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The play on both ends of the court from Evan Mobley and Jalen Duren could play a huge part in a pivotal Game 5.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Download the NBA App<\/a><\/p>\n The Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons have reached the hump day\u00a0portion\u00a0of their conference semifinal series<\/a> where after Wednesday one team will be on the verge of elimination and the other on the verge of moving on.\u00a0<\/p>\n Except it\u2019s hard to tell which team is leaning in which direction at the moment.\u00a0The series has been\u00a0fairly evenly\u00a0matched and played, with three of the four games experiencing tight fourth quarters, and the home teams taking care of their business on their court.\u00a0<\/p>\n This much is certain: Donovan Mitchell has taken the lead in the best-player-in-the-series race, punctuated by his 39-point second half<\/a> in Game 4. Aside from a few chilly stretches shooting the ball in the first two games, Mitchell has been impactful and answered the call for Cleveland.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s definitely sustainable,\u201d\u00a0said Cavs guard James Harden, about his tandem with Mitchell.\u00a0\u201cWe got work to do, but\u00a0I think we\u00a0found something.\u00a0We\u2019ve\u00a0got to be even better going into Game 5 on the road.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Yes, the rigors of the road\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the Cavs\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0won away\u00a0from Cleveland in the playoffs.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0one advantage for Detroit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what to watch in Game 5 Wednesday (8 ET, ESPN<\/a>):\u00a0<\/p>\n 1. More from Mobley<\/p>\n It was no coincidence that Cleveland scrambled back into this series when Evan Mobley played better. And now he\u2019s clearly the second-best player on the Cavs right now, a wing who has shown he can defend, excel in switches and make the most of his scoring chances. If this keeps up, the Cavs have one less worry against the Pistons.<\/p>\n His Game 4 was splendid; he had eight rebounds, five blocks and three steals which summarized his defensive impact. Not many players can offer both rim protection and cut off passing lanes. Mobley\u2019s strength lies in his versatility; he can guard bigs and also step out and cover the perimeter.\u00a0<\/p>\n Best of all for Cleveland, he kept a high motor in Game 4 and never disappeared, making plays at both ends that helped Cleveland deliver a big second half.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe was everywhere,\u201d\u00a0said Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson.\u00a0\u201cWe know within our locker room how great he\u2019s playing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n With the main source of the Cavs\u2019\u00a0strength being in the backcourt, Mobley can provide some balance scoring and also provide the level of defense that\u2019s higher than what Harden and Mitchell can provide.\u00a0<\/p>\n 2. More from Duren<\/p>\n The support from the home crowd should help. His teammates are behind him. His coach refuses to sit him during important stretches, perhaps to avoid hurting his confidence.<\/p>\n Ultimately, though, Jalen Duren must fix his issues himself.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0where it starts. The Pistons\u2019\u00a0big man, who had a breakout 2025-26 season when he routinely dropped double-doubles and played solid defense, has been mostly muted during the playoffs. And those warts are especially visible right\u00a0now, when\u00a0the Pistons are searching for a consistent co-star to Cade Cunningham and a force in the paint.\u00a0<\/p>\n At least Duren\u00a0is owning\u00a0it:\u00a0\u201cI just got to be better. I have no excuses.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0my biggest critic. I know what I\u00a0have to\u00a0do to contribute to my team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He actually had a decent showing against Cleveland\u2019s front line initially in this series but has disappeared since.\u00a0Meanwhile, Jarrett Allen\u2019s confidence and energy source is\u00a0growing by\u00a0the game; the\u00a0Cavs\u2019\u00a0center is taking advantage of Duren\u2019s issues and becoming a bigger factor in this series with his rebounding and rim protection.\u00a0<\/p>\n The situation is putting Pistons coach JB Bickerstaff in a bind. Paul Reed has played better than Duren and the backup is pushing for more playing time, although Bickerstaff seems hesitant to make a major change.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t just give up on guys when they\u2019re having a hard time,\u201d\u00a0Bickerstaff said.\u00a0\u201cYou\u2019ve\u00a0gotta\u00a0give guys confidence, you\u2019ve\u00a0gotta\u00a0give guys belief.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n This is true to an extent.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0hard to turn away from players who helped you get this far. But\u00a0let\u2019s\u00a0see where Bickerstaff\u2019s loyalty lies if Duren\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0escape this\u00a0fog\u00a0and the Pistons\u2019\u00a0top-seeded season is suddenly on the line.\u00a0<\/p>\n 3. Game 5 X-factors<\/p>\n Here are the candidates aside from Reed who could make a difference Wednesday:<\/p>\n Sam Merrill, Cavs. He has been slowed by a hamstring issue which forced him to miss a game in this series, and he has been largely invisible since scoring 13 points in Game Seven against the Raptors in the first round. But that game showed how useful Merrill can be if given the opportunity to shoot 3s, his specialty.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dennis Schr\u00f6der, Cavs. Ball handling \u2014 that\u2019s what he can give the Cavs and how he can relieve Harden of heavy ball usage. When Schr\u00f6der did this during the games in Cleveland, Harden\u2019s turnovers were reduced.\u00a0<\/p>\n Daniss Jenkins, Pistons. He was so solid off the bench in the first round and the first two games of this series, then turned to vapor the last two games, with no steals and four total points. The Pistons could use his change-of-pace attack and for him to return to be a disruption for the opposition.\u00a0<\/p>\n Caris LeVert, Pistons. Lost in the Pistons\u2019\u00a0lopsided Game 4 loss was how well LeVert played; you could argue he was the best player on the floor for Detroit. Finally given minutes in the playoffs, LeVert scored 24 points in 31 minutes, that\u00a0was just three points shy of his\u00a0previous\u00a0appearances in this entire post-season. And he shot 10-16 and excelled in transition.\u00a0<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n Shaun Powell has covered the NBA since 1985. You can e-mail him at\u00a0spowell@nba.com<\/a>, find\u00a0his archive here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0follow him on\u00a0X<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The play on both ends of the court from Evan Mobley and Jalen Duren could play a huge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[322099,64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-667260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-3-things-cavs-pistons-game-5","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}