Cavaliers dismember Pistons 125-94 to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals

BY TIM SHIRER

CAVS BEAT WRITER

(CLEVELAND, OH) - Sunday night at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan the Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers battled for their playoff lives in game seven of their best of seven Eastern Conference semifinals series.

The Cavs played up to their talent level and ran the Pistons out of their own building 125-94 winning the seven game series 4-3.

It was apparent from the start that the game would be very physical. With 9:56 left in the opening quarter the Cavs took a 6-3 lead when Jarrett Allen scored in the paint. The Pistons pulled to within one point at 8-7 with 7:24 left when Max Strus, who started in place of Dean Wade, fouled Tobais Harris. Harris made one of two free throws. With 6:34 left in the opening quarter, J.B. Bickerstaff took the first timeout of the contest. With 5:47 left on the clock, Wade drained a three giving the Cavs an 11-7 lead. After the Cavs turned ball over on what looked like a foul the Pistons tied the game 13-13. Kenny Atkinson nearly blew his top he was so angry and called a time out. He went after head official Marc Davis and let him know of his displeasure. After the Atkinson time out, the Cavs regained the lead at the 4:16 mark when Sam Merrill drained a three. Less than a minute later Ausar Thompson picked up his first personal foul when he accosted Merril in the paint. With 2:31 remaining in the opening quarter Evan Mobley swished a three from the top of the arc giving Cleveland a 21-15 lead. With 1:49 on the clock past Danny Ainge Award winner Duncan Robinson was fouled by James Harden from behind the three-point line. He hit two of three to pull the Pistons to with three points. The Cavs then hit two consecutive threes to take a 28-19 lead. After the Pistons closed the game to within six points, Donovan Mitchell drained a three with no time left on the clock to give Cleveland a nine point advantage 31-22 after one quarter. Allen, Mitchell, Merril and the Pistons Daniss Jenkins led all scorers with six points apiece after the first quarter. The boards were even as both teams pulled down 11 rebounds. The Cavs shot 52% (12 of 23) and the Pistons shot 40% (8 of 20) from the field. The Cavs shot 46% (6 of 13) from three-point range and the Pistons shot 38% (3 of 8). The Cavs managed to turn the ball over only two times in the opening 12 minutes resulting in two points.

The Pistons opened the second quarter, scoring the first four points and cut the Cavs lead to 31-26 with 11:14 left on the clock. With 10:04 remaining Mitchell hit Mobley in the paint giving the Cavs a 36-26 lead. At the 8:41 mark Allen was fouled by Tobias Harris. He hit one of two, giving the Cavs a 38-26 lead. With 7:59 remaining Cleveland turned the ball over for a fourth time in the half. After the Pistons failed to take advantage of the turnover Merrill drained a three from the top of the arc with 7:24 left in the first half. With 6:57 remaining and the Cavs up 12 Robinson elbowed Dennis Scroder in the face and the Pistons turned the ball over. With 5:07 remaining the Detroit faithful were getting restless with the Cavs leading 47-31. With 4:41 left Merrill drained a three and was fouled. He hit the free throw and the Cavs led 51-33. With 2:54 left before intermission the Cavs lead was 20 points at 55-35. Bickerstaff called a time out. With :31.2 remaining before the half Mobley was fouled, he hit the shot, but not the free throw and the Cavs led 64-44. When the buzzer sounded the Cave led 64-47. Allen and Merrill led all scorers at the half with 15 points each. Cade Cunningham paced the Pistons with 12 points. The Cavs turned the ball over six times for a total of four Detroit points. A stark contrast to game six when Cleveland turned the ball over 13 times in the opening half resulting in 17 Pistons points. The Cavs shot 52% (22 of 42) in the opening half from the field while Detroit shot just 38% (16 of 42). The Cavs also shot well from three-point range at 42% (8 of 19) while Detroit 35% (6 of 17). The Cavs defense was stifling for the entire 24 minutes. Cleveland outscored the Pistons 26-18 in the paint and outrebounded them 11-9 in the second period and 22-20 for the half. The Cavs bench also outscored the Detroit bench 20-17. The Pistons did outshoot the Cavs from the free throw line 82% (9 of 11) to 60% (12 of 20).

In the first 1:18 of the second half the Cavs outscored the Pistons 6-2 to take a 70-49 lead. The natives were getting restless inside Little Caesars Arena. Then with 10:12 the Cavs took their biggest lead to that point at 23 points and Bickerstaff had seen enough and took a time out. With 9:23 left in the third the Pistons cut the Cavs lead to 19 points when Mitchell fouled Harris after a Cavs turnover their seventh and first of the second half. With 7:36 Mitchell picked up his fourth personal foul and Atkinson took him out of the game. Immediately after, Merrill turned the ball over, and the Pistons scored and was fouled by Allen. Isaiah Stewart made the free throw, and the Cavs lead was 18. With 6:28 left the Cavs lead was at 17 points. The Cavs responded and Allen got the Cavs lead back over 20 at 79-59. After Pistons cut the Cavs lead to 17 points, Merrill was fouled by Marcus Sasser. He hit both free throws and the Cavs lead was 83-64 with 4:29 remaining in the third period. Robinson cut the Cleveland lead to 16 points with his third three of the night with 3:55 left. Merrill responded with a three just seconds later, then the Pistons turned the ball over, and the Cavs lead was back at 21 with 3:09 left when Mitchell scored in the paint. The Cavs took their biggest lead of the game to that point at 96-69 with 1:56 left when Mitchell drained another three. As the two teams headed to the final quarter the Cavs led 99-73. It was apparent barring the biggest fourth quarter collapse in NBA playoff history the Cavs were headed to the Eastern Conference finals to face the New York Knicks. The Cavs had three players Mitchell (26), Allen (23) and Merrill (20) all over 20 points at the end of the quarter. The Pistons were led by Robinson who had 13 points, Cunningham had just 12 points through three quarters.

Just 1:06 into the fourth quarter the Cavs lead had grown to 33 Points. It became all too obvious that Bickerstaff’s Pistons had no answer for Atkinson’s Cavaliers. With 7:04 left and the Cavs leading by 30 Atkinson challenged and out of bounds call and as it turned out Thompson fouled Schroder on the play. The Cavs won the challenge and were awarded the ball. Just more salt in the Pistons open wound. With 6:17 left Max Strus drained a three and put the Cavs up 34. With 5:51 remaining Thompson picked up his fourth personal foul when he fouled Strus. Strus was accessed a technical for retaliating. Once the dust settled and the free throws were shot the Cavs lead was back at 35 points. With 4:01 left Atkinson cleared the bench and the crowd with mostly Cavs fan remaining chanted “Let’s Go Cavs, Let’s Go Cavs”.

The Cavs just simply outplayed Detroit in every phase of the game. The Cavs shot 51% (43 of 85) from the field while Detroit shot a pathetic 35% (30 of 85). The Cavs also outshot the Pistons from three-point range 32% (11 of 34) to 31% (12 of 39). Cleveland outworked the Pistons on the boards outrebounding the 50-41. Turnovers had been a problem for the entire playoffs for Cleveland, but tonight they turned it over only 13 times and the Pistons turned those into only 17 points. The Cavs also dominated in the paint, outscoring Detroit 58-34. Finally, Cleveland also took advantage of second chance points better than Detroit outscoring them 18-11.

The Cavs had four guys in double figures. Mitchell led all scorers in the game with 26 points. Allen and Merrill had 23 points each and Mobley finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds for a double double. Mitchell had 8 assists, Mobley and Harden each had 6. Jenkins led the Pistons with 17 points. Cunningham finished with only 13 points while turning the ball over 3 times.

The Cavs will now move on to the Eastern Conference finals to take on the New York Knicks. Games one and two will be in New York at Madison Square Garden. Game one will be at 8 pm on Tuesday night.