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Game Summary It's hard to win four straight games against anyone, let alone in the playoffs against a #1 seed, but it's also hard to win turning the ball over, losing the margin plays and your best players not playing like your best players. The Cavs had a chance to win a close out but fell flat on their face with the most turnovers in a playoff game this year and the worst playoff loss since Round 1 against Toronto (22 points). James Harden and Donovan Mitchell now have one more chance to beat the allegations before they are etched in stone. By The Numbers 43: Second half points for the Cavs on 41 FGAs 16: 3PM by the Pistons -- ties their playoff high +22: In paint points for the Pistons -2: 2 less restricted area FGAs by the Cavs...

Game Preview After five games the cumulative score is 543-543. As Jarrett Allen said, these teams are evenly matched. But the Cavs have won three in a row and the pressure is on the Pistons as they are the only team facing elimination on Friday. The Cavs have the momentum, confidence, and home court advantage so no excuse for screwing this up and having to win a Game 7 in Detroit. Beating the Pistons twice in one series in their building might be a bridge too far. Kenny said after Game 4 that he thinks the Cavs have “figured some stuff out”, both offensively and defensively. It looked that way in Game 5 as the Cavs won despite Mitchell not playing well and Cade going off for 39 points. Donovan was 1-for-8 from deep. He should do much...

Game Summary Leave it to Cleveland to break their road playoff drought in historic fashion -- whether it's tying the largest comeback (down 9) with under 3 minutes left in a playoff game or having a 2% chance to win with 2:40 left in the game. It took the Cavs into overtime (it shouldn't have) to get the monkey off their back but now they have and are one game away from doing something this core has never done. It wasn't pretty -- Detroit led for most of the game, the Cavs came out sloppy (once again) and Donovan Mitchell once again struggled in a road playoff atmosphere. But this Cavs team kept battling, and battling, just like a JB Bickerstaff team would, and did just enough before the clock struck midnight to escape Detroit with a...

Game Preview Dead even after four games and it’s back to Detroit for what will probably be the deciding game. Historically the game 5 winner in a 2-2 series goes on to win the series 84.2% of the time. Whichever team wins has a 3-2 edge and still has a home game left, so it makes sense. These teams have played each other for 197 minutes and they are very familiar with each other by now. Both coaches have had the opportunity to make adjustments. Kenny is leaning more on the bigs and less on Tyson and Ellis. Here are the minutes played game by game: Tyson 18, 22, 14, 8 Ellis 11, 6, 0, 0 Allen 18, 31, 32, 32 Mobley 35, 36, 36, 39 So from game 1 to game 4 Tyson's and Ellis’ minutes declined by 21 while Allen and Mobley’s minutes...

Game Summary There's just something about home. The Cavs head back to Detroit tied 2-2 after taking advantage of a historic performance... at home. The Cavs came out and hit first with a 15-5 run to start the game, but as they always do, the Pistons fought back via Caris LeVert (???) and ended the quarter with the lead. After a struggle to halftime, the real story is what happened after halftime. Despite just four points at halftime, Donovan Mitchell went out and dropped the most points in a half in Cavalier playoff history while also setting a new career playoff high. Within that, it sparked a 24-0 run that put the Cavs in the driver's seat the rest of the way. By The Numbers 38-4: Cavs advantage to start the 1Q and 3Q +24: Plus-minus...

Game Preview The Cavs made some adjustments and pulled out game 3 in the final minutes but the pressure is still all on them because a loss in game 4 would force them to win three straight to advance, and that’s not happening, especially with two games on the road. One adjustment they made was getting the bigs more involved and playing “inside-out.” Instead of allowing the offense to become another perimeter-heavy tug-of-war between star guards hunting difficult jumpers, Cleveland leaned into its size. The Cavs played inside-out. They trusted their bigs to touch the paint early, establish position, make the right read as decision makers, finish through contact and force Detroit’s defense to collapse inward before reacting outward...

Game Preview Down 0-2 the pressure is squarely on the Cavs to figure out a way to win the next two games at home and make it a best-of-three series. The pressure is greatest on Kenny Atkinson who stated that he will do whatever he deems necessary. Everything’s on the table. Everything. We got to look at it all. - KA Does “everything” include benching James Harden? Unable to get past tenacious Detroit defenders, a clearly frustrated Harden resorted to foul-baiting…Harden finished with more miscues than made field goals for the fourth time in nine playoff games. - Fedor Take away the first two games against the Raptors and Harden is shooting 38%. And his defense has been lacking, and that is the polite term. The Pistons were 7/7 in...

Game Summary If it was a movie script, it's like you watched the same movie over again. Turn the ball over massively to start. Get down early. Work and work and work to dig out. Finally do enough to bring it even late. Then quickly give back everything that was worked for, and fail to execute down the stretch. One star player plays well, the other don't, and the shoot goes by the wayside once again. The Cavs look like a team that can win at times, but the Pistons are the team that are doing everything they need to do consistently to make sure they win at all times -- that is the difference right now. Mistakes and missed opportunities rued the regular season, and it's ruing the postseason so far. By The Numbers 5: 1Q turnovers by the...

Game Preview The Cavs try to even the series and give themselves home court advantage. There are several keys to victory if the Cavs can accomplish them. Key #1 - avoid a lot of turnovers. Cleveland committed 20 miscues that the Pistons turned into 31 points…Those mistakes helped Detroit find just enough offense despite shooting 44% from the field and only making 10 3-pointers. - Fedor I think it’s attention to detail. We gotta be sharper. We just weren’t. - Donovan Mitchell Kenny continues to emphasize the necessity of winning the possession game which means winning the turnover and rebound battle. The Pistons are 5-0 in the playoffs when they get more possessions than their opponents. Cleveland coughed the ball up 12 times in the...