Playoff Live Thread: Cavs vs Pistons (Game 3)
2026-05-09Will the wine and gold get back to their hot shooting ways in their own building, Cavs Fans? Will they fall into a practically insurmountable 3-0 deficit? Will the Beard be something other than a disaster this afternoon? Cleveland is very much in the situation Toronto was last round, and a long hard look in the mirror might be a necessity.
The latest excuse for James Harden’s horrific play has been a hand injury that might trace back a month or so ago. Regardless of the reason, if Harden can’t score, defend, or take care of the ball, there’s no reason for him to be on the floor. The Cavs should prep for some CPJ minutes as a contingency.
Meanwhile Kenny Atkinson keeps giving Dennis Schröder run over Jaylon Tyson, who has more size and ability to score at three levels than Dennis at this point. Schröder, Mitchell, and Harden combined for 15-42 from the field with 11 assists and eight turnovers. We also need more than 23 minutes from Dean Wade, to keep two rebounding bigs in the floor at all times. We’ll see if it actually happens.
Hopefully the Cavalier faithful bring their A game, the 3:00 PM start doesn’t prove a hinderence, and Evan Mobley gets his head out of his ass. Go Cavs.
Spida!
Lt up
Well we are either going to be even Steven with all the momentum and feeling really good……or in a big hole and down in the dumps.
Playoff hoops w a non-beast team…
TYRESE WILL BE LIKE GETTING A 1st ROUND PICK THIS YEAR 👍👍👍👍 —- MOCK DRAFT s HAVE CAVS GETTING SEVERAL DIFFERENT PLAYERS—- BUT HEY ONTO MORE IMPORTANT THINGS—— GO CAVS—- NEED THIS ONE 2-2 AFTER TONIGHT 👍💪
Pacers losing that pick to the Clips was nice though.
ATLANTA/ CHICAGO WILL BE BETTER NEXT YEAR WITH THEIR PICKS
Pacers might be worse than the Wiz next year.
Boston got diddly from their “gap” year.
I like our chances both this year and next
With the #1 pick + Young & Davis, the Wiz may not be terrible.
This series has been weird..By all measures the road team has not played well in any game, yet did enough to be tied or have the lead or right there late 4th. All 3 were there for the taking..
Both teams (and the Knicks too) are flawed and can only really clean up their weaknesses and stop the other team for quarters or halves at a time.
Cavs won’t go cold for a whole game, Detroit won’t stop turning us over or getting OREBs for a whole game….
Can’t call any of it.
This team is so inexperienced with each other (Harden, Schröder, Ellis) with 2 of your main ball handlers new, we can get clunky sonetimes.
And we have such a recent history, individually & collectively, of choking away PO games that I just get the feeling we are so fragile. Glass jaws.
So everytime we don’t choke. Everytime we do come thru in the clutch or stabilize after a rough patch, or taking a punch, like today, I feel there is the potential for growth, belief, and not playing so tight in the clutch.
The team being so new means there are both really clunky moments and unforeseen positives (no one had this role – primary ball handler, keeping Harden fresher off the ball from Schroder exactly).
Combined with the fact that Detroit has fewer ways to win and has needed incredible shotmaking from Cade and others late…
…I can’t call this and bad bounces can kill you anyways, but this feels like 7 with the Cavs learning a little more each game.
As a JB defender who was incorrect in that, I’ll point out that the Pistons were out of both timeouts and challenges in the fourth and inbounded the ball into the stanchion.
I don’t love KA small ball but man he’s an improvement.
That challenge on the Merrill charge take was ridiculous. I don’t know which benchman gave him that suggestion, but he should lose his chair.
We only really have 3 playable guys who are not smalls: Allen, Mobley, and Wade. Bryant is some situations and KA has tried him.
Of our top 10 guys, 7 are smalls: Mitchell, Harden, Strus, Merrill, Tyson, Schröder, & Ellis.
We tried with LNJ, but he just does not have it anymore at this level. And the other team does not have to guard Tomlin.
Yeah I don’t love it in theory but if you can get just enough defense from the third and fourth small where the big doesn’t have to cover EVERYTHING it can work.
And the offense (Schroder-star guard-two of Max/Sam/Tyson) has a lot of attack points and good enough ball handling.
BUCKAROO SO GREAT HEARING FROM YOU— GLAD YOU ARE DOING WELL—-HAVE BEEN RECOVERING FROM KNEES SURGERY/ MARCH—- DOING FANTASTIC—- GLAD THE CAVS ANSWERED THE CHALLENGE—- NEED 3 MORE GAMES LIKE THAT —WE ARE THE BETTER TEAM/ JUST HAVE TO PROVE/ SHOW IT ON THE COURT—— “ THE “ MRS NOMAD IS DOING FINE—AS BEAUTIFUL AS EVER——— TAKE CARE AND DONT STAY AWAY SO LONG—- YOUR WISDOM IS ALWAYS APPRECIATED!!!👍👍👍
Just 1-9 fantastic team effort.
Great close by Harden. I was ready to bury him, but now I must praise him. Great scrappy plays by Strus and JA. Just gotta keep hanging in there…
GO CAVS!
Donovan wasn’t hands down “the best” player on the floor today considering Cade had a triple-double and was on fire in the clutch. But it was at least a draw, and Cade made the big mistake on the inbounds. More importantly, Harden, not Tobias, was the next most impactful player.
Didn’t realize how many TOs Cade had, while Spida limited his; so fair to say Spida was the best player today.
People will slander the efficiency and shooting but Cade was really good and had some fabulous “will” plays
Cade was 10/27 with 8 TOs. Counting stats were there, and he certainly had his moments and made some plays. But he shot inefficiently and turned it over a ton.
TOTALLY AGREE JASON —- GAME 4 IS VITAL TO WIN—- WE THEN HAVE MOMENTUM/ CONFIDENCE—— PUT THE PRESSURE BACK ON TO THE PISTONS
to,, NOMAD bro,, thx for thinking of the old and addled uncle buck.. still on top of the grass.. glad the cavs took game 3,, i’ve been getting into some AI data analysis and neural network development.. fun and keeps me off the roads and out of the bars.. hope you are well.. regards to the MRS NOMAD.. holy sh!t has this been a wet spring or what.. how is the field of hops ? wet ? say hello to old man raoul.. wish him my best.. i figured i would give all of the blog bros some peace and… Read more »
They don’t have many consistent options offensively. Duren is average at best creating his own shot. Harris is serviceable but no number 2. I thought this would be how the Cavs dealt with them–double him and make others shoot.
👍👏👍👍👏👍👏 ON THE EFFORT—- WHAT WE BEEN HOPING FOR—— NOW DO IT 3 MORE 👍👍👍
That was gritty after blowing the 3rd quarter.
Everyone had a moment or two, or more.
But Mitchell & Harden should both be feeling better. Nice to get Merrill back. If we win Game 4, the pressure shifts back to them.
Blowing the third quarter was a LOT of wide open bricks
The Cavs completely turned around the O-board and loose ball success in the last 5 minutes. They fought for everything. Have to love that effort.
Spida ices it hopefully
Cavs win throw down in C-Town. There was much rejoicing!
Let ’em know
Harden’s like, “don’t care how old I am, ain’t no way Duncan f__king Robinson can check me”
Enormous triple for the turd.
Where’s the call?
Big three by harden. Not sure how that wasn’t a foul
Too. Easy
3 in a row.
Huge shot, Harden.
Big plays from everyone. Strus with an amazing swipe & score. JA with a putback slam + a steal. Harden with a big duece.
High drama time.
Enormous play, Strus.
Why isn’t Mobley going after that ball!?
These calls omg
Too chucky.
Bad foul on strus there
Take out harden for Allen
(Replying much later) is this the hottest take this season?
Lucky 3! Bad TO. O board 5 on Ev.