Recap: Pistons 104, Cavs 99 (or, Taking a Hit in Motown…)

The team from the town that is home to “Hitsville, USA” dropped a big one on the visiting Cavaliers at the Palace at Auburn Hills last night. Though Cleveland led for much of the contest, the Pistons were able to reel off a staccato of points in the fourth quarter and twist the night away from the Cavs by getting into a defensive groove. However, if not for a repeat performance from the wine & gold of their own self-inflicted hits that keep on coming, they might have walked away from this one singing an entirely different tune…

[Editor’s Note: For your listening pleasure (if you’re interested), each headline is a link to the Motown song of the same name.]

I Heard It Through The Grapevine

Let me start this off by repeating something I’ve been hearing a lot lately… the Central Division is not only much improved, but it might be very well be the deepest and one of the physically toughest divisions in the NBA. The Milwaukee Bucks are the currently the low man on the totem pole at 5-6, but many experts picked them to be a mid-level playoff team. Beyond the Cavs and Bulls, the Bucks, Pistons and Pacers all have a legitimate chance to make the postseason. Though unlikely that all five would make it, it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

Thus far, the Cavs have gone just 1-3 versus the members of their own division. The lone win was at the Q in a close game with Indiana, and all three losses have been on the road. They have all been hard fought contests, in which the Cavs not only been competitive, but also had the opportunity to win in the final minute. But, that’s just not a good enough outcome against division rivals. The Cavaliers need to be able to impose their will on these teams to prevent them from gaining the confidence required to make life more difficult for Cleveland in say an early playoff round.

This Pistons team demonstrated just how far they’ve come by rolling out a reasonable facsimile of their architect’s previous construct — the 2008-09 Orlando Magic. Yes, the Master of Panic, Stan Van Gundy, is at it again, surrounding a burgeoning star big man in the middle with a speedy trigger man and a bevy of shooters who can gun it from deep. And, while the long range bombers haven’t yet reached the full-on “YOLO” stage that the Magic achieved, the scary part is that Andre “The Giant” Drummond might actually wind up being a bigger talent than D12. At least he can’t hit free throws either (well, except against the Cavs, but we’ll get to that).

Heat Wave

For anyone wondering if J.R. was ever going to change the Smith back to Swish, the first few minutes of each half of this game not only rekindled the spark, but instantly raised the temperature to blazing. To start the game, J.R. nailed a jumper, intercepted an errant Reggie Jackson pass for a run-out dunk, and then torched the net from downtown, tallying the Cavs’ first seven points. After halftime, J.R. came out scorching once more, tossing two more fireballs through the hoop from beyond the arc, with the second giving the Cavs their largest lead of the game, 70-57…

https://vine.co/v/iuKigeBKgIl

Unfortunately, the J.R. heat wave met up with a cold front (or in this case a cold shoulder) as beyond these first few minutes of the halves, his teammates did not seem to want to feed his hot hand. J.R. made 6-10 from the field, 3-6 on threes, and all but three of those attempts came after the initial minutes of each half, and one of them was a contested desperation triple try in the final 20 seconds. On the further downside, J.R. missed both free throws he took, and defensively he lost Ersan Ilyasova a few times, getting torched for a game low -15 differential.

Reach Out I’ll Be There

After the initial J.R. points explosion, the Cavs needed their go to guy early, especially after Detroit launched their own barrage with Jackson and Ilyasova providing the firepower. LeBron responded in kind, reassuring his team that he would be there for them in their time of need. Once LBJ nailed his first triple, it was clear from the look in his eye that he was going to provide some long distance support for his guys. He would go on to dial up four of his first five from beyond the arc, with the only miss weirdly being an airball. And, he wasn’t just calling it in, as he also came knocking with a series of drives and finishes at the rim over, around and through Marcus Morris and Andre Drummond. It seemed like all the Cavs had to do was call LeBron’s name, and he was there with a score, to the tune of 23 points in the first half alone on an incredibly efficient 8-13 shooting.

Oh, by the way… LeBron also passed The Logo, Jerry West, for 19th amongst all time scorers in the NBA…

The second half, though, was a much different refrain. After getting his first shot blocked by Drummond, Bron seemed content with trying to orchestrate things so his running mates could get theirs. At first, this played well, as the Cavs shot out to a 13 point lead. Once the Pistons started to chip away, LBJ drove for his only basket of the quarter, before getting fooled into fouling Morris on a three that went in and led to a four point play. LeBron went to the bench and the Pistons closed the gap to six. When he returned to start the fourth, he just didn’t seem like his aggressive self, scoring a mere five points in the quarter to finish with a game-high 30. Bron was just 3-8 in the second half, and missed one of the only two free throws he attempted. He snagged six boards, but only wound up with three assists to his pals.

You Can’t Hurry Love

On the flip side of J.R.’s hot start, Kevin Love took a while longer to get going in this game. Though he did hit one early hook shot in the post, his game of give and take with turnovers and some suspect defensive play got him off to a slow first half. The Cavs just had to wait for KLove to get into a flow, which he sort of did towards the end of the half with a seven point burst that included his only triple (he was 1-4 for the game from deep). Then, in the second half, the Cavs got at least a little of what they’d been waiting for, as Kevin made maybe his most aggressive under the hoop play of the season thus far, stripping Andre the giant of a rebound and scoring a hard-nosed bucket…

https://vine.co/v/iuKOIH0TOZT

Love also had a decent fourth quarter, scoring almost half of the Cavs’ total for the quarter with eight points (19 total for the game). Yet, he only wound up with nine boards (two below his average), had trouble boxing out Drummond (five offensive boards, 18 total), turned the ball over four times to even out his four assists, and (the above vine notwithstanding) often looked a little soft on the defensive end.

I Can’t Get Next To You

It’s no secret that Mo Williams is deficient at defense. Some games it’s not quite as obvious… but last night wasn’t one of those games. Seemingly every one of the 29 minutes Mo was on the floor, the Pistons were running their offense directly at him through Reggie Jackson penetration and open jumpers off of screens that Mo could neither run through or under fast enough. Our own Nate Smith probably summed Mo’s defensive struggles up best with this Tweet…

Mo Williams couldn't guard Reggie Jackson the baseball player, and he's 69 years old.

— HoopsDogg (@oldseaminer) November 18, 2015

Conversely, Mo Gotti’s offense usually covers most, if not all of the glaring blemishes to even things out over the course of a game, and he did hit 6-13 from the floor for 15 points with seven assists. However, most of the makes were of the mid-range, transition variety, as he was a cold shooting 2-8 from downtown (0-3 in the crunch time minutes he played with a missed free throw).

What’s Goin’ On?

I find I ask this question more and more with regard to Timofey Mozgov. I don’t know if it’s the knee, or his hands or his head, but he’s just a tall pale shadow of last year’s Moz-erati model. Occasionally, he’ll sprint full steam down the lane for a throwdown, but that’s the only time he seems as engaged in the game going on around him. Whatever is happening, I’m hopeful he starts to figure it out soon, as the Cavs will need a locked in Mozilla for when the games start to really matter in the spring and summer months.

You Keep Me Hangin’ On

It’s been a while since we’ve seen the collective might of the Space Stars off of the bench, and, as long as Coach Blatt continues to keep the rotation short, their usage rate likely won’t allow them to shine nearly as brightly. Nobody had a particularly stellar or standout night from the bench bunch, but they did find ways to hang on and contribute where they could. R.J. didn’t score at all on a night when the Cavs could have used a few buckets from him, yet he was still +8 during his 16 minutes on the court and brought a bit of defensive intensity. Delly had a rough night shooting (1-6 and 0-4 from three), but he did dish out five dimes, including two Loaded Wombat lobs to TT, and at least kept the Piston guards in front of him on defense. Tristan was able to hang with Drummond to a degree, and still posted nine boards in 21 minutes, but he had trouble scoring beyond the dunks from Delly dishes.

https://vine.co/v/iumVYQW6Fqi

It’s The Same Old Song

For all of LeBron’s criticism following Saturday’s game against the Bucks, about how the Cavs aren’t a good team at the moment, and how they need to clean up their act, things sure didn’t seem to change that much last night. The same issues that had plagued the Cavs in their previous loss (and to some degree even in their wins lately) got put on repeat against the Pistons. A general lack of focus permeated from the outset, as the Cavs turned the ball over five times in the first quarter. The starting five were responsible for 12 of the 14 total turnovers for the game, leading to 18 Piston points. The Cavs also struggled to keep Detroit (particularly Drummond) off of the glass, losing the board battle 48-40, and the points in the paint by the same margin. They did manage to share the ball better than in the Bucks game, although 19 of their 21 total came prior to the fourth quarter when the ball stuck and the offense stagnated. And the free throws… yeah, the free throws have become a big enough issue that they warrant their own separate section…

Brick House

Contrary to what the song says, the only thing “mighty” about the house the Cavs are building with their bricked trips to the charity stripe is the increasing futility of the endeavor. Their 12-20 represented a slight uptick from the 58% they shot against the Knicks on Friday, but a regression from the 63% against the Bucks. Overall, they’ve combined to miss 31 free throws in the last three games. In fact, it’s so bad, that it seems to be spreading to the guys who usually make most of their throws like Mo and Timo and even James Jones (who missed two of the three FTs awarded for his banana-in-the-tailpipe stunt on Drummond). Just like in the Bucks game, the missed free throws not only killed the Cavs’ offensive momentum, but also helped allow the Pistons back into the game in the third. As we’ve seen, missed free throws will really come back to haunt the Cavs in games against better quality teams.

Cleveland came into the Pistons game 29th in the league in FT pct at 69.4 pct. They're worse tonight – 10-for-18 (55.6 pct)

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) November 18, 2015

And, while we’re on the subject of sending guys to the line for free opportunities, isn’t it extremely ironic that while the Cavs were struggling once again to make theirs, the 40% FT shooter, Andre Drummond coolly hit 4-5 down the stretch after being fouled intentionally? I loathe the current hack-a-pocalypse anyway, but this just seemed like tempting fate on David Blatt’s part in this instance. And, it wound up backfiring from a momentum standpoint…

“That probably ended up helping us a lot,” Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said. “They ended up giving us some points when we didn’t have to do anything except go to the line and he made them.”

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough

Andre Drummond is a beast no matter who he plays against. The Giant was averaging 18.5 points and 19.0 rebounds per game coming into this contest, and he did nothing to diminish those numbers. The Cavs probably need a healthy Moz, a locked in KLove and a postseason form TT to fully counteract Drummond. Maybe even a few minutes of Andy getting under Andre’s skin might have helped on a night like this. I hate playing the “what might have been” game… but choosing the Giant over St. Weirdo in 2012 might well have changed the course of Chris Grant’s career.

Nowhere To Run

One other aspect of this game that bothered me was the fact that the Pistons outran and outhustled the Cavs for the most part. Detroit held the points off the fastbreak edge 16-10, as Jackson and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope zoomed the length of the court like Olympic sprinters. They seemingly pushed the pace much more frequently than the Cavs did. Also, I counted no less than four instances where a Piston player jumped or dove out of bounds to save a possession. If the Cavs had such a hustle play, I don’t remember it.

I Want You Back

This was one of those games where I pined longingly to have Kyrie and Shump back in action. Nothing against Mo, J.R. and Delly, but all three are so much better suited as part of a guard rotation coming off the bench. Kyrie’s ball-handling and shooting would have kept Jackson working hard on defense, and Shump would have been key in helping to shut down Jackson, KCP and even Ilyasova from the perimeter. January can’t get here fast enough.

I Second That Emotion

LeBron again had some harsh words of criticism for his teammates after letting a 13 point lead slip away to a Pistons team that brought some toughness and intensity…

“We are too relaxed and too nice,” James said. “We need to get tougher, but I’m not talking about being an iron man. You have to be mentally tough, and that means performing at the best of your abilities at all times. We’ve got some guys who do that all the time, and some guys who don’t.”

According to reports, David Blatt left the Palace at Auburn Hills just as annoyed as LeBron about how soft the Cavs are right now.

“We need to toughen up,” Blatt said. “I didn’t think we displayed the kind of toughness that made us a team last year. I didn’t see that the last two games and we need to toughen up. Every aspect.”

Blatt is right on this point, and it’s easy to see why he’s frustrated. It’s hard to coach an intangible like toughness. A player either chooses to focus and toughen up mentally and physically with his style of play, or he doesn’t. Wonder if Blatt, being the players’ coach that he is, would ever resort to sitting guys when they coast.

Uptight (Everything’s Alright)

There’s no doubt in my mind that this particular loss, because of the sustained issues the Cavs are experiencing right now, and the fact that it was a second consecutive loss to a Central Division foe, will spark the newest round of Cavs scrutiny from the media at large. There will be questions about defense, about Kevin Love’s role in the offense, about LeBron’s frustration and recent run of monster minutes… even questions about Blatt’s questionable use of hack-a-Drummond. And, to a degree, it does all matter. But, bear in mind that these are still early days; that this was yet another game on the road against an improved team; and that (aside from the white hot Warriors) every contending team is going through similar bumps in the road. The defense, focus and toughness will undoubtedly improve over time. The only truly sour note that concerns me is the free throw shooting which must be corrected… and soon.

Up next, the Cavs get another crack at the young Bucks from Milwaukee. Looking forward to hopefully seeing the wine & gold toughen up and deliver a few greatest hits of their own on Thursday.