Heading into their game at the Detroit Pistons, the Cleveland Cavaliers wanted to redeem themselves following their nightmarish third quarter on Friday night at the Milwaukee Bucks. Cleveland fell apart then, as the Bucks stampeded over the Cavaliers, and putting a sour taste in fans mouths after a satisfying sweep of their recent homestand.
Fortunately for Cavs fans, the Wine and Gold would rebound on Sunday evening at the Pistons, although it wasn’t easy, as the Pistons made some key shots and drives throughout. Detroit was also shorthanded in this last one, as Cade Cunningham, Bojan Bogdanovic, and others, such as Isaiah Stewart, were sidelined. Additionally, the Pistons were playing their first game back at home after a six-game Western road trip.
But, to Cleveland’s credit, after a sluggish start and first quarter where they couldn’t hit anything and had turnover issues, they were able to grind their way back and eventually, they were able to pull ahead in the fourth quarter. Detroit made their share of tough shots, and Alec Burks gave the Cavaliers problems, as he had 17 points off the bench, and Marvin Bagley III was having success in the low post, en route to a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
As we alluded to, however, the Cavaliers did stay the course here, and in the fourth quarter, Donovan Mitchell and company outscored the Pistons 29-16, and got the stops they needed to down the stretch. One has to give guys such as Cedi Osman and Isaac Okoro some credit for bringing juice defensively on Sunday, too, to that point.
Cleveland would then grind their way to a W, 102-94, moving to 13-7 on the 2022-23 campaign to this point.
So in regards to Sunday’s win, we’ll touch on the Cavaliers stud and dud here.
First, we’ll begin with the Cavaliers stud.
Cavaliers stud: Free throw shooting
One could’ve gone with Donovan Mitchell (32 points) or Evan Mobley (20 points on eight-of-12 shooting, to go with 13 rebounds) here, but free throw shooting for the team overall was a driving force for Cleveland’s victory on Sunday.
There was realistically better ball movement than the assist total of 14 indicated for the Cavs, objectively. Either way, the Cavaliers were able to find ways to get to the free throw line to keep themselves within striking distance for most of the game, before making their push in the fourth quarter.
Cleveland hit 28 of 33 of their looks from the stripe, an 84.8 percent clip, and the backcourt was huge for the Wine and Gold in that realm. Mitchell himself was 12-of-13 from the stripe, and Darius Garland was 11-of-12, and those two were big down the stretch from there in helping the Cavaliers pull this out.
For Garland, he wasn’t able to connect from the field close to how he’s been of late, as he went just four-of-19, and zero-of-5 from three, but the free throws he knocked down were crucial here. The same went for him dishing out 10 assists.
As for the Pistons, they were just 14-of-26 (53.8 percent) from the stripe. So, ultimately, the free throw shooting from the Cavaliers was clutch here.
Cavaliers dud: Three-point shooting
As for the Cavaliers dud from Sunday evening, three-point shooting was a pretty clear candidate.
On the night, the Wine and Gold, in an identical clip as the Pistons, shot eight-of-28 from three-point range, which was 28.6 percent. The Cavs did get a handful of significant triples to go down later in the game when they needed to, and Mobley himself hit two threes, but throughout most of the game, the Cavs were simply ice cold from deep.
Cedi Osman and Isaac Okoro (one-for-one) hit one apiece, and Raul Neto hit a corner triple in one of his two three attempts. The starters, conversely, just couldn’t get the deep balls to fall, as Dean Wade was one-of-five, Mitchell was two-of-eight, as was we touched on, Garland was zero-for-five.
That sort of shooting from those types of starting guys for the Cavaliers is not something fans are accustomed to, but one shouldn’t concerned, really, given how Cleveland has shot the ball for most of the season to this point.
Hopefully Kevin Love (thumb) can be back relatively soon and get his rhythm back as a key rotational shooter, in fairness. And for bench scoring, Caris LeVert (ankle) can make a difference when he is back available for the Wine and Gold, too, for what it’s worth.
In any case, for the Cavs,, they’ll have a quick turnaround here, as on Monday night, they’ll take on the Toronto Raptors, where they’ll look to avenge their loss in the season opener.