Daniss Jenkins can't take the bait on the road

After having two great games at home, Daniss Jenkins struggled in game three in Cleveland, finally looking like a young player in his first playoffs. 

Coming into the series, the matchup with Dennis Schroder was worrying, as the latter is a veteran who can get under anyone’s skin with his pesky style and non-stop talking. Jenkins shut him up in Detroit, dominating the matchup in the first two games and making Schroder look like the rookie. 

Jenkins was composed and under control at home, things that we didn’t see in game three as he went 1-of-5 for only two points and let the veteran Schroder get in his head. 

Daniss Jenkins can’t fall into Schroder’s traps 

The Cavaliers clearly tried to get into Jenkins' head last night, bumping him with multiple players, holding him during dead balls and with Schroder yapping in his ear. All of that, coupled with a loud home crowd, did seem to rattle Jenkins. 

He got into a head-to-head (literally) battle with Schroder on an inbounds play and coughed up a turnover that made the crowd go nuts and got Schroder fired up. We know very well that Schroder is a competitive weirdo who lives for this stuff, so Jenkins has to stay calm and not take the bait. 

It manifested later in the game when Jenkins was called for an offensive foul after pushing off around Schroder’s neck, which led to a review for a flagrant. 

It wasn’t close to a flagrant, and Schroder flopped egregiously (why can’t they call it?), flailing his head back and propelling himself to the floor like he’d been shot out of a canon. It may have been a foul, but the flop was just gross and something the NBA needs to start penalizing instead of worrying about problems no one cares about (tanking anyone?). 

Flop aside, Jenkins lost his composure and let Schroder’s pesky defense get to him and affect other parts of his game, as he missed three wide open 3-point shots, ones he was making in Detroit. 

Young role players on the road 

We’ve seen this time and time again, as young role players tend to thrive in home playoff games and struggle on the road where the environment isn’t as friendly. 

Jenkins was the spark that got the Pistons crowd going, but the script was flipped in game three with Schroder providing that energy to his home crowd. 

Jenkins doesn’t have to be perfect, but he has to stay composed and not fall for Schroder’s tactics. The best way to quiet him and the crowd is to knock down a few shots, grab a few rebounds, or set a teammate up for a dunk. 

Jenkins isn’t going to beat Schroder in a battle of talking or drawing fouls, so just needs to stay calm and beat him at basketball. 

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