Cavs: One stud and one dud from win over Pistons

Cavs dud- J.B. Bickerstaf’s future rotation decisions and playing key guys a little too much in this one

The Cavs are 8-5 and even with the all the guys that have been out, they continue to play really well. Obviously Cleveland head coach J.B. Bickerstaff deserves a ton of credit for how prepared and how competitive he has the Cavs playing night in and night out.

Honestly the Cavaliers let a game get away against the Washington Wizards and easily could be right there at the top of the Eastern Conference at 9-4. I don’t believe right now they will be a top 4 seed by season’s end, but it’s reflective of early in the season how well the Cavaliers have been playing.

The Cavs with this lineup have been really tough defensively even if offensively it can be tough for them. Kevin Love and Lauri Markkanen should be back returning here pretty shortly, though. It’s good the shorthanded Cavs have reinforcements and some much needed shooting help, and two experienced veterans at that. It’ll be interesting to see how Bickerstaff decides on what rotations and at what time with how well the team is playing, but this is a good problem to have.

However, he did have key players in this game in there a little too much, with Cleveland on the first leg of a back-to-back, and having the game at hand pretty early in the fourth quarter. I can understand it from a chemistry perspective, and the Cavs are somewhat shorthanded, especially with how Lamar Stevens suffered an ankle sprain in the game, but that was a bit odd in the late stages.

Overall, though, so far Bickerstaff has typically done a good job of picking the right rotations and pressing the right buttons, but how he sorts out everything else when Love and Markkanen return is something I’ll be watching, as they’ll need to figure things out there.

We could seemingly seem Love, who was with the team on Friday, back pretty soon in-game.