Live Thread: Pistons @ Cavs

The Pistons are in town to take on the Cavs. The Cavs are looking to bounce back after a 10 point lose to the Pacers on Tuesday. LeBron James and J.R. Smith sat for that game. They will both be back tonight. After this game, Cleveland has four days off.

Detroit is 6-6 so far this season. Defensively, they’ve held opponents to 96.9 points per game, which is fifth in the league. Offensively, they’ve struggled, since their star pick and roll runner, Reggie Jackson, has been out since the start of the season with a left knee injury.They’re putting up just 98.6 (25th in the league) points a night.The Cavs are dropping 109!

Cleveland has struggled against the Pistons in the past. They have actually lost three of their last four regular season games against them. If the Cavs want a win tonight, they need to focus on stopping Andre Drummond and not getting flustered by his rim protection.

Cleveland has struggled against athletic rim protectors this year. Against Atlanta, Dwight Howard ate them alive. Tristan Thompson no showed getting zero points and two rebounds. The Cavs also stopped attacking the hoop and settled for jumpers.

Detroit has some guys who can try and guard LeBron James in Tobias Harris, Marcus Morris, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, but none of them can actually stop him. And, Kyrie should be able to feast if the Pistons game plan try solely to stop the King.

Joe Vardon pointed out this interesting fact over at cleveland.com: Kevin Love is averaging 21 points and 10.8 boards a night. Anthony Davis is the only other player in the league averaging over 20 points and ten rebounds. Love has looked great so far this season and being compared to Anthony Davis is only further validation of his greatness.