Coming into these playoffs, the narrative around JB Bickerstaff was that he is a great regular season coach, but falls short in the playoffs, which is the exact reason he was fired from the team he’s currently up 2-0 against in the playoffs.
I’ve always hated the narrative around “championship” coaches, as every title winning coach was once a guy who hadn’t won, and it only takes one run through the playoffs to change the perception.
But coaches are always the scapegoats, so for JB’s sake, I hope he gets the Pistons to the next round, so we can end this narrative once and for all.
He’s made subtle tweaks to the game plan between rounds that are paying off for the Pistons, and show coach Bickerstaff is ready to change his playoff narrative.
Pistons trying to wear the Cavaliers down
One of his goals in this series is to wear Cleveland down with relentless defense and pressure, which makes sense.
The Cavs are the older team, and an injury to Sam Merrill has cut into their depth to the point that Kenny Atkinson only played eight players in the last game (not counting 6 minutes for Keon Ellis).
Coach Bickerstaff is trying to take advantage by picking up their guards full court, particularly 36-year-old James Harden, and by jumping every screen, every pass and getting right into the face of the ballhandlers.
The Pistons have made everything difficult, which has to have a knock-on effect later in the game when these same guys are being called upon for big plays. It’s led to Harden coughing up late turnovers and coming up short on a few shots, which could be some of the effect of all that extra work he’s putting in just to get the ball across half court.
The secondary effect is that it has taken the Cavs much longer to get into their half-court sets, which has led to them being forced to rush shots and several shot-clock violations.
The Pistons are the younger and deeper team and need to continue to try and break the Cavaliers with sheer effort and defensive pressure.
Moving Cade Cunningham off the ball
Keeping his own stars fresh while wearing down the Cavs is the other part of the equation.
Cunningham is playing huge minutes and has one of the highest usage ratings in the playoffs, so he has the ball in his hands nearly every possession, yet we’ve not seen him get worn down even though he had a collapsed lung mere weeks ago.
One small adjustment coach Bickerstaff has made is to have other players bring the ball up the court, whether it’s Daniss Jenkins or Ausar Thompson. Cade is still going to end up with the ball, but it saves him from having to do literally everything.
He gets a short breather and makes it harder for the Cavaliers to immediately double and trap him.
These minor adjustments have had a huge impact in the first two games and are something to watch for as the series progresses and both teams try to dig in for extra energy.
The Pistons need to keep it on the Cavaliers, who like Detroit, already played one 7-game series in these playoffs and are a team Detroit can wear down.
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