5/5/26 7:00PM RD2 GM1 Cavs @ Pistons

[Tigeraholic1]

Little Caesars Arena - Detroit, MI

Watch: Peacock

Regular season series: 2-2

 

[Stanley70]

I just had to activate my You Tube TV yesterday after cancelling it for the summer. Amazon had the Friday game.

[Shinzaki]

Cursed!!

[Deleterious]

Love the schedule

 

[buddha]

Will we see ron holland in this series?

i hope so.  tired of seeing duncan abused and missing threes.  he puts the other team in the bonus almost single handedly.  if he's not making threes there's little point to him out there.

#freeronholland

[Betrayer]

Harden and Mitchell on the perimeter. Allen and Mobley inside.

Really tough matchup because it's not just about who you put Ausar on and if Cade will have the energy to guard the other. These are much better offensive creators than Bane who stands there and waits to shoot a three. Expect to see a ton of screens targeting Duncan and Harris to get them on Mitchell/Harden. Also, there are real concerns about foul trouble for both Ausar and Cade against some of the best foul baiters in the business.

That's just the perimeter. On the inside you also have to deal with the fact that Mobley and Allen can totally shut down the inside and that's really the only place we can score. Allen is also a terrific offensive rebounder and we're not great at stopping that.

If you're hoping for Super-Cade to save us, just know that he had a 44 TS against the Cavs this season. He also averaged 5.8 turnovers and was a -7.3 on the court.

They had 4 matchups this season:

Game 1: Loss 116-95. They killed us. They had everyone but Harden.
Game 2: Win 114-110. No JD for us. No Allen or Harden for them.
Game 3: Win 122-119. No Mitchell or Harden.
Game 4: Loss 113-109. No Mitchell.

This matchup is Piston's kryptonite because they can hunt mismatches on offense, get guys in foul trouble, and shut down the paint. We need our guys to get hot from three for a series to keep up with their ability to score since the paint will be very difficult to navigate, but that's just not really our strength.

[Deleterious]

Random thoughts

Of the 16 first round teams, Cleveland gave up the third most points in the paint.  They did this against a team who did not have functioning center.  

The Cavs are not a good defensive team.  Ranked 15th for the regular season.  But if you limit that to the time Harden was on the team, they rank 18th.  Very exploitable.

Who guards Cade?  Not Allen or Mobley.  Not Mitchell or Harden.  They used two different guys as the fifth starter against Toronto, so that leaves either Strus or Wade on Cade.  Yes please.

Yeah, Mobley is going to cheat off of Ausar and basically play free safety on Cade.  Thompson will have to be aggressive running the baseline and cutting so they can take advantage of him being left alone.

Orlando is one of the most physical teams in the league.  Cleveland is not physical at all.  The Pistons can bully them and Mobley and Allen are two of the softest bigs in the entire league.

This will be a little bit of a Duren redemption series.  I don't think he will get back to his regular season numbers, but I expect him to play better than the Orlando series.  He can really push Allen and Mobley around.

Cleveland is a dumb team.

It will be interesting to see if the Cavs remember Allen is on their team while on offense.  The Raptors played two terrible centers most of the game and Allen had a big advantage over both.  But for the first six games Cleveland rarely went to him.  They finally did in game 7 and he responded with a monster game.  The more ball screens he sets for Harden the more involved he will be.

The Pistons cant have the long stretches of low offensive production like they did against Orlando.  The Magic are a bad offensive team and you can survive that against them.  Cleveland has a good offense and they will be up 25 on Detroit if the Pistons struggle to score on a regular basis.

The more Donovan Mitchell dribbles, the better the Pistons odds are of winning.  Their offense is at its best when Harden has the ball and is distributing.  When they go Iso Mitchell he forgets he is playing with 4 other guys and is just concerned with getting himself a shot.  That is not good offense.

 

 

[casimir]

Not that Bickerstaff would do it, but would starting Stewart in place of Robinson and having a taller more defensive starting lineup be the better way to go against Cleveland's offense?

[Sports_Freak]

I was joking that the Pistons would extend JB. Now the Free Press says they did extend him but no details. Prolly 2 years?

[Deleterious]

20 minutes ago, casimir said:

Not that Bickerstaff would do it, but would starting Stewart in place of Robinson and having a taller more defensive starting lineup be the better way to go against Cleveland's offense?

I wouldn't. 

It takes away their one legit three point threat. It also makes Harris try to defend on the perimeter, which won't be pretty. 

Mobley is more of a finesse big anyway. He won't bully Harris like Banchero did 

[Sports_Freak]

A reporter in the Free Press this morning speculated that Ron Holland will be getting important minutes in this Cavs series.

[Deleterious]

The Pistons shot 31% on three pointers where there wasn't a defender within 6 feet of the shooter in the Orlando series.  That isn't good defense, that is a shoot slump.  In the regular season they shot 37% in those situations.  

A few guys started hitting some threes in game 7.  Hopefully that holds up going into this series.

[Deleterious]

Harris could be the key to this series.  If he is the turd that showed up the first 6 games against Orlando, the Pistons are in trouble.  

Odds are they are going to cover Harris with Harden to let Mobley play Ausar and roam free to spy on Cade.  Harris needs to work Harden if that happens.  If he can get them to switch Mobley back to defending him, big win for Detroit as it should free up some more mid-range space for Cade.

[buddha]

if harden is on harris, there will be a mouse in the house.

[Deleterious]

Cleveland has some tough matchups on defense.  

Mitchell pretty much has to be on Robinson.  He gives up a lot of height but its not like Robinson will take him down low.

Allen will get Duren.

They probably start Wade and he gets Cade.

Mobley gets Thompson so he can roam.

That leaves Harden on Harris.  

If they do put Mobley on Harris, it's a win for Detroit since it opens more space for Cade because Mobley has to stick to Harris more than he would on Ausar.

Either way, Cade should hunt Mitchell constantly.  He has 4 inches on Mitchell and can take him mid-range and rise up over him for a jumper anytime he wants.

[Deleterious]

Huerter is questionable.  Cleveland has nobody listed.

[Betrayer]

11 hours ago, Deleterious said:

Who guards Cade?  Not Allen or Mobley.  Not Mitchell or Harden.  They used two different guys as the fifth starter against Toronto, so that leaves either Strus or Wade on Cade.  Yes please.

Yeah, Mobley is going to cheat off of Ausar and basically play free safety on Cade.  Thompson will have to be aggressive running the baseline and cutting so they can take advantage of him being left alone.

I wouldn't be so happy about Cade's matchups. Against Tyson he was 5-18. Against Mobley he was 5-15. Not sure about Wade, apparently he didn't guard Cade much this year so maybe that's a better matchup this year even though it hadn't been in the past. Struss is a decent defender with size.

Hopefully JB will run screens to get some of the weaker defenders on Cade. Problem is that Mobley will be lurking and Cleveland's big men eat up Cade's drives. In order to prevent Mobley from roaming, they'll need to do what they did to Orlando and pull Ausar into the screening action. But Mobley isn't Suggs who Cade can dominate in the paint. You don't want that switch.

A smarter move might be to run off ball screens with Ausar and Duncan to force Cleveland to switch in order to prevent the open three. That will lock Mobley on a guy he can't leave. Now you're free to run your offense, pull Ausar into another screen to get Cade a mismatch, or whatever. Mobley can't leave the shooter or you make him pay.

Overall though I think Cade will need to have that three point shot and the middy rolling like he did in the last three games against Orlando otherwise it could be a long series for him (and us).

 

Your point about Harris being guarded by Harden is a good one. In general, the Pistons should do everything they can to target Harden on defense over and over the same way they'll try to target Duncan. He's decent at deflections but not much else on defense because he gives zero effort. He can't really guard anyone on the court.

You're point about Duren being stronger is a good one as well. I was surprised to see he actually had some really good games against Cleveland's front line this year. But so did Allen, going for 20+ in 2 out of 3 games. Mobley had some killers against us as well, averaging 18 pts, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks, and nearly 45% from three.

[Tigeraholic1]

25 minutes ago, Betrayer said:

I wouldn't be so happy about Cade's matchups. Against Tyson he was 5-18. Against Mobley he was 5-15. Not sure about Wade, apparently he didn't guard Cade much this year so maybe that's a better matchup this year even though it hadn't been in the past. Struss is a decent defender with size.

Hopefully JB will run screens to get some of the weaker defenders on Cade. Problem is that Mobley will be lurking and Cleveland's big men eat up Cade's drives. In order to prevent Mobley from roaming, they'll need to do what they did to Orlando and pull Ausar into the screening action. But Mobley isn't Suggs who Cade can dominate in the paint. You don't want that switch.

A smarter move might be to run off ball screens with Ausar and Duncan to force Cleveland to switch in order to prevent the open three. That will lock Mobley on a guy he can't leave. Now you're free to run your offense, pull Ausar into another screen to get Cade a mismatch, or whatever. Mobley can't leave the shooter or you make him pay.

Overall though I think Cade will need to have that three point shot and the middy rolling like he did in the last three games against Orlando otherwise it could be a long series for him (and us).

 

Your point about Harris being guarded by Harden is a good one. In general, the Pistons should do everything they can to target Harden on defense over and over the same way they'll try to target Duncan. He's decent at deflections but not much else on defense because he gives zero effort. He can't really guard anyone on the court.

You're point about Duren being stronger is a good one as well. I was surprised to see he actually had some really good games against Cleveland's front line this year. But so did Allen, going for 20+ in 2 out of 3 games. Mobley had some killers against us as well, averaging 18 pts, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks, and nearly 45% from three.

I expect to see JB keep Ausar on the bench like he attempted in Magic series early on. Ausar on the floor is a instant double on Cade. This is the same logic he used chaining Holland to a urinal in the locker room.

[Betrayer]

2 hours ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

I expect to see JB keep Ausar on the bench like he attempted in Magic series early on. Ausar on the floor is a instant double on Cade. This is the same logic he used chaining Holland to a urinal in the locker room.

That would be completely idiotic as we saw in the first series, the playoffs last year, all season long, and every statistic shows it as well.

So, yea, he'll probably do it.

[Deleterious]

 

[Betrayer]

On 5/4/2026 at 11:44 AM, buddha said:

Will we see ron holland in this series?

i hope so.  tired of seeing duncan abused and missing threes.  he puts the other team in the bonus almost single handedly.  if he's not making threes there's little point to him out there.

#freeronholland

This is Lavert's former team. Sorry, that's where the minutes are going.

[Shinzaki]

Mobley is a nice player...but I thought he'd be more than that when he was drafted

[Deleterious]