One of the weirdest games I have ever seen.
1. We can't blame not being ready because we were and played well. I thought Love was doing a good job of bodying up on defense and was engaged. From 32-17 up, we went down 89-63 in the course of 23 game minutes. That's like losing a half 67-31. We panicked and didn't trust anything and thenPistons were happily chucking away.
2. Our overall defense wasn't even that bad other than letting a few too many shooters get open looks. A lot of those makes were just Jennings coming down and chucking. They wound up shooting about 44% Drummond killed us on the offensive boards of course so that hurt us giving up second chance points. If Drummond ever gets a jump hook or learns to shoot FTs, wow...
3. The offense was actually really good in the first 18 minutes before that meltdown. We scored 28 in the first but could easily had more as Love missed open threes that came off of offense being run. Miller, Delly, Love, and James missed wide open threes the entire game and could not hit one to stem the tide save Love's three before the half.
3a. Against good teams, wide open threes missed almost always comes back to haunt you. Now, Detroit isn't good, but it came back to haunt us again. Those open threes extend leads and demoralize the opposition and we could not hit one to save our lives. If we make a few of those and even one or two of thenDetroit chucks miss, the entire gsme is different.
4. Detroit played so freely and just chucked without a care in the world. Some of those shots weren't even good but they went in. We actually had more assists (25 to 21).
5. It's clear that James doesn't trust anyone. We were up 41-30 after he came back in and went on a little run. They chuck up a couple of threes and we completely melt down. James started chucking up bad shots, got blocked by Drummond, turned it over. It was a shocking sight to be honest. Complete melt down. I thought the 4 points right before the half would help but it was the exact same thing right after halftime. James has now played three of his worst games ever in a Cavs uniform this year (Spurs, NYK, this one). It's one thing to coast and conserve energy and another to completely melt down and not trust anyone even if nobody is making any open shots (he was visibly upset by all the bricked open shots). The funny thing is that he was playing really well until then,letdown and controlling the pace of the game. Then ONLY positive from him is that it's apparent he can go in and rebound if he wants to which we will need with Andy out. At this point, it's really hard to tell what the hell James is doing.
6. Our lack of athletes is glaring out there. Non-contending teams have players on their bench rotations that would get burn for us. It's honestly really worrisome seeing this night in and night out.
7. Don't know how long Haywood can last but he's a big body who can defend some and box out (he actually bodied Drummond up). He needs more PT.