No Donovan Mitchell, no James Harden, no Keon Ellis, and no Dean Wade — yet the Cleveland Cavaliers almost squeezed out an impressive road win against the Detroit Pistons in their last meeting. Tuesday's upcoming matchup should be an opportunity to reaffirm what the Cavaliers should think they know after the previous duel.
Harden and Ellis were both back for the Cavaliers' game against the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday that split up the two showdowns within a week against the Pistons. A chance for retribution is there. More importantly, Tuesday's game will serve as a moment when the Cavs can assert dominance.
The Pistons have spent most of the year as the class of the Eastern Conference. They have held down that top seed without a real challenger. The later the NBA calendar moves into the back half of the year, the more team records will be ignored, to some capacity.
No one will dismiss them altogether. There are still important conversations to be had in relation to seeding and win-loss rates. However, matchups and head-to-heads are starting to come into focus. If the last game between the Cavs and Pistons was any indicator, Cleveland could stack up favorably.
Cavaliers can give themselves the mental edge over Pistons with a win
On one hand, a loss is a loss. Moral victories are overrated. Besides, the Cavaliers fumbling the last game against the Pistons, when they had it in the bag, can be spun the other way too.
However, it is difficult to ignore just how much Cleveland pushed Detroit to the edge, on the road, without so many pivotal rotation players available. They outright did not have three of their five starters and it was still down to the wire. They can talk themselves into that meaning something.
Granted, every matchup in the NBA is different. Sometimes you can have a performance that is a touch more of a fluke. The good news for the Cavaliers is nothing about how they played felt particularly unsustainable.
There are only so many litmus tests left for how great the Cavs project to be. A win over the Pistons on Tuesday will not only serve to satisfy that, but it can give them a quiet confidence for a potential playoff matchup between the two.
If the season ended today, Cleveland would face Detroit in the second round of the NBA Playoffs. The Cavs are desperate to make it beyond that point. Coming in with not only a chip on their shoulder, but a proven track record of beating the team should help the cause.