1 Advantage the Pistons have over every Central Division team
1 Advantage the Pistons have over every Central Division team
Cleveland Cavaliers: The bench
The Pistons lost all four games to the Cavaliers last season and Cleveland will once again be favored next season.
The Cavaliers’ starting five is as good as just about anyone in the Eastern Conference, so Monty Williams can’t let his team fall behind big early.
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But the bench matchups could favor Detroit once the starters hit the bench, as the Cavaliers’ second unit is short on star power and shooting with backups Ricky Rubio, Caris LeVert, Isaac Okoro, Georges Niang and Damian Jones.
That squad lacks shooting, so Detroit can assign Ausar Thompson to lock down LeVert and dare the others to beat them. Monte Morris should be able to cancel out Rubio, and I love the matchups between Alec Burks and Okoro, as well as the Pistons’ bigs over Niang and Jones.
This could be the opponent for James Wiseman and/or Marvin Bagley to have big games as Detroit will likely lean heavily on their bench.