{"id":677534,"date":"2026-05-18T13:25:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/677534\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T13:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:25:18","slug":"no-1-seed-pistons-rue-nba-playoff-exit-as-cavs-advance-to-conference-finals-that-game-sucked-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/677534\/","title":{"rendered":"No 1 seed Pistons rue NBA playoff exit as Cavs advance to Conference finals: \u2018That game sucked\u2019 | NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donovan Mitchell scored 26 points, Jarrett Allen and Sam Merrill each added 23 and the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> beat the Detroit Pistons 125-94 on Sunday night in Game 7 to advance to the Eastern Conference finals.<\/p>\n

The fourth-seeded Cavaliers ousted the East\u2019s top seed and will face the third-seeded New York Knicks. Game 1 of the series tips off on Tuesday in New York.<\/p>\n

Daniss Jenkins scored 17 points, and Cade Cunningham and Duncan Robinson each finished with 13 for the Pistons, who fell one win shy of their first conference finals appearance since 2008 after forcing the deciding game with a Game 6 victory on Friday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat game sucked,\u201d said Cunningham, who was held 16 points under his playoff average. \u201cBeing back home, wanted to get this win in front of our fans. It reminded me of last year, losing on home court. It\u2019s not a great feeling. So I hadn\u2019t been thinking about the offseason, so my mind\u2019s been racing now, trying to figure out what I got to do, what it\u2019s going to look like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evan Mobley had 21 points and 12 rebounds for the Cavaliers, who advanced to the conference finals for the first time since 2018 and the ninth time in team history. It\u2019s their deepest run since LeBron James\u2019s final season with the franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t just come here just to win a goal,\u201d Mitchell said about making the conference finals for the first time in his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven last year. when we lost to Indiana, we had our goals set on getting to the [NBA] finals. We\u2019re just one step closer. It\u2019s been almost a decade of running into the same issue … As a team, we can breathe a little bit, but the same token, we can only breathe for about 12 hours, and then get right back to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cavs dictated the pace from the opening tip and never allowed the Pistons to gain traction, then blew open a convincing Game 7 performance when Mitchell scored 15 in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

Detroit were outscored in the paint 58-34 and made only 35.3% of their field goal attempts, compared to Cleveland\u2019s 50.6%<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we play with force, it\u2019s really a key. Like, force on both ends with our talent, we\u2019re really hard to beat,\u201d Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson said. \u201cThe question we got to answer, we talked about it a lot, is we can\u2019t have force letdowns like Game 6, where we were not the forceful team. But tonight we were, that was a whole difference, our force on both ends.\u201d<\/p>\n

The abrupt ending to the Pistons\u2019 season came just two years after they endured one of the worst seasons in NBA history. The Pistons finished 14-68 during the 2023-24 season and set an NBA single-season record with 28 consecutive losses before emerging this year as one of the league\u2019s biggest surprises under coach JB Bickerstaff.<\/p>\n

Despite Sunday\u2019s lopsided defeat, Bickerstaff refused to call the ending a disappointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a disappointment at all,\u201d Bickerstaff said. \u201cNot ever will I be disappointed in these guys. These guys every single day give us what they got. So it is not a disappointment. It\u2019s a loss, and it\u2019s a tough loss. But that adjective will never be used.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bickerstaff repeatedly praised the growth and resilience of a roster that rapidly developed into a contender.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis team is awesome, and they\u2019re a special group of guys,\u201d he said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t be more appreciative of how they allow us to coach them, work with them every single day. The spirit they carry, their willingness to grow, their willingness to sacrifice. It\u2019s a special group.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donovan Mitchell scored 26 points, Jarrett Allen and Sam Merrill each added 23 and the Cleveland Cavaliers beat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-677534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}