can do more. He wants to win, but he doesn’t care how.” That describes Magic, Bird, Tim Duncan, Oscar Robertson, heck, LeBron. Yes that describes a… Read more »
Listening to the Pistons home feed, the play-by-play guy says “Tayshaun Prince now coming in for Caron Butler, that is a really nice one-two punch at small forward.” Did this guy take the Hot Tub Time Machine from 2003?
yeah I’m watching Pistons feed too. Funny how amped up they are getting about the Pistons.
I enjoyed the random comment about how LeBron is Jim Brown in a basketball uniform, or whatever. I like my cultural references like I like my women, a minimum of 40 years old so I know what the heck they’re talking about.
this made me spit up my quilmes
This is a fun and competitive game. You have to hand it to Van Gundy — team plays with a load of heart. If it wasn’t Detroit I’d be a fan.
Totally agree, Kevin. They are both smash mouth teams!
Nice pass Reggie…. smh…
But awesome that LBJ just passed Pippen for career assists by a forward…
Nike nailed it at the start with their first LeBron commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT4tAltJ6oc
FSO with the awkward misspell on Scottie Pippen… “Pippin”
Come on coach, put in Perkins!!!
Cavs still working the motion offense… just need to get better shots…
Detroit’s playing good defense so far in the game.