CLEVELAND — Random dribbles from the Cavaliers’ gritty 110-91 home win over the Detroit Pistons on Monday. …
1. Boy oh boy, did the Cavaliers need a night like that. They defended — yes, let’s take a quick timeout to applaud that — and simply outworked Detroit.
2. At one point, the Cavs were a miserable 5-fo-31 shooting on 3-pointers. Yet they still led by 18. This against a Pistons team that’s been on the rise under coach J.B. Bickerstaff.
3. Bickerstaff is the Cavs’ former coach, a man who’s greatly appreciated in Cleveland. And current Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson was greatly appreciative of the Cavs’ effort.
4. Atkinson and his staff of assistants delivered the message on Monday morning that things must pick up defensively. Most everyone has been saying the same thing — as the Cavs (37-9) entered the evening on a three-game slide.
5. Atkinson specifically praised the efforts of Max Strus, Jarrett Allen, and Evan Mobley. He added that everyone did their fair share of dirty work. “These guys have a lot of pride,” he said. “You know how it is. You gotta win games in a lot of different ways. This was like a 1980s game.”
6. Over the past few weeks, the Cavaliers were simply giving up too many points. On Monday, they allowed just 91. “We held them under 100 and that’s not easy to do in this league,” Allen said. “It felt like tonight our rotations were on point and we were closing out (on shooters).”
7. As an aside, the Cavs never really did catch fire. They shot 44 percent from the field and finished just 12-of-44 on threes. “When you don’t hit shots you just gotta find a way,” Allen said.
8. Darius Garland finished with 22 points and seven assists, continuing to lead the way on offense. Donovan Mitchell scored 21, with six assists, and was 7-of-7 on free throws. Allen and Ty Jerome each added 15 points, with Allen collecting 11 rebounds and Jerome shooting 7-of-11. It truly was another teamwide effort.
9. Jerome also addressed the topic of the night. “To get a dominant win while not shooting the ball well really speaks to who we can be as a team,” he said. “It’s a focus thing and an effort thing and tonight we answered the bell.”
10. Meanwhile, Mobley went for 11 points and 14 boards, and as Atkinson said, paired with Allen to really control the paint.
11. Afterward, the Cavs took in the Rockets’ hard-fought road win over the Celtics, offering lots of commentary (mostly from Georges Niang). It’s way too early to care about such things, but Cleveland’s lead over Boston in the East is now 5.5 games.
12. Cade Cunningham led the Pistons (23-23) with 22 points and seven assists — but was frustrated into 9-of-26 shooting. Still, there’s no questioning the great job Bickerstaff has done with his new team.
13. Allen on Bickerstaff: “Kudos to him. He really made his blueprint here and had an imprint on who we are today.”
14. In case you missed it, Atkinson offered updates on the injured Dean Wade, Caris LeVert and Isaac Okoro. The news on Wade’s knee does not sound good, with Atkinson saying the injury “is probably (worse) than day-to-day.” We have the full story here.
15. So, that’s it. The Cavs were told by the entire universe that they needed to pick it up defensively, and that is precisely what they did. But this is the NBA, and surprise, surprise, it only gets more difficult from here — with five more games in a week.
16. The fun continues Wednesday at Miami, followed by a Thursday night home game against Atlanta on TNT.
- Box Score | Cavs 110, Pistons 91
- More Cavaliers | All coverage from Hoops Wire
Sources confirm. https://t.co/qgJfIRipix
— Sam Amico (@AmicoHoops) January 28, 2025
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Going to have to REALLY pick up the offense in ACTUALLY MAKING those 3 ball shots is their going to make it through the next few games with MIA, ATL, Dallas, & BOS. All of these are NOT DTW. Oh bye the way, after BOS, yes there’s DTW again… The previous 4 will not miss as many as DTW!
Just sayin’. The “D” DID pick up, but if they were playin’ any of those other 4, they would have been behind by a lot to catch up on IF the offense shot the way they did the first 3 qtrs.