The Cavaliers opened their second round series against Detroit with the same problem that plagued them against Toronto in the first round; turnovers. Cleveland gave the ball away 20 times in the 111-101 Game 1 loss, leading to 31 Pistons points and raising concerns about whether the Cavs can clean up their mistakes moving forward.
“Everything that Toronto does on the defensive end of the court, Detroit does slightly better,” Ideastream Public Media commentator Terry Pluto said.
Pluto said Detroit, the No. 1 seed in the East, will be a tough team to beat. The Pistons are built around defense, leading the NBA in steals, forced turnovers and blocked shots while also ranking among the league leaders in fewest points allowed and opponent shooting percentage.
“I doubt any team that had a record of 60-22 received as little respect nationally as the Pistons,” Pluto said. “And I think that's for two reasons. Number one is the last time the Pistons even won a playoff series was 18 years ago until this year. Secondly, the Pistons don't have established superstars. They have a young emerging star in Cade Cunningham, but the rest of the guys are younger, they're athletic ... a couple of kind of role-playing veterans.”
At the trade deadline, the Cavs traded for James Harden to give them a veteran playmaker who could steady the offense in big playoff moments. But he had another turnover heavy performance in Game 1 against Detroit.
“Sometimes I watch James play, he's 36,” Pluto said. “He's trying to kind of dribble past his man, or sometimes they would put two men on him. He's tried to split the double team and ... sort of slip in between them. And he used to be able to do that in the old days. It seems like against these younger, quicker teams, he struggles with that.”
Harden is averaging more than five turnovers per game throughout the playoffs so far and committed seven Tuesday night.
“He was supposed to be able to play with poise and handle this stuff and help the team handle it, and he hasn't done it,” Pluto said.
Pluto said the loss sets up a must win Game 2 for the Cavs on Thursday night in Detroit.
“It's something like 80% of the teams that lose their first two games generally end up losing the series,” Pluto said. “Here's a thing to keep in mind: In the last three years in the playoffs, the Cavs have won only two road games, and they've lost 12. They've struggled in the playoffs on the road.”
Still, Pluto said Detroit does have a weakness.
“Detroit has these games where it seems like they can't even make a layup,” Pluto said. “I mean, games where they can't score 100 points. They don't have a lot of great shooters and sometimes they're all cold at the same time. So that can help the Cavs.”
Pluto predicted the Cavs would prevail in seven games in the first round series against Toronto. He is also predicting this series will go the distance.
“I looked at Toronto, I knew that that style of team could give the Cavs problems unless they had fixed some of the stuff that bothered them in the playoffs last year,” Pluto said. “But they need Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen on the boards. They need James Harden to quit throwing the ball all over the place. And finally, Donovan Mitchell was pretty good, but they need Donovan Mitchell to be great. And that's what it takes.”
