CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 Round Two goes to Detroit. <\/p>\n
In the second meeting between two Eastern Conference heavyweights that are inextricably linked because of their deep organizational ties, the Cavs lost to the top-seeded Pistons, 114-110, inside Rocket Arena on Sunday afternoon. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough to win in the NBA when you lose to possession game by 10,\u201d Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said, pointing to rebounds and miscues. \u201cTheir physicality hurt us. They\u2019re handsy. They guard the heck out of the ball. They\u2019re physical as heck in pick and roll. Makes it hard on your offense. Give their defense credit. I think they\u2019re number one in the league in defense right now or close to it. We couldn\u2019t really get anything going.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the matchup lost some of its pregame luster because of absences on both sides, it certainly delivered the anticipated theatrics. <\/p>\n
Paying homage to former coach J.B. Bickerstaff \u2014 a defensive-minded tactician who instilled a rugged and scrappy identity during his successful stint in Northeast Ohio \u2014 the Cavs got off to a roaring start, beating the Pistons at their own game, smothering them on defense and holding them to just 19 first-quarter points while forcing seven turnovers. <\/p>\n
But the second quarter was much different \u2014 a Pistons assault from 3-point range that led to a 47-point explosion. Two-way guard Daniss Jenkins, who received high marks in Cleveland\u2019s locker room before the game, capped Detroit\u2019s spectacular quarter with a buzzer-beating triple in front of the Pistons\u2019 bench. <\/p>\n
That 12-minute turnaround put the Pistons up by 10 at the half. Jenkins poured in 21 in the quarter \u2014 a franchise-record for the most points ever scored in a quarter by a reserve. <\/p>\n
He let the Cavs know about it too. <\/p>\n
It seemed to be a wake-up call for Cleveland, which came out of the locker room with some extra juice, using a Donovan Mitchell-led 8-0 push to make it a one-possession game. <\/p>\n
Although the Cavs eventually pulled back even a little later in the third, they never seized control, going into the fourth down by five. <\/p>\n
Could they mount another furious fourth-quarter comeback? The third one in the last four games? <\/p>\n
Not this time. Not on Bickerstaff\u2019s watch. Not against an opponent that has thrived in the clutch this season \u2014 a primary reason for their impressive 26-9 record. <\/p>\n
The Pistons opened the final quarter scoring 10 of the first 13 points, pushing the lead to 12. <\/p>\n
They went up by a game-high 13 at the 4:59 mark of the fourth on former Cavalier Javonte Green\u2019s corner triple. But Cleveland kept its composure and responded with a 9-0 run. Mitchell tallied seven of those points, as chants of De-fense, De-fense, De-fense echoed through the sold-out arena.<\/p>\n
Bickerstaff called timeout. The young Pistons needed to regroup. <\/p>\n
They did, holding off Cleveland\u2019s latest comeback attempt and making enough clutch plays \u2014 and free throws \u2014 to grab a signature victory.<\/p>\n
In all, the grimy Pistons led for more than 30 minutes, the final 15:10. <\/p>\n
\u201cI know we competed to the end, but it didn\u2019t feel like we were right there the whole game,\u201d Atkinson explained. \u201cThey had the advantage most of the game. As far as kind of who outplayed who, it was definitely them. They were the better team tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two more games remain between these rivals. Perhaps Jarrett Allen (illness), Dean Wade (knee soreness) and Max Strus (foot surgery) will be available for the Cavaliers. Maybe the Pistons, missing Jalen Duren (ankle), Tobias Harris (hip) and Caris LeVert (knee), will finally be full strength to provide an accurate gauge of these two teams \u2014 both at one point considered threats to win the conference crown.<\/p>\n
Mitchell led all scorers with 30 points, including 23 in the second half. Four other Cavaliers reached double figures \u2014 Darius Garland (16), Evan Mobley (16), Sam Merrill (15) and De\u2019Andre Hunter (14). <\/p>\n
The Pistons got 27 points from All-Star point guard Cade Cunningham. Jenkins chipped in with 25 off the bench. <\/p>\n
\u201cCan\u2019t get lax,\u201d Mitchell said after the game. \u201cWe started off well and then you\u2019ve gotta play catch up. We\u2019re always gonna fight. There\u2019s always that. But we should have won this game and we didn\u2019t. That\u2019s on us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the hoopla surrounding the game, and the Pistons currently occupying the spot where the Cavs expected to be, Atkinson said his team\u2019s true measuring stick is themselves. Not the Pistons or any other opponent. It\u2019s about continuing on a recent upward trajectory. <\/p>\n
So much for that. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a really good team. We feel like we\u2019re a really good team,\u201d Merrill said. \u201cWe threw some punches. They threw some punches. Definitely battled there at the end, wasn\u2019t quite enough and that\u2019s when you look back at their big second quarter and some of the mistakes you make that at this level, against really good teams, your little mistakes get maximized and we probably had too many of those today.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have all the talent, all the skillset, and I absolutely feel like we\u2019re not playing on the level that maybe they\u2019re playing right now \u2014\u00a0you are what your record says you are at this point \u2014 but I do think we are starting to play to a level that we know we\u2019re capable of. There\u2019s ups and downs in the season and sometimes the downs are a little longer than we\u2019d like, but I feel confident about where we\u2019re going.”<\/p>\n
Maybe the Cavs will finally, eventually, get to where Detroit is \u2014 atop the East. <\/p>\n
At this point, they are still a long way from there.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
The Cavs open a two-game road trip with a matchup against the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 Round Two goes to Detroit. In the second meeting between two Eastern Conference heavyweights that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-388285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}