Some people say that a playoff series doesn’t really start until the road team wins a game.
According to those people, the Detroit-Cleveland semi-finals series in the NBA Playoffs has yet to start, because the hosting Pistons beat the Cavs for the second straight game at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday, May 7, this time a 107-97 victory to push ahead 2-0 in the best-of-seven series.
Despite the fact that the Pistons roared out the gate scoring 14 of the game’s first 19 points, the Cavs took their first lead of the game early in fourth quarter after Ausar Thompson was sidelined for most of the third quarter due to foul trouble. Detroit led comfortably up until that point, but was forced to recover from their first deficit.
They did with a barrage of offensive conversions and defensive stops, and All-Star guard Cade Cunningham was his typical self down the stretch, making big shot after big shot, and finding open players to make shots to close out the win.
“It’s the understanding of what the moment stands for, and this is what this group is finding,” said head coach J.B. Bickerstaff immediately after the game. “Understanding what the moment calls for and then executing. And Cade is a killer.”
The Pistons came out the gates matching the intensity of the crowd, as Cunningham connected on a beautiful alley-oop to a slashing Thompson, and Duncan Robinson recorded steals on back-to-back plays, with the first resulting in a fastbreak corner three-pointer and the second resulting in a fastbreak layup. The 12-5 run to start Game 2 forced Cleveland into a timeout before the game even reached the 9-minute mark.
Just a few minutes later, Pistons fans got a scare as the team’s second-most consistent playoff performer Tobias Harris was floored by a Donovan Mitchell in-and-out crossover. Harris fell to the floor and grabbed his hip as Mitchell drove to the basket for a score. The Pistons immediately called a timeout, and Harris was able to walk off the court under his own power and returned to the court following the timeout.
The defensive tone they opened the game with continued through the first quarter until the stanza’s final buzzer. In the first, the Pistons only allowed the Cavs to put up 18 points, nearly half (eight) of which were from Mitchell. Cleveland shot just 37 percent from the field and 17 percent from three, finding themselves down 25-18 after one quarter. On the flip side, the Pistons shot 55 percent from the field and 43 percent from three in the first quarter, as six different Pistons recorded at least one basket.
James Harden didn’t score his first basket until more than 15 minutes of game time had passed, and the Pistons were equally as impressive in the second quarter as they were in the first. They rotated in swarms defensively and kept Cleveland to under 40 percent shooting and only 21 percent from three.
Detroit shared the load offensively, as backup guard Daniss Jenkins led the team with 11 first-half points. Cunningham and Duren scored just five points each in the first half, but Harris netted nine, and Thompson and Robinson each poured in eight points in the first half, en route to a 54-43 lead for the home team.
The third quarter told a different story, though. The Cavs came out much more poised and crisper offensively, making six of their first 10 shots to start the second half. The run began around the 10-minute mark for Cleveland, coinciding with Thompson going to the bench for the remainder of the quarter after picking up his fourth foul.
The Cavs cut the Pistons’ 11-point halftime lead to just two points with four minutes left in the quarter, 66-64 after Mitchell rotated to the corner opposite Cleveland’s bench and knocked down a wide-open three.
Robinson, a hot hand in the first, answered it with a three to match it to put the Pistons back up by five, 69-94, less than a minute later, and the teams would seesaw, trading baskets for the final minutes of the quarter. After Harden’s poor-shooting first half, he was able to knock down a mid-range step-back to pull Cleveland as close as it had been all game, 76-75, with just under 10 seconds left in the third, but Jenkins hit a buzzer-beater three over Harden, who rotated too late on a close out, putting Detroit back up 79-75 after three.
But after 38 minutes leading the game, the Cavs took their first lead of the night with off a dunk from Evan Mobley put them ahead 81-79. Their lead didn’t last long. Robinson would knock down three pointers, and Cunningham added one of his own in the ensuing minutes to push the Pistons back ahead, 92-89 with just under six minutes left.
