3/3/26 7:00PM Pistons 45-14 @ Cavs 38-24

[Deleterious]

Then Schroeder abused Robinson

[Deleterious]

LeVert fouls the three point shooter. 4 point play for Cleveland

[Deleterious]

Allen is doubtful to return with a knee injury. 

[Deleterious]

3rd quarter is all Harris. Pistons would be down about 20 without him.

[Sports_Freak]

Every game, LaVert hurts this team. Why is he even in the rotation?

[Sports_Freak]

51 minutes ago, buddha said:

seems like a game they'll need 4th quarter cade to win.

And a solid team defensive effort 

[Deleterious]

Thompson taking over on defense

[Deleterious]

I've never seen such a good defensive team struggle to guard the three point line as much as Detroit does.

[Deleterious]

Greg lol. Just said Ausar is a hell of a passer. 

[Deleterious]

Schroeder has hit that little right hand scoop multiple times. He gets it up so fast nobody can block it

[Deleterious]

Duren alligator armed that pass like he was expecting a free safety to hit him

[Deleterious]

They can't even intentionally foul

[Deleterious]

Really ugly game from Cade

[Adullin]

Refs won't even call the intentional foul in the end screwing Detroit of about thirty seconds.  

[Deleterious]

Pistons even shot fairly well from three at 37%.  But it's a volume thing.  Cavs also shot 37% but made 17 compared to the Pistons 9.  

[papalawrence]

Cleveland is a tough match-up for Detroit. The playoffs are going to be a battle, and I can't wait

[Deleterious]

I think the Cavs offense looks a lot better with Harden running things.  Mitchell is good at getting Mitchell stuff, but he doesn't really spread it around that much.  Harden is a more willing passer and gets people involved and makes them a lot more dangerous.  Curious to see how it works when Mitchell is back because they really should leave the ball in Harden's hands.  

[buddha]

3 hours ago, Deleterious said:

I think the Cavs offense looks a lot better with Harden running things.  Mitchell is good at getting Mitchell stuff, but he doesn't really spread it around that much.  Harden is a more willing passer and gets people involved and makes them a lot more dangerous.  Curious to see how it works when Mitchell is back because they really should leave the ball in Harden's hands.  

how selfish does one have to be in order for james harden to be a more willing passer?

[Betrayer]

Rough game. Cavs are great at using their (moving) screens to isolate and attack mismatches (Robinson), or get the ball into the paint to force rotation, and then finding the open shooter. Piston defense was constantly having to rotate and switch and we didn't recover fast enough. Guys were caught out of position all night leading to wide open threes that the Cavs knocked down.

On the other side of the ball it took 7 quarters of basketball against the Cavs before we realized that we can do the same thing to Schroeder they do to Robinson. He's too small to guard and yet we didn't create and attack the mismatch until the 3rd quarter when Tobias went on a tear.

JD was feeling his Player of the Week title a little too much in the first half. Pressing hard to score against multiple defenders rather than make the easy pass to an open teammate. It turned into a lot wasted possessions.

Cade had a rough night on both ends. Tyson really bothers him defensively and the Cavs were doubling and swarming him a bunch. A lot of assists but still you need more scoring, or at least more efficiency, from Cade. He was also really bad on defense, missing rotations that led to open threes.

JB continues to bow to whatever blackmail LaVert has on him. He was actively hurting the team again with turnovers, dumb fouls, and terrible shots. Just cut him at this point so JB can't play him. Any other player on the bench would be better in those minutes or just give more minutes to Ausar/Ron/Green.

Speaking of, Ausar was awesome on both ends, especially his defense in the 4th. He changed the game and gave us a chance, but most of the others fumbled it.

Cavs are a real problem for this team. They're ability to shut down the paint kills our primary offense and they have multiple ballhandlers that can break you down for easy shots on the other end. Ausar can only guard so many people, and JB feels the need to keep Robinson on the court even when he's getting targeted on every play, rather than going defense heavy with Ausar + Holland/Green.

 

[buddha]

1 hour ago, Betrayer said:

Rough game. Cavs are great at using their (moving) screens to isolate and attack mismatches (Robinson), or get the ball into the paint to force rotation, and then finding the open shooter. Piston defense was constantly having to rotate and switch and we didn't recover fast enough. Guys were caught out of position all night leading to wide open threes that the Cavs knocked down.

On the other side of the ball it took 7 quarters of basketball against the Cavs before we realized that we can do the same thing to Schroeder they do to Robinson. He's too small to guard and yet we didn't create and attack the mismatch until the 3rd quarter when Tobias went on a tear.

JD was feeling his Player of the Week title a little too much in the first half. Pressing hard to score against multiple defenders rather than make the easy pass to an open teammate. It turned into a lot wasted possessions.

Cade had a rough night on both ends. Tyson really bothers him defensively and the Cavs were doubling and swarming him a bunch. A lot of assists but still you need more scoring, or at least more efficiency, from Cade. He was also really bad on defense, missing rotations that led to open threes.

JB continues to bow to whatever blackmail LaVert has on him. He was actively hurting the team again with turnovers, dumb fouls, and terrible shots. Just cut him at this point so JB can't play him. Any other player on the bench would be better in those minutes or just give more minutes to Ausar/Ron/Green.

Speaking of, Ausar was awesome on both ends, especially his defense in the 4th. He changed the game and gave us a chance, but most of the others fumbled it.

Cavs are a real problem for this team. They're ability to shut down the paint kills our primary offense and they have multiple ballhandlers that can break you down for easy shots on the other end. Ausar can only guard so many people, and JB feels the need to keep Robinson on the court even when he's getting targeted on every play, rather than going defense heavy with Ausar + Holland/Green.

 

or better yet, dont sign lavert in the first place.  like ALL OF US said at the time.

[Deleterious]

I wonder if Beasley doesn't get investigated do they sign LeVert?

Robinson might be worse. The only reason he plays is for shooting. He has shot 27% from three the last five games. 

[Betrayer]

5 hours ago, buddha said:

or better yet, dont sign lavert in the first place.  like ALL OF US said at the time.

Except if they followed what ALL OF US on here said, we wouldn't have signed anybody. Not Beasley or Tobias last year, who were pretty critical to the turnaround. Not Robinson or Lavert this year. Not Green, who's been a great find. Probably wouldn't have picked Ausar either (my bad on that one).

The Front Office isn't going to bat 1000, but it sure would be nice if the coach could figure out how to adjust to the situation at hand.

[buddha]

51 minutes ago, Betrayer said:

Except if they followed what ALL OF US on here said, we wouldn't have signed anybody. Not Beasley or Tobias last year, who were pretty critical to the turnaround. Not Robinson or Lavert this year. Not Green, who's been a great find. Probably wouldn't have picked Ausar either (my bad on that one).

The Front Office isn't going to bat 1000, but it sure would be nice if the coach could figure out how to adjust to the situation at hand.

sure, we would have signed other players.  like naw.

this year's deadline felt like a wasted opportunity.  they needed shooting.  they got a shooter (in theory) who they dont play.  

theyre going to ride or die with what they have and i dont think its enough.  i think this was a great opportunity to go for it and become the beast of the east, before tatum is back 100%, before giannis goes to the knicks or heat, while cleveland was still relying on mitchell (before they got harden).

as of now, if tatum can come back, i'd say the pistons are the 3rd or 4th favorite in the east in a playoff series.  behind boston (with tatum), cleveland, and MAYBE the knicks.  the reason i say maybe on the knicks is that they might have the one coach in the league worse than JB at making in game decisions.

[buddha]

meh, i'd still put detroit ahead of the knicks.  cade > brunson.

[Betrayer]

1 hour ago, buddha said:

sure, we would have signed other players.  like naw.

They wanted to by most accounts I heard. NAW had other plans and wanted to go to Atlanta. Maybe he heard good things about the wings.

But you're right that NAW would've been a great addition. They need guys who can do both the 3 and the D.

I also agree, we probably aren't the favorites even though we're the #1 seed. Trajan seems like the patient sort who's ok with that for a super young team that came in with an expectation of winning about 47 games and is playing with house money.

Personally, I'd love to have seen them address some weaknesses at the deadline because I agree with you that only get so many chances. Then again, I have no idea if any good deals were out there. I'm sure other teams didn't want LaVert at this point either, and I don't want to see them break the bank for a Blake Griffin type deal.