This has turned out to be a very entertaining week of Cleveland Cavaliers basketball, even with there being plenty of difficult stretches for the Wine and Gold.
Cleveland has had all four of its games come right down to the wire, and two of those resulted in overtime outcomes. The Cavs had their first OT game of the season in a win over the LA Clippers on Monday night, and even the Clips being somewhat shorthanded, Cleveland showed resolve in that one, and ran away with it in OT.
On Wednesday, the Cavaliers couldn’t pull out a win over the Philadelphia 76ers, but it turned out to be a heck of a game, where Philly prevailed in the closing moments 118-114.
From there, the Cavs had their lulls and lapses defensively, but they stayed the course, and came back against the Denver Nuggets to win in OT once again.
After that thrilling matchup, the Cavaliers had their fourth and final meeting of the season with the Detroit Pistons. This was on the second leg of a back-to-back.
The Pistons have been playing better in recent weeks, despite much of their season having inconsistencies. For a young team that is in the early stages of a rebuild, that’s understandable, though, and Cleveland has had trouble with Detroit still this season.
The Pistons had beaten the Cavs in their last two meetings in Detroit, so even with their big wins of late, the Cavaliers had to take care of business on Saturday night.
It wasn’t an easy contest by any means for the Wine and Gold, who were down 60-55 at halftime, and at times, seemed a bit off for stretches. Some of that had to do with their game on Friday night, I’d imagine, but the Pistons deserve their share of credit still.
Jerami Grant was a handful throughout, as he had 40 points, including 27 in the first half, and knocked in 13-of-22 shots from the field. He was 7-of-9 from three, too, and Saddiq Bey chipped in 20 points for Detroit.
Cleveland did do a pretty solid job against Cade Cunningham in this one, though, and while he had 10 assists, his 15 points came on just 5-of-13 shooting. The Cavaliers did force some key turnovers in the closing stretches as well, and Cunningham himself had five giveaways.
On the other end, the Cavs hit some big shots when they needed them, and got a heck of a lift off the bench from Kevin Love and Cedi Osman, who combined for 30 points off the bench, and were plus-6 and plus-13, respectively. A balanced effort did the job for the Cavaliers overall, also, and in the second half, their defense did fortunately pick up, in what led to a much-needed win to kept themselves on track.
So who was the stud and dud for the Cavs versus the Pistons, then?
We’ll get into that now, in what was a Cavs win that they again, had to have.
There were some really nice performances for the Cavs, who secured their 41st win of the season, and we’ll touch on those quality outings first. There was a noticeable dud still, though.