Recap: Cavs 106, Pistons 101 (or, The Rule of Three)

[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.

https://vine.co/v/itYV0M1QvUh

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.

https://vine.co/v/it3BLAhQMgi

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.

https://vine.co/v/it3e9KLXB3K

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.

https://vine.co/v/it3TbbJ5TwE

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.

https://vine.co/v/it3T3T5nIdL

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!