Final score of the Pistons vs. Cavaliers: Donovan Mitchell shuts out Detroit with a huge fourth
One of the hottest teams in the NBA heading into Wednesday’s game was the Cleveland Cavaliers.
After winning two of their previous three games, the Detroit Pistons came into the game with a pulse for the first time this season.
And, you know what, they actually put on a lighthearted, if clumsy, show.
Even though Danilo Gallinari scored XX points off the bench to turn back the clock, the Pistons were unable to overcome their fiercest opponent, adversity, as the game came down to a close.
Detroit turned the ball over a few times, missed a few shots, and went blow for blow with Cleveland. The Cavs won 128-121, but what started out as a tie game ended in a XX-point defeat.
For Cleveland, Donovan Mitchell had his way, scoring freely in the fourth quarter and finishing with a career-high 45 points after dropping 20 points in the quarter. All Cleveland had to do was choose when they wanted to play this game—it was available to them the entire evening.
The Pistons’ late mistakes proved to be their undoing.
After Detroit tied the score at 115, Cleveland quickly took the lead and finished the game on a 13-6 run. At one point in the fourth quarter, the Pistons were up five points, but with about four minutes remaining, Jarrett Allen stopped Cade Cunningham from making a layup, and Detroit fell apart.
It’s incredible that the Pistons managed to hang around following Cade and Duren’s combined first half. Both players appeared disengaged, from their sluggish passing to their listless defense, which is typically a sign of a rough night for the Pistons.
However, the other guys took charge. In place of an injured Mike Muscala, who was covering for an injured Isaiah Stewart as a starter, Gallinari showed glimpses of the scoring prowess that made him such an entertaining and effective scorer in the past.
It was a lot of fun, and he made some fantastic free throws and splashed threes. He’s not particularly quick, and he can’t jump higher than 12 inches, so I’m not even sure how he does it, but he finished.
Cunningham managed to land his shot. By the end of the second quarter, he was hitting his shots, and by the end of the game, he had 19 points and 7 assists. What’s more, he committed no turnovers.
As the primary creator, he spent a lot of time early on switching on and off with Jaden Ivey. It felt purposeful, and that’s okay. It kind of reminds me of how things were when LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were still figuring things out in Miami.
Being two of the greatest of all time, they essentially took turns and made it work far better than Cade and Jaden have here, but the concept of learning how to play off the
Ivey was effective, scoring 14 points on 5/7 shooting, but in the second half, he committed 4 turnovers and was the victim of several defensive possessions. This late in the game play was… strange. With just over a minute remaining and trailing by four points, Ivey had Mitchell isolated, even with Allen lurking. Rather than letting Mitchell attempt to get to the rim, coach Monty Williams called a timeout. On the play that followed, Alec Burks uncharacteristically received a 24-second violation; this was obviously not what was intended, but it was still a terrible error that late.
I thought Ausar Thompson was really noteworthy tonight. From the moment he took a defensive step on the floor, he was the only one locked in. His rebounding was tremendous, and I believe that Ausar was largely responsible for the Pistons’ second-half success with Gallinari at center.
When you have a freaky athlete who is constantly crashing the boards and causing havoc on defense, you can get away with having an offense-only, zero on the boards, and defensively inept center.
Ausar is the worst shooter on the floor, so I believe those are the situations that will give him the most opportunities to perform. That’s challenging with Duren present, but Ausar can cover center field duties as a wing. Essentially, he must fill that
