Betrayer

Get Ausar back in!!!

Harris playing very well now.

Terrible second half so far. Gotta pick up the defense. They just look flat.

Bad start to the 2nd. Missing lots of easy ones.

Jenkins doing everything out there. Nice minutes from him so far.

Stew really struggling. Putting guys on the line a lot.

They’re really making up for the free throws last game, huh?

Bonus for the rest of the quarter. Not good.

Can’t seem to crack it open. Letting them hang around and now Ausar’s on the bench for the rest of the half.

He was elbowed in the face by Harden. They should’ve challenged it.

Well, it WAS a good start.

Strong start

Haslem in the pregame going on and on about how Cavs need to target Duncan on every possession.

I think you can catch them off guard with it and cause a turnover, but I don't see it working consistently with Cleveland because they don't have the perimeter length/defenders to really pull it off. Also, I would hope the Pistons have seen enough Cade traps to make people pay for it with Ausar or Duren initiating a 4 on 3 from the top of the key once they have the advantage. Especially against Cleveland whose guards won't rotate and recover fast enough.

Some fun numbers: Cade faced 10 double teams Cade also faced 21 late doubles (help when he gets to around the free throw line or below)

Their point was that Harden is asleep off ball. If you have him trying to help off Ausar he'll get back-doored all day and if you don't then the Cavs have no help against Cade. Either way, he's not going to be paying attention so Ausar can just walk into the lane whenever he wants. Agreed on your second point. They do need to ask JB why we haven't gone after Harden with Tobias or set screens using Tobias when Harden is guarding him. But, adding strategic wrinkles into games isn't really JB's specialty so he'd probably just shrug.

Sam floated this on Game Theory, but it took him about 2 seconds to realize that it wouldn't work after Bryce pointed out that Ausar would be scoring left and right on backdoors because Harden is atrocious at off ball defense. They both immediately scrapped the idea. I'll also add that it would be way easier to just do what they did against Orlando and have Ausar screen for Cade. One screen and Harden is on Cade. Goodnight Cleveland.

Obviously, it's a contract year for him so he's trying to earn one last good payday. That said, Harris has been exactly what we need him to be in these playoffs. Someone who can score 20 pts. He's not the most efficient (mostly because of his three point shot), but it doesn't matter much. We have nobody else who can drop 20 besides Cade. He's also been very good on the boards, getting steals, and drawing fouls. We all know he's not a #2 option, yet he's been put into that role on this team. For what he is and what this team needs, he's stepped up. He didn't have a 30 pt game at all in the regular season and I don't think he even strung together two 20 point performance. He's got 6 in a row in the playoffs and has been big in big moments, delivering exactly what this team needs: scoring, "volume" or not.

JB can’t get out of his own way.

Feels good to be ahead in a series.

Jenkins making some big plays to close this.

Harris just schooled Harden.

JB back to his antics. Get Ausar back on this game idiot.

“Sit with foul trouble” what? He has 4 fouls in the 4th!? That’s fine.

Tie game after all that. Cleveland has to feel good about being tied after how bad they’ve played.