The Cavs were back to full strength for the first time in almost two months, and the Detroit Pistons almost played spoilers. Playing some sneaky good basketball of late, the Pistons, winners of two of their last three, pushed the Cavs to the brink but thanks to 45 by #45 the Cavs were able to prevail.
First things first, it’s good to be back and healthy. With that, it may take a little bit of time to look like a well-oiled machine. Garland was no stranger to finding his shot settling in for 7-12 from the field and 2-6 from three-point range. He was uber efficient inside the arc going 5-6. Despite this he was a -16 for the night. More on this later.
Like Garland, Mobley was limited to the 20 minute range and was somewhat productive in that time with 8 points, 3 rebound, 4 assist and 1 steal. Of the 22 minutes he played, about half of those minutes shared the floor with Jarrett Allen.
The Cavs starters were -1 in 9 minutes of play. Despite a 142.1 offensive rating in that time, they allowed a defensive rating of 155.6. The starters had no problem scoring, their shot profile was on point but their defense was not.
Detroit came out hot from deep early hitting three pointers in three consecutive possessions to take a 15-12 about mid-way through the first quarter. They would go 0-7 the rest of the quarter from deep and be outscored 18-8.
Rotations are going to be the thing to watch moving forward. JB Bickerstaff will be playing a nightly game of musical chairs of having too many players for not enough minutes. It’s a good problem to have --- depth is why they were able to sustain injuries. But with everyone healthy, it will create some tough decisions.
The first substitution saw Dean Wade off the bench for Mobley and Isaac Okoro for Garland, which recreated the streak lineup of Donovan Mitchell-Okoro-Strus-Wade-Allen. Shortly thereafter, Strus was swapped out for Caris LeVert. It seems like Bickerstaff has found a comfort in the streak lineup and may be a staple in his rotations moving forward.
Mitchell was off to a quick start with 9 points and 7 points created off of assists to account for a little over half (16) of the Cavs first quarter points (30). The Pistons didn’t have an answer for Mitchell attacking the paint all night and it showed in his final stat line.
The Pistons shot 36% from the field in the first quarter. They never shot below 50% in a quarter the rest of the way including 26-37 (70%!) from the field in the second and third quarters combined.
As one might guess, the Pistons went 9/9 from the field to start the second quarter including back-to-back-to-back possessions with a three-pointer. The Cavs went from being up 8 to down 4 in the matter of four minutes.
The lineup to start the second quarter of Garland, Merrill, Strus, Niang and Mobley gave up 17 points in five minutes. They also scored 11 points in those same five minutes but probably not a defensive lineup JB Bickerstaff wants to run out there again.
Not to be outdone, Sam Merrill matched the Pistons three-point parade with one of his own. The Cavs went on a 12-2 run, after the Pistons offensive outburst to start the quarter, thanks to three Merrill threes in the span of four minutes. Merrill finished with 11 points in the quarter.
Okoro and Merrill are fun matchup players to have come off the bench. Merrill can light up a scoreboard quick and completely tilt the floor. Meanwhile, Okoro can shut down an opposing player quick and completely take a player off the floor. Both can be dangerous when used right and both contributed in a major way. They combined for 25 bench points on the night.
Meshing the original starting lineup with the emergence of other players and other players may take some time but credit to JB Bickerstaff for working through them. You can see he’s trying some combinations, and is quick to make adjustments based on how the lineup is working. Case in point: LeVert was the lone ball-handler for the last three minutes in the first quarter. This is a look that has struggled before and while the Cavs win those minutes by one point, there was a certain uneasiness to the offense one might expect by asking a basket getter to run the offense. Seeing this, JB quickly pivoted to including Garland to start the second quarter.
Case in point part 2: Similar situation in the second quarter where the Garland, Merrill, LeVert, Niang and Mobley lineup was a sieve defensively. JB subbed in Okoro and Mitchell and then Allen a few minutes later. After scoring 20 points in 5 minutes, the Pistons scored 14 points in the final 7 minutes.
The in-game growth is what you want to see and it will be a point to track as things are reintegrated.
The second and third quarters were a game of trading baskets within the game itself. The Pistons went on a 13-6 run to go up one to start the quarter to which the Cavs immediately responded with a 9-2 run of their own to go up one. The Pistons pushed back again to within one and just as quickly, the Cavs went on a 13-3 run to push their lead to 9. And just like that, the Pistons had a 6-2 run to end the second quarter to cut the Cavs lead by 5.
And guess what type of lineup saw that small Pistons run at the end of the third? A LeVert as the only ball-handler lineup.
Again, you can see the wheels turning in JB Bickerstaff’s head. He went super small with a Wade, Niang and Strus frontcourt to start the 4th quarter. The Pistons went on a 7-2 run against that lineup and Bickerstaff quickly pulled the plug just two minutes into that experimentation.
The Pistons rolled that 7-2 run into a larger 14-4 run to start the 4th quarter and hit 100 points with 9 minutes left in the fourth. Coming into the game, the Cavs allowed more than 100 points in 48 minutes just two times in the last seven games.
The Cavs were getting hurt by the Cade Cunningham pick-and-roll which either led to a mid-range shot or open perimeter shot off the attention he drew. Thankfully, the Pistons cooled down to shoot 50% in the quarter (sarcasm).
There was a very real point in the 4th quarter where the Pistons had momentum and felt like they would win the game. They were up 5 with 6 minutes left and up 3 with 4 minutes left.
However, bad teams stay bad. After being up two, the Cavs went on a 10-0 run the next two minutes to really put the game away. Also not having any turnovers in the fourth quarter helps when you’re trying to make a comeback and the game gets tight.
There were some very close shots that could have easily went the other way. But the Cavs battled back thanks to Allen tough rebounds, and Mitchell tough baskets.
The Cavs don’t win this game without Donovan Mitchell, especially in the fourth. He finished with 20 points in the quarter and hit one big shot after another. He had the team’s final six points, and was responsible for the final eight points. He simply took over when the Cavs needed it most, and would not let the Pistons come out with a win.
Getting back to the re-integration: Let’s check back at the All-Star break. The Cavs play 8 more games before they go on a mini-break and a large chunk of those are against underwhelming opponents. Let’s see what kind of rhythm they can catch in that time.
However, the non-Mitchell minutes were not pretty. Without Mitchell on the floor, Garland was a -12 in those seven minutes. The offensive rating was passable but the defensive rating was abysmal. It was the same story with Mitchell and Garland on the floor together – okay offense, poor defense.
The same splits apply to Allen and Mobley sharing the court versus one being on and the other being off.
I say this to say: Be patient. Allen and Mitchell have been playing some of their best basketball for a long period of time while Mobley and Garland are coming back after missing six weeks of action with Garland barely being able to eat solid foods.
Not often you hear this but the Cavs were outrebounded by 7 on the night. Allen had 11 rebounds, and the next closest was Mitchell with 6. Allen outrebounded the rest of the Cavs frontcourt (Strus, Mobley, Wade, Niang) by himself.
Somehow the Pistons were a -8 in the turnover differential and almost won.
The Cavs were really pounding the paint all night, and it was more so because Detroit’s point of attack defense was so porous and they lacked the crisp rotations to do anything about it. The Cavs were 18-29 in the restricted area.
Another surprising stat: The Cavs bench was outscored by 18 points. But with the starters returning and playing higher minutes, this may look more like the norm moving forward.
The Cavs forced 17 Detroit turnovers which led to 29 points.
The last time Niang and Strus failed to hit a three-pointer, the Cavs lost to the Magic 104-94 back on December 11.
We talked about the minutes crunch and Dean Wade went from starter to receiving the fewest minutes (12) pretty quickly. Wade’s role may be matchup based being forward. He has a role, it just may vary widely by night.
Up next: The Cavs have a quick turnaround as they face the Grizzlies in Memphis Thursday at 8PM (ET).
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