Pistons bounce back big time with road win over Cavs
By Tim Thielke
The Pistons have dug themselves into a little bit of a hole. But tonight they showed they are fully capable of climbing out. While they surrendered a 10-0 run late in the third to cut their lead to 5 and a 12-0 run late in the fourth to cut the lead to 6, the Pistons by and large controlled the tempo from tip off to the final horn.
156. 95. 64. Final. 88
The officiating was a huge boon to the Pistons tonight. It was pretty consistent both ways, but the refs swallowed their whistles on a lot of plays that normally result in penalties. And besides being a worse free throw shooting team, the Pistons took more advantage by playing a lot more physically.
A-. Jackson had a good, not great, stat line. And he really struggled with covering Irving early. But it was night and day how the Pistons offense ran with or without him. Except for a couple stretches when he was just exhausted out there.. PG. Pistons. REGGIE JACKSON
Pistons. KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE. A. Caldwell-Pope exploded out of his shooting slump. He had a couple nice drives to the rim early, but after that, he was attempting a lot of tough jumpers. And he was sticking them. Irving looked a lot worse as soon as KCP switched onto him, too. But I don’t know how much to read into that because he didn’t pick it back up when others took that defensive responsibility late rin the game.. SG
C+. Morris was missing some wide open jumpers early that I really expected to come back to bite the Pistons. And when he played with the second unit, he couldn’t carry the scoring load like Harris could. But he also played pretty good defense on LeBron.. SF. Pistons. MARCUS MORRIS
A-. Tobias Harris had an inefficient shooting night much like Morris. And Love was abusing him early on. But it still wasn’t shocking to see him wind up with a game-high +16, because he was scrapping out there: fighting for rebounds, poking away balls, and ably creating opportunities when playing with backups. Harris’ defense rarely looked very good, but Love did eventually cool down anyway.. SF. Pistons. TOBIAS HARRIS
Pistons. ANDRE DRUMMOND. A. Drummond has had many better lines this season, but he has rarely made his counterpart look so worthless. Tristan Thompson is one of the best rebounders in the game. And he was giving Drummond some tough battles for the caroms, but Andre won nearly all of them. And he stuck 8 of his 14 free throws, too. That isn’t a percentage that should be exciting, but it’s one of his best games from the line all year.. C
Pistons. STEVE BLAKE. C-. Steve Blake often tries to run a pick-and-roll with Baynes similarly to how Jackson and Drummond play it. Most of the time, it’s just depressing. In a big win like this, it’s more comical.. PG
Stanley Johnson should really watch the way Kyrie Irving slithers his way around defenders who are waiting to draw a charge. But with the refs allowing a bit more contact than normal in this one, Johnson was able to get away with what could have been some offensive fouls.. SF. Pistons. STANLEY JOHNSON. C-
D. I may not have given Blake enough credit in his section. He managed to get the ball to Baynes in very good possession three times. And all three, Baynes completely botched the shot. Baynes was outplayed more than he should have been by Mozgov.. C. Pistons. ARON BAYNES
C+. Hilliard looked like a rookie out there, making some dumb mistakes. But he looked like a rookie point guard, perfectly capable of handling the ball and running the second unit. I really hope he wins Blake’s job. And Hilliard also did a good job in drawing the assignment on Irving while seeing the floor.. SG. Pistons. DARRUN HILLIARD II
B+. The Pistons tried to give the game back to the Cavs a couple times. But they played good, varied offensive sets and took care of the ball. That allowed them to control the pace of the game, a large factor in this win.. Head Coach. Pistons. STAN VAN GUNDY