In a matchup of a pair of top 3 picks and two teams in much different parts of their rebuild, this was a highly anticipated matchup between Evan Mobley and Cade Cunningham. Getting Cunningham back from injury should help the Detroit Pistons, but even with him back the Pistons are still in a very early part of their rebuild. The Cleveland Cavaliers (8-5) have been in a rebuild for a few years and obviously landing Mobley is the big one, but it looks like other pieces drafted the last few years are taking the next step and all those draft picks are paying off.
In the highly anticipated matchup Mobley outplayed Cunningham start to finish with 16 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocks and 2 steals, while shooting 6-of-10 from the field and 2-of-2 from 3-point range. It’s still very early and this is a great draft class with Mobley, Scottie Barnes, Cunningham, Jalen Green and to a lesser degree Jalen Suggs/Franz Wagner, but Mobley early on is the clear frontrunner for NBA Rookie of the Year.
I expected Mobley to make a big impact defensively, but i didn’t think his offense would be this good early on. The aggressiveness and the alpha dog quality he’s shown offensively early on isn’t what I expected, but Mobley continues to completely change this franchise. He was tied with Darius Garland for a team-high plus-29 when he was on the floor.
The Cavs dominated mostly the entire game. They led the Pistons by 6 after the first quarter, by 11 at halftime and midway through the third the Cavaliers had completely run away with it. They also continue to be very impressive defensively. This obviously played a key role in it, but either way, Cleveland is now sixth in the league in defensive rating currently.
This shouldn’t be surprising with how good of a shot blocker Jarrett Allen is, though, with how elite Mobley is, and with Isaac Okoro inserted into the starting lineup the level of play defensively isn’t surprising at all.
It was also nice to see the continued production from the bench. Cedi Osman continues to play really well off, too. He only shot 1-of-6 from 3, but he shot 7-of-13 and added 17 points. And it’s nice to see Dylan Windler back and healthy. Since he’s come back, the Windler minutes have been very good. On Friday, he had 8 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists, while shooting 2-of-5 from 3.
With that said, here we’ll take a closer look at one stud and one dud from the Cavs’ win over the Pistons.
We’ll hit on Cleveland’s standout performer first.
Cavs stud: Darius Garland
The headline of the game may have been Mobley versus Cunningham, but Garland stole the show. For the game he had 21 points, 7 assists, and 2 steals, while shooting 4-of-9 from 3 and 8-of-14 from the field overall. The Cavaliers have lost a lot of offensive production lately with the injury to Collin Sexton, who’s been their leading scorer the past couple years, while Kevin Love and Lauri Markkanen have been out because of COVID-19 health and safety protocols .
Garland has star potential and I’m liking the aggressiveness I’ve seen with him especially with how shorthanded the Cavs have been where they’ve absolutely needed him to step up. In Garland’s last five games, he’s averaging 19.2 points, 6.8 assists, and 3.6 triples, but what’s also notable is the Cavs are 4-1 during that span.
For the season Garland is up to 16.3 points and 7.2 assists per game, and has shot 42 percent from 3 and about 49 percent overall. Plus, Garland continues to dazzle as a playmaker, and the pass he made to Mobley for a lob in the second quarter is certainly something you can’t teach.
Mobley is the Cavs’ best player/franchise player and is the biggest reason the team’s trajectory has changed, as a member of the organization reportedly expressed earlier on in the season, but one of the big questions for the Cavaliers is could Garland take the lead and make that next step. He still has a ton to prove, but it appears Garland could be potentially taking that next step.
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.