Pistons come back to rout LeBron James’ Cavaiers

Detroit Pistons 103, Cleveland Cavaliers 80

Andre Drummond — A-

16 points, 17 boards, 5 blocks, no foul trouble. Drummond put up monster numbers. But his impact lately has been looking eerily Monroe-esque as he provided no resistance to Tristan Thompson who also had a big game.

Kyle Singler — B

Singler’s stats were unremarkable, but we was getting after the ball all night long. He got three nice strips to set up some easy attempts for Jennings. Brandon only hit one of them because he got hacked by Love once and he made a stupid charge the other time, but still good play from Singler. And he was smart about it , too. Even though his hounding resulted in several fouls, he was careful to do it at times that didn’t put Cavs on the stripe or bail them out of bad possessions.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope — A

KCP’s stats weren’t overly noteworthy either. But he drew by far the most defensive possessions on LeBron and helped force him into an abysmal game.

Brandon Jennings — A

I’ve made a lot of game notes on Jennings lately that have amounted to “this was his once-in-a-blue-moon good game”. But this is his third good game in the last four. Over all four, he is averaging 17, 4, and 8 with just 2 turnovers on 45/44/80 splits. And by and large, he’s been defending well too. In this one, he didn’t have any challenging matchup, but it’s not like Jennings has consistently guarded nobodies well in the past. So I’ll take it.

Four games is a small sample size, but it’s the longest period over which he has played well as a Piston to date. So I’m going to hold off on my usual cynicism for the moment.

Greg Monroe — D+

Monroe had a brutal game offensively and while Love didn’t look as dominant as Minnesota Love, he had an above average game compared to how he’s been playing this season.

Jodie Meeks — A-

Meeks has been on fire lately, hitting 17 of his last 25 shots including 4 of 8 from deep. And he spent some time guarding LeBron without looking entirely overwhelmed. It’s probably not much longer before he supplants Singler in the starting lineup. In the meantime, though, he needs to earn some more playing time.

D.J. Augustin — F

Augustin shot terribly and his defense kept the Cavs in the game whenever he saw the floor.

Caron Butler — B+

Caron Butler’s play didn’t blow me away, but he was solid. And I have to give him credit for being part of the Detroit lineup that turned the tide with an 18-0 run in the second quarter.

Jonas Jerebko — A

Jerebko’s basketball IQ is blowing me away. I liked him before this year, but recognized him as a limited player who may not even make many teams’ rotations. His abilities still look just as limited, but he almost never makes a mistake. In this game, his rotations were perfect. He helped when needed but didn’t lose his man, he moved the ball intelligently on offense. And he ended up with a very nice line to show for it.

Joel Anthony — Incomplete

Anthony technically played in this game but he had no meaningful impact in his minute.

Stan Van Gundy — A

I have to give credit to Van Gundy. I don’t expect this to last, but I had long since given up on the hope that the Pistons might look as good this season as they have int he last two games.
Also, I felt like I should include this for some perspective on what a big upset the Pistons just pulled off:

"FROM ELIAS: The Cavs loss against the 6-23 Pistons is the worst opponent a LeBron James team has ever lost to at home, at least 20 games into the season. In fact, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, it’s only the 3rd such team LeBron has ever lost to with a win percentage below .300, and the other 2 were both by single digits."