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Athens, OH – With the NBA season coming down to the final 20 or so games for most teams, every game counts. Following a tough loss to the Celtics on Wednesday, the Cavs (40-26) hosted the Detroit Pistons (15-49) at home on Saturday night. With the Knicks streaking and now just a game back of the Cavaliers in the standings for the four seed, the Cavs needed to take advantage of every weaker opponent they face. The Pistons fit the billing here, as they were without Cade Cunningham, Bojan Bogdanovic, Jalen Duren, Isaiah Stewart, and Alec Burks. Meanwhile, for Cleveland, they continue to be primarily healthy with the exception of Dylan Windler, who has yet to make his debut with the team this season.
First Half:
Cleveland was a 16-point favorite on most sportsbooks entering the game, but the first half didn’t necessarily reflect that type of mismatch. Despite Detroit being down five rotation players, their defense gave the Cavaliers issues early on, other than Donovan Mitchell of course. Mitchell had 12 points on 5/6 shooting in the first quarter while every other Cavalier who took the floor during that time was a combined 5/19 shooting. Evan Mobley especially struggled early, going 1/7 in the first quarter. However, even with some tough shooting, he made some exceptional passes that helped set his teammates up for better looks.
For Detroit in the first quarter, their backup big duo of James Wiseman and Marvin Bagley were able to do work inside. Bagley looked especially good on both sides of the ball, with a quick pair of blocks and buckets in the first quarter. But Detroit’s bigs wouldn’t be able to do as well as they did early on without the surprising play of Killian Hayes from the point guard spot early. Hayes was able to slice and dice through the defense and establish himself inside early, which made both Mobley and Jarrett Allen forced to pick him up on the drive, leaving the bigs open for dump passes. And with Detroit’s surprising play to open the game, they finished the quarter only down 24-21 to one of the better teams in the East.
Cleveland tightened up their offense a bit in the second quarter, getting 10 points from their bench, 10 more than they got in the first quarter. Garland also knocked down a couple of threes in the period, and the offense as a whole looked a bit more awake if you will. The passing began to pick up, with several high-level assists coming from the all-star backcourt. But Mobley also chimed in by orchestrating the offense, with four of his six assists coming in the first half. He continues to flash the talents that show he can be an offensive focal point in this league.
Detroit was able to somewhat keep up despite Cleveland’s improved play in the second quarter, mainly on the shoulders of Hamidou Diallo. With so many players out for the Pistons, it opened up more playing time for a lot of the bench guys and Diallo was one of the main beneficiaries. He has flashed at times for Detroit, but he was very active off the ball for Detroit tonight, making himself open for lead passes from either Killian Hayes or Cory Joseph. Even with Detroit playing very well for the first half of Saturday night’s game, you could tell that a lot of Detroit’s ability to stick with the Cavs was a result of Cleveland coming out flat offensively and not taking their opponent seriously enough on defense. That being said, Cleveland only led 54-45 at the halftime break.
Second Half:
The third quarter is where Cleveland really took complete control of this game. The intensity was drastically up from what they were playing within the first half, and more importantly, the shots were falling. Mobley’s offense picked up after scoring only five points in the first half, and the bench picked up their production, however mainly as a result of blowout playing time. After Cleveland went up 30 in the third, Detroit stood no shot at coming back being as shorthanded as they were, so the only real thing to note for the Cavs in the second half was that Donovan Mitchell left the game for a while to check on his hand after colliding with his own other hand on a drive to the rim (yes, you read that right). However, it was later reported that Mitchell has a left finger sprain and he did return to the bench before the game ended.
After thoroughly dominating Detroit in the second half, Cleveland got a much-needed 114-90 win against the Pistons. Their next game is Monday night against the Celtics in Cleveland in what could be the biggest game of their season to date.
Player Performances:
Detroit Pistons:
Marvin Bagley III: 20 points (8/12, 1/2 from three), 13 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 assists
Hamidou Diallo: 14 points (7/13), 7 rebounds, and a block and steal
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Darius Garland: 21 points (8/11, 5/6 from three), 7 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals
Donovan Mitchell: 20 points (8/17, 2/6 from three), 4 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals
Evan Mobley: 16 points (7/14, 0/1 from three), 11 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 blocks
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