Cavaliers hold off Pistons in possible playoff preview 113-109
BY TIM SHIRER
CAVS BEAT WRITER
(CLEVELAND, OH) - The Cleveland Cavaliers (39-24, 21-11 home) entered Tuesday night’s game at Rocket Arena as the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. Their opponent was the number one seeded Detroit Pistons (45-15, 21-8 road) led by former Cavs coach JB Bickerstaff. The Pistons won the first three meetings this season against the Cavs.
The two teams met just four days ago in Detroit, and the shorthanded Cavs fell in overtime 122-119. The Cavs were without Donovan Mitchell, Dean Wade, Keon Ellis, and James Harden. Tuesday night the Cavs had Wade, Ellis, and Harden back. The Cavs came out on top in a close game 113-109.
With 9:32 left in the first quarter the Cavs jumped out to a 9-2 lead when James Harden hit a three from the top of the arc and sent the sellout crowd into a frenzy. Bickerstaff took an immediate timeout. With 7:13 left in the opening quarter Allen picked up his send foul. With 6:40 left the Pistons tied the game 11-11. On a fast break with 3:25 left Dennis Schroder scored on a layup and was clearly knocked to the ground, no foul was called by official Ashley Moyer-Gleich. The Cavs led 19-15. With 2:07 left on the first quarter clock the Pistons tied the game 21-21 on a three pointer by Ron Holland II. The Cavs regained the lead with 1:21 left when Keon Ellis was fouled and hit both free throws. The Pistons took their first lead of the game 24-23 when Daniss Jenkins buried a three with :57.1 left on the clock. At the other the Cavs regained the lead with :34.7 left when Jaylen Tyson drove the lane. The Piston quickly responded with three and led 27-25 when the first 12 minutes expired. Harden led all scorers with seven first quarter points. Holland, Jalen Duren, and Cade Cunningham paced the Pistons with six points apiece. The Pistons outshot the Cavs 53% (10 of 19) to 46% (10 of 22) in the opening quarter. The Cavs were also outshot by the Piston from three-point range 67% (4 of 6) to 10% (1 of 10). Detroit also outrebounded Cleveland 10-9.
The second quarter opened with Thomas Bryant draining a three and then 10:50 left Tyson hitting a three to give the Cavs a 31-29 advantage. With 9:47 left after Mobley slammed a dunk home putting the Cavs up 35-32 Bickerstaff took a timeout. With 9:07 left Tyson drained a three courtesy of Craig Porter, Jr to give the Cavs a 38-34 lead. With 7:29 left the Cavs lead was 43-37 when Schroder drained a three from the corner. At the 6:44 mark and the Cavs up 45-37 Ellis fouled Duren, he hit one of two free throws to cut the Cavs lead to seven. With 5:58 on the clock Harden found Sam Merril at the top of the arc and Merrill drained a three to give Cleveland a double digit lead 48-38. With 4:16 left Ellis was called for a personal foul Duren drove the lane. Ellis immediately called for the Cavs bench to challenge it and Cavs coach, reigning Eastern Conference coach of the month Kenny Atkinson agreed. The Cavs won the challenge, and the call was overturned and the Cavs got possession of the ball with an eight point lead. With 2:17 left and the Cavs lead down to just four points, Harden hit a three giving the Cavs a 51-44 advantage. With 1:02 left Evan Mobley went in for the slam, missed it, he was fouled and hit one of two and the Cavs led 54-46. As the two teams headed to the locker room for intermission the Cavs led 54-48. Tyson led all scorers with 12 points. Harden was also in double figures with 10 points. Duren led the Pistons with nine first half points. At the break, the Pistons were still outshooting Cleveland 44% (18 of 41) to 42% (20 of 48) from the field. The Cavs shot much better in the second quarter from long range (6 of 15 40%) but were still trailing the Piston in the half 50% (6 of 12) to 28% (7 of 25). The Cavs did take the edge in rebounding 25-21 outrebounding the Pistons 16-11 in the second quarter. Cleveland also outscored the Pistons in the paint in the opening half 24-16. Turnovers were a non-factor in the opening half as there were eight total by both teams that resulted in just seven points. The Pistons bench did outscore the Cavs reserves 19-14.
Just 15 seconds into the third quarter Duncan Robinson cut the Cavs lead to 54-51 with a three pointer. Tyson picked up his second foul in the first 1:33 of the second half and his third of the game when he Tobias Harris. With 10:13 Tyson retaliated at the other end with a three giving the Cavs a 62-56 lead. Merrill then responded with 9:42 on the Clock and the Cavs led 65-58. With the Cavs lead at just two the Cavs defense stopped the Pistons on two straight possession and then Allen scored in the paint to give the Cavs a 67-63 lead. But at the other end with 7:32 remaining in the third Merrill fouled Harris, he hit the shot and the free throw to pull the Pistons to within a point of the Cavs. After some very sloppy play by both teams with 6:30 left Schroder drove the lane, scored and was fouled by Robinson, his second. Schroder made the free throw and the Cavs led 70-66. With 3:30 remaining former Cav Caris LeVert fouled Thomas Bryant on a three pointer, Bryant hit the three and the free throw to give the Cavs a 79-72 lead. With Cavs lead at four points and 1:58 left in the quarter Ellis was fouled by LeVert, he hit the shot and the free throw and the Cavs led 84-77. When the third quarter buzzer sounded the Cavs led 89-80. Harris led all scorers with 17 points (16 in the third quarter), and Tyson led the Cavs with 15. Detroit was still outshooting the Cavs from the field 47% (28 of 60) to 45% (31 of 69). Detroit also still held an advantage from long range 40% (8 of 20) to 35% (13 of 37). The Pistons also regained the advantage on the boards 35-31.
With 8:50 left in the fourth quarter Ellis picked up his fifth foul when he fouled Ausar Thompson. Thompson hit one of two free throws, and the Cavs lead was 94-86. Just 23 seconds later Harden hit Tyson and the second-year man from California hit a three to give the Cavs a 97-86 lead. With 7:03 left after a Harden turnover the Pistons cut the Cleveland lead to 99-92. Then with 6:02 left the Cavs’ lead was at just six points. Atkinson took a time out. With 5:33 left, Mobley picked up his third foul sending Duren to the line. He hit one of two cutting the Cavs lead to 101-97. Then with 5:00 left Ellis picked up his sixth foul, it was a non-shooting foul, but he had to leave the game. The Pistons then scored and cut the Cleveland lead to 101-99 with 4:54 remaining. Mobley then responded at the other end, hitting a three with 4:23 left to give the Cavs a five point lead. Bickerstaff called a timeout. Immediately after the timeout with 4:17 remaining Robinson committed a foul, his fourth and the Cavs got possession back. With 3:56 left Tyson picked up his fifth foul when he contacted Cunningham. Cunningham hit both free throws and the Cavs lead was 104-101. Then with 2:58 left the Pistons closed to within one point. Merril said, nope and drained a three giving the Cavs a 107-103 lead with 2:38 remaining on an assist by Harden his seventh of the game. With 1:22 left, Schroder drove the lane and scored giving Cleveland a 110-105 lead. Bickerstaff took a timeout. Once again, the Pistons turned the ball over right after the timeout, this time the Cavs made them pay when Harden scored in the paint to give the Cavs a 112-105 lead with 1:05 left in regulation. After the Pistons failed to score at the other end the Cavs ran about 20 seconds off the clock until Schroder turned the ball over and Thompson dunk cutting the Cavs lead to 112-107 with :21.5 remaining in regulation. The Cavs ran out the clock and secured the 113-109 win.
A concerning thing though is Allen played only four minutes in the second half and went to the locker room after bumping knees with another player during game action. Cavs team surgeon James Rosneck was also seen heading to the locker room whether that means anything or not is unknown.
Duren led all scorers with 24 points in the loss for the Pistons. The Cavs held Detroit’s scoring leader Cunningham to just 10 points, Cunningham is averaging 25.5 per game on the season. Tyson led the Cavs in scoring with 22 points. Mobley and Harden each had 18 points.
The Pistons outshot the Cavs 51% (39 of 77) to 44% (38 of 86) from the field and from three-point range 38% (9 of 24) to 37% (17 of 46). The Pistons also outrebounded the Cavs 44-38. The Cavs did outshoot the Pistons from the charity stripe 77% (20 of 26) to 76% (22 of 29). The Cavs bench also outscored the Pistons bench 38-32.
The Cavs are now off until Sunday afternoon when they take on the Boston Celtics at Rocket Arena at 1 pm. It will be the third and final regular season meeting between the two clubs, the Celtics took the first two. The first meeting was in Boston on October 29 where the Celtics blew out the Cavs 125-105. The second meeting was in Cleveland on November 30, and the Cavs fell in the meeting 117-115.
POSTED 03/03/2026 22:08
Lake County Sentinel
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Cavs point guard James Harden makes one of his six free throws in the Cavs 113-109 win over the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night at Rocket Arena. Photo by Tommy Shirer
