Looking ahead to Ohio State’s sold out spring game
April 16, 2016Cavs coverage on Snapchat, Tickets on ReplyBuy, and Kobe’s Farewell: While We’re Waiting…
April 18, 2016Detroit Piston 101
Cleveland Cavaliers 106
[Box Score]
Those expecting a nice, easy, casual Sunday afternoon blowout certainly did not have their expectations met, but the Cleveland Cavaliers did just enough to hold off the red hot Detroit Pistons 106-101 to take Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs.
As fans, it’s sometimes easy to mistake a 1 vs 8 matchup in the NBA Playoffs with a 1 vs 16 matchup in the NCAA tournament. Especially when many fans saw the Golden State Warriors take care of their business so easily in Game 1 of their matchup. But make no mistake, while the Cavaliers are indeed heavy favorites to win this series, the Pistons are not some pushover. They are a very good NBA basketball team that won 44 games this season. Remember, the Pistons took the regular season series 3-11.
None of this is to say that the Cavaliers should be worried. Quite the opposite. The Pistons gave the Cavaliers everything they had in this game, including shooting an uncharacteristic 51.7 percent from three, and they still came up short. Barring some sort of injury or some other crazy event, the Cavaliers will probably win this series. But not every game is going to be a blowout and fans shouldn’t be surprised that the Cavaliers had their hands full with Detroit in Game 1.
Having said all that, the Cavaliers played a very, very good game in Game 1 and came up with both the baskets and the stops that they needed down the stretch. Fans looking for drama and things to worry about will probably find a treasure trove’s worth of material in this game, but overall, it was nothing but a solid opening win to the playoffs for Cleveland.
Now on to some numbers.
- 57.1% vs 37.5% – I want to start here, because to me this was the statistic driving the narrative that I saw regarding this game. On the season, the Pistons were 22nd in the league in three-point shooting at 34.5 percent. In the first half of this game, the Pistons shot 62.5 percent from three. Through three quarters, they were still shooting 57.1 percent from three. Despite the Pistons’ incredible shooting, the Cavaliers only trailed by two after three quarters. That had to be a good sign for Cleveland, and in the end, it was. The Pistons fell back to their normal shooting in the fourth quarter, shooting just 37.5 percent from outside the arc, and the Cavaliers were able to pull away and take the game. It’s more than fair to criticize the Cleveland defense for allowing such a high percentage through the first three quarters, but it would be a mistake to try to extrapolate into something bigger happening in this game. We’ll find out in Game 2 if this was an anomaly or if there is something in the Cavaliers defense that Detroit is exploiting.
- 2 – The Cavaliers only turned the ball over five times as a team in this game, leading to just two points for the Pistons. Conversely, Detroit had 12 total turnovers leading to 19 points for the Cavaliers. One of my favorite stats in basketball to this day remains the overall assist to turnover ratios. It tells so much about the fundamentals of basketball. Making good decisions with the basketball leads to success more times than not. The Cavaliers had 25 assists to go with those five turnovers. That’s really not a bad way to start the playoffs off at all. Sure, the 25 assists could be a little higher, but in the playoffs, the games tend to shrink and the number of possessions tend to be reduced, potentially scaling down possession based numbers. Overall, I thought the ball movement on Cleveland’s behalf was excellent in Game 1.
https://vine.co/v/it3WAYV5TZz
- 0 – Channing Frye played zero minutes in this game, getting the old fashioned DNP-CD. If I have to complain about anything in this game, it would be this. I didn’t understand the decision to go with Richard Jefferson over Frye to the extent that they did. Especially when you’re going to have both LeBron James and Kevin Love on the bench together, leaving Kyrie Irving as the only real viable offensive option on the court. I thought having Frye out there with LeBron and Love on the bench would have given the Pistons defense at least one other thing to think about other than Kyrie. It will be interesting to see if Frye gets some action going forward in this series. If he doesn’t, it will make it hard to understand what the point of acquiring him was.
- 31/6/5 – Kyrie Irving was absolutely great in this basketball game. He did a little bit of everything, scoring 31 points to go along with six assists, five rebounds, two steals, one huge blocked shot, and just one turnover. Kyrie has struggled with his shooting touch for much of this season, but against the Pistons he shot 50 percent from three and made an impact in every aspect of this game. Fine, yes, on some possessions Kyrie can over-dribble. And sure, when he’s out there without LeBron and Love, the offense sometimes stops moving. But that’s not all on Kyrie. When Kyrie is put out there without other offensive threats, the entire team pretty much stands there and waits for Kyrie to make something happen. And I can even listen to arguments about Kyrie’s defense hurting the Cavaliers. It’s true. Kyrie’s defense leaves a ton to be desired, even though he did make a great hustle play on defense getting back to block the Tobias Harris’ shot in transition. But I don’t understand how people are complaining about Kyrie Irving when he puts together a game like this.
https://vine.co/v/it3tZnb7PAZ
- 28 and 13 – Welcome back to the playoffs, Kevin Love. Last season Love was getting his first taste of the playoffs and he was really playing well against the Boston Celtics, before suffering the injury that ended his season. Kevin was obviously crushed by it, and the team sorely missed him down the stretch in the postseason. Which is why this entire regular season felt so meaningless for the Cavaliers, as everything was about one thing only. This moment. Getting back into the playoffs with a healthy “Big Three”. LeBron was his typical great self (ho hum, 22 points, 11 assists, and 5 rebounds), but I thought it was Love who really stepped up the intensity and made this feel like a playoff game for the Cavaliers. Love finished the game with 28 points and 13 rebounds, but perhaps his biggest contribution came on the defensive end. Late in the fourth quarter, on consecutive possessions Love found himself isolated on Reggie Jackson after a Pistons pick. Both times you could see Jackson’s eyes get bigger as he thought he had an easy score, but both times Love was able to hang in there and do enough defensively to disrupt Jackson and prevent the Pistons from scoring. Love was aggressive all game, forcing his will onto the offense and demanding the ball inside as well as working to get open outside. Just an all around great game by all of the Big Three and hopefully just a taste of what these three players have in store for this postseason.
https://vine.co/v/it3W0WX0IAW
Game 1 is in the books, and now we have to wait until Wednesday until these teams can square off again. The biggest thing I’ll be watching in Game 2 is how the Cavaliers defend the perimeter. Do they adjust and show that the Pistons were on to something, or do they play the same way and dare the Pistons to shoot lights out from outside again. Otherwise, outside of just cleaning up a few things here or there, the Cleveland Cavaliers are off to a great start to these playoffs.
To keep occupied until Wednesday’s game, feel free to check out our Game 1 wrap-up podcast below.
- OK, yeah, we can’t count that last game when everyone rested. But even without that game, the Pistons still took two of three from Cleveland. [↩]
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The Real Shamrock, If you’re still using Disqus, Just letting you know Waiting For Next Year is back to it’s original webpage.
Cheers. 😉