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After playing just one game in the last five days and four games in the last 16 days the well-rested Cavaliers host the 15-48 Detroit Pistons, who are just playing out the string. The Pistons are 7-25 on the road. They have lost 9 of 10, with the only win coming at home in double overtime against the 15-47 Spurs.
Speaking of the Spurs, in this age of professional and college teams changing their names and mascots for political correctness purposes, can you believe an NBA team is named for a device used to inflict pain on animals? Maybe they should change their name to the Branding Irons.
But I digress. This will be the shortest preview yet. The Pistons suck. Cade Cunningham is out for the year and they traded Saddiq Bey to Atlanta. They didn’t have enough talent to be able to lose two of their best players and still win many games.
The Cavs played them four weeks ago in Cleveland and won by 28 without Garland and Mitchell. Neto played 36 minutes and was a +23. The Pistons put up a fight and were trailing by only 8 points after three quarters but the Cavs blew them out in the 4th.
To make their situation worse, a slew of Pistons have popped up on the injury report this morning, including their entire starting front court of Bojan Bogdanovic, Jalen Duren, and Isaiah Stewart, who will all miss this game along with backup shooting guard Alec Burks.
Bogdanovic is their leading scorer at 21.6 ppg. He is shooting an impressive 49% and 41% on 3’s. At age 33 on a rebuilding team it’s still hard to believe he wasn’t traded.
PG Jaden Ivey, the 5th overall pick this year, is averaging 15.4 points and 4.6 assists. His shooting percentages aren’t great at 42% and 34%, but he hit 42% of his 3’s in February.
Jalen Duren, the 13th pick this year, is a 6’11”, 250 pound, 19-year-old center who averages 8.5 points and 8.7 rebounds in 25 minutes at 64.5% from the field. Veteran Alec Burks averages 12.8 points and hits 42% from deep. They’re both out along with Stewart.
Bottom line is the Pistons are missing their 1st, 3rd, and 4th leading scorer and their 1st and 3rd leading rebounders. I assume James Wiseman will start at center, but they have no other centers on their roster. Marvin Bailey, 23, will start at power forward and Hamidou Diallo probably starts at small forward along with Jaden Ivey and Killian Hayes at the guards. That’s a young, athletic group, but without Cunningham, Bey, Burks, Stewart, Duren, and Bogdanovich they have no bench and only one starter from the group that began the season.
The Pistons have some pretty impressive young talent and will probably have a top four pick in the upcoming draft. In my opinion, they have a talented and very young core to build around and will be a team to reckon with perhaps as soon as next season, especially if they get the first or second pick in the draft.
The Cavs may want to rest Donovan Mitchell tonight. He tweaked his groin against Boston on Wednesday. Sitting him tonight would give him four days of rest and rehab before a critical three-game stretch against Boston at home on Monday and Miami on the road Wednesday and Friday.
Don’t look now but the Sixers have lost 3 of 4 and their next three games are on the road against Milwaukee, Indy, and Minnesota, with the last two games coming back-to-back. A Cavs win over Detroit paired with a Sixers loss to Milwaukee, which has won 16 straight since losing to the Cavs on Jan. 21, would put the Cavs just 1.5 games behind Philadelphia. The Bucks have not lost at home in two months.
The Knicks won a thriller in Miami last night when Julius Randle hit an off-balance 3-pointer with one second left to give them a 2-point win. They’ve won 8 in a row and are now one game back of Cleveland. The Cavs need to keep winning to stay in front of them.
The Nets had lost 8 of 10 before beating the Celtics by 10 points in Boston last night. Just goes to show that even the best teams can lose at home to a bad team if they are too complacent.
Speaking of the Spurs, in this age of professional and college teams changing their names and mascots for political correctness purposes, can you believe an NBA team is named for a device used to inflict pain on animals? Maybe they should change their name to the Branding Irons.
But I digress. This will be the shortest preview yet. The Pistons suck. Cade Cunningham is out for the year and they traded Saddiq Bey to Atlanta. They didn’t have enough talent to be able to lose two of their best players and still win many games.
The Cavs played them four weeks ago in Cleveland and won by 28 without Garland and Mitchell. Neto played 36 minutes and was a +23. The Pistons put up a fight and were trailing by only 8 points after three quarters but the Cavs blew them out in the 4th.
To make their situation worse, a slew of Pistons have popped up on the injury report this morning, including their entire starting front court of Bojan Bogdanovic, Jalen Duren, and Isaiah Stewart, who will all miss this game along with backup shooting guard Alec Burks.
Bogdanovic is their leading scorer at 21.6 ppg. He is shooting an impressive 49% and 41% on 3’s. At age 33 on a rebuilding team it’s still hard to believe he wasn’t traded.
PG Jaden Ivey, the 5th overall pick this year, is averaging 15.4 points and 4.6 assists. His shooting percentages aren’t great at 42% and 34%, but he hit 42% of his 3’s in February.
Jalen Duren, the 13th pick this year, is a 6’11”, 250 pound, 19-year-old center who averages 8.5 points and 8.7 rebounds in 25 minutes at 64.5% from the field. Veteran Alec Burks averages 12.8 points and hits 42% from deep. They’re both out along with Stewart.
Bottom line is the Pistons are missing their 1st, 3rd, and 4th leading scorer and their 1st and 3rd leading rebounders. I assume James Wiseman will start at center, but they have no other centers on their roster. Marvin Bailey, 23, will start at power forward and Hamidou Diallo probably starts at small forward along with Jaden Ivey and Killian Hayes at the guards. That’s a young, athletic group, but without Cunningham, Bey, Burks, Stewart, Duren, and Bogdanovich they have no bench and only one starter from the group that began the season.
The Pistons have some pretty impressive young talent and will probably have a top four pick in the upcoming draft. In my opinion, they have a talented and very young core to build around and will be a team to reckon with perhaps as soon as next season, especially if they get the first or second pick in the draft.
The Cavs may want to rest Donovan Mitchell tonight. He tweaked his groin against Boston on Wednesday. Sitting him tonight would give him four days of rest and rehab before a critical three-game stretch against Boston at home on Monday and Miami on the road Wednesday and Friday.
Don’t look now but the Sixers have lost 3 of 4 and their next three games are on the road against Milwaukee, Indy, and Minnesota, with the last two games coming back-to-back. A Cavs win over Detroit paired with a Sixers loss to Milwaukee, which has won 16 straight since losing to the Cavs on Jan. 21, would put the Cavs just 1.5 games behind Philadelphia. The Bucks have not lost at home in two months.
The Knicks won a thriller in Miami last night when Julius Randle hit an off-balance 3-pointer with one second left to give them a 2-point win. They’ve won 8 in a row and are now one game back of Cleveland. The Cavs need to keep winning to stay in front of them.
The Nets had lost 8 of 10 before beating the Celtics by 10 points in Boston last night. Just goes to show that even the best teams can lose at home to a bad team if they are too complacent.
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