Cavaliers fail to compete with Pistons in 115-94 embarrasing game six loss

BY TIM SHIRER

CAVS BEAT WRITER

(CLEVELAND, OH) - Friday night at Rocket Arena there was an electricity the minute you walked in the Arena. The Cleveland Cavaliers leading their Eastern Conference semifinals series with the favored, number 1 seeded Detroit Pistons 3-2. The Cavs had a chance to win the series with a victory.

The sellout crowd was in a state of pandemonium pregame and most of the night. Until things became clear what the result was going to be, then the excitement turned to disgust as the crowd headed for the exits early as the Cavs gave them a dud dropping the pivotal game six in embarrassing fashion 115-94.

It was apparent, but not surprising from the outset that the game was very physical. Something else that was not surprising was that Pistons coach JB Bickerstaff began the game crying to the officials in typical Bickerstaff fashion. The Pistons got off to a 10-6 lead with 8:14 remaining in the opening quarter. The Cavs took a 12-10 lead when Donovan Mitchell hit a three with 7:00 left on the clock. With 5:53 left Mitchell was fouled driving to the basket by Jalen Duren. It was Duren’s first. Kenny Atkinson took the Cavs first time out. Mitchell made both free throws, giving the Cavs a 14-12 lead. The Pistons regained the lead 17-16 at the 4:15 mark when former Cav Caris LeVert drained a three. With 3:35 left on the first quarter clock Evan Mobley drained a three right in front of his former coach to give the Cavs a 21-17 advantage. With 2:23 left in the quarter the Cavs led 23-17. With :56.8 left the Pistons had cut the Cavs lead to one. Cade Cunningham then shoves Max Strus and was called for an offensive foul. The Cavs then took a 25-22 lead when Mobley slammed the ball home after a missed layup. LeVert then tied it up with :36.2 when he hit his second three of the opening period. When the buzzer sounded the Pistons led 27-25 as the Pistons out scored the Cavs 10-2 in the final 2:23 of the period. It was another terrible close of a quarter for the Cavs which has been the story throughout the first two rounds of the playoffs. James Harden, Mitchell, and Mobley led all scorers with seven points apiece in the first quarter. LeVert was pacing the Pistons with six points. The battle of the boards was even as both team pulled down nine rebounds. The Cavs shot 50% (3 of 6) from three-point range while the Pistons shot 33% (4 of 12).

The Pistons extended their lead further to 31-25 when Merrill picked up his third personal foul when he tapped Duncan Robinson on the arm. After a terrible sequence by the Cavs in all phases of the game the Pistons lead was 38-25 with 9:26 on the second quarter clock. The Pistons outscored the Cavs 21-4 since the 3:02 mark of the first quarter. Atkinson took a time out. Things continued to get worse for Cleveland as Mitchell fouled Asar Thompson with 9:09 left he hit one of two free throws, and the Pistons lead was 12 points. With 8:21 left the Cavs had a chance to cut the Pistons lead to eight points when Mitchell blew one of the easiest layups on the history of the universe and the Pistons scored at the other end to take a 41-29 lead with 8:14 left. Thompson was then called for a foul on Merrill. The play was reviewed to see if it rose to the level of a flagrant foul. It was indeed ruled flagrant foul one. It should have been a flagrant two. Thompson was lucky the league wanted him in the game, and he was not accessed the flagrant two which would have meant an ejection. With 7:30 remaining Paul Reed was called for his first personal foul when he accosted Jarrett Allen in the paint. With 6:38 left Denise Schroder hit Merrill in front of the Pistons bench to cut the Pistons lead to 41-34. Bickerstaff called an immediate time out. The Pistons scored four straight points after the time out to take an 11-point lead with 6:10 left. Turnovers were once again a problem for the Cavs as with just over four minutes left in the first half they had committed 12 which resulted in 17 Pistons points and the Pistons led by 10 points with 3:26 remaining. With 2:00 remaining the Pistons lead was 10 points. With 1:03 left Strus drained a three and the Pistons lead was trimmed to three points. When the quarter ended the Pistons took a 54-51 lead into the locker room, but the Cavs had all the momentum. Cunningham led all scorers with 16 points in the first 24 minutes. Mitchell paced the Cavs with 13. The Pistons outrebounded the Cavs 20-18 in the half and 11-9 in the second quarter. Both teams shot 50% (Cavs 18 of 36, Pistons 20 0f 40) from the field. The Cavs shot 41% (7 of 17) from three-point range, while the Pistons shot 39% (7 of 18). The Cavs finished the first half with 13 turnovers resulting in 17 Pistons points. While the Pistons turned it over 11 times resulting in 14 Cavs points.

Just 1:54 into the second half the Pistons outscored the Cavs 10-1 and had a 64-52 advantage. The Cavs defense absolutely abandoned them in the first three minutes of the third quarter as the Pistons outscored them 14-4 to take a 68-55 lead with 8:50 left on the clock. They also turned the ball over two more times resulting in four Detroit points in the first 3:10 of the third quarter. Mitchell played the first six minutes of the third quarter like he never picked up a basketball in his life or had dipped his hands in butter before he came out for the second half. Zach Zarba must have received his instructions from the league office in timely fashion today to call the exact opposite of the game that was taking place on the court. Absolutely atrocious officiating by Zarba. Allen grabbed an offensive rebound with 5:26 left and dropped it in the cylinder cutting the Detroit lead to 68-61. Bickerstaff called an immediate time out. Things were looking more hopeless by the minute for Cleveland every time they cut the lead under double digits the Pistons would respond. With 4:37 left the Thompson (tonight’s Danny Ainge Crybaby Award winner) picked up his fourth personal foul. With 3:05 left Merrill picked up his fourth personal foul when he fouled Reed. Reed one of the worst foul shooters to walk the Earth hit one of two giving Detroit a 75-68 lead. With 2:05 left Robinson drained a three giving the Pistons a double-digit lead at 78-68 and the Cavs were in trouble. The Cavs then trailed by 12 when they turned ball over and gave up an easy basket in the paint to Reed. When time ran out in third quarter the sellout crowd was disgusted as the Pistons had a 14-point lead 84-70. Superstar Donovan Mitchell scored ZERO points in the Cavs listless third quarter, not much more needs to be said except that the team turned the ball over five more times in the quarter resulting in six Pistons points. Cunningham was pacing Detroit with 19 points through three. Harden led the listless Cavs with 15 points.

36 seconds into the final quarter Robinson gave Cleveland a 17 points lead when he drilled a three. With 9:26 left the Cavs cut the Detroit lead to 12 points at 92-80, Bickerstaff called a time out. With 7:15 remaining in regulation Harden hit a three giving Cavs fans some hope. But the Cavs’ porous defense crushed that hope on the next Pistons trip down the floor when Duren scored easily in the paint. With 6:08 left Harden turned the ball over for what seemed like the millionth time in the playoffs and Tobias Harris, the only guy older than Harden in the game scored in the paint to give Detroit a 100-85 lead. After the Cavaliers took a time out, they failed to score and the Pistons without any resistance from the Cavs matador defense scored easily on the other end extending their lead to 17 points with 5:29 left. With 3:56 left tonight’s Danny Ainge Crybaby Award winner Asar Thompson fouled out of the game. The Cavs cut the Detroit lead to 13 points after Allen hit both free throws, but the Cleveland Matador’s defense gave up a three to Daniss Jenkins just 19 seconds later to give the Pistons a 16 point lead. With 2:21 left Atkinson raised the tattered white flag clearing the bench.

The Cavs staring five scored just 34 second have points and Mitchell was complete and total no-show scoring only five points in the final two quarters and shooting 2 of 11 from the field and 1 of 3 from three-point range and never went to free throw line once. It’s very hard to win an NBA playoff game when your superstar leader does not show up in the second half.

The Cavs as a team shot just 29% (12 of 41) from the field in the second half and even worse 28% (5 of 18) from three-point range. The Cavs turned the ball over seven more times resulting in 11 more Pistons points. The Cavs were also horrible taking advantage of Detroit turnover as the Pistons also turned it over seven times in the final half and the Cavs horrendous offense led by Mitchell only scored three points off the Pistons miscues.