Erick Blasco's Sunday Review: Cavs Step Fourth, Pistons Step Back

Cavs Step Fourth, Pistons Step Back

In the fourth quarter of their 90-80 victory, the Cleveland Cavaliers showed why they’re legitimate contenders for a championship this season, while the Detroit Pistons indicated why they’ve been relegated to the middle of the pack in the Eastern Conference.

The Pistons entered the final stanza with a hard-earned 66-58 lead as a result of solid defense leading to a handful of transition baskets, running Rip Hamilton around screens, and getting a handful of successful isolations by Allen Iverson.

Detroit’s defense baited LeBron into taking more jumpshots than he would prefer, bottled up Cleveland’s screen/roll game, and held Mo Williams to 10 points over the first three quarters.

If Detroit’s offense was mostly lethargic, Hamilton’s energy around screens provided offensive stability in the first half, and Iverson’s point-making in a broken field gave them a shot in the arm during the third quarter.

And then the fourth quarter started and the mistakes mounted.

Iverson giving way too much help anticipating a screen, and losing contact with Daniel Gibson, allowing him to make a wide-open three. The Pistons not picking up Mo Williams in transition, allowing him to hit a brace of open jumpers. Iverson being picked up by Zydrunas Ilgauskas on a switch but not recognizing Mo Williams cheating back to him to strip his dribble. Detroit’s offense bogging down to nothing but isolations and two-man basketball. Rasheed Wallace becoming nothing but a spot up, or fall away jumpshooter. 

Instead of having a post player that can always draw double teams, Detroit is stuck living with an oversized jumpshooter in Wallace. That could work if the Pistons had a player who could constantly break defenses down and draw double teams, but Allen Iverson misses so many layups (four) and makes so many bad decisions with the ball (five turnovers) that Cleveland rarely, if ever, had to send extra defenders to slow him down.

Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, and Amir Johnson aren’t players who demand double teams with the ball in their hands, and Rodney Stuckey is a point guard who has to get everybody involved.

Because of the reasons mentioned above, Detroit gets virtually no points in the paint when Rasheed Wallace isn’t dominating, and the Pistons commit solely to isolations.

For Cleveland, they held patient, even though their offense struggled early. Ilgauskas scored five of his 13 points late in the fourth. Mo Williams dominated Iverson and Stuckey for 12 fourth-quarter points. LeBron James scored eight points in the fourth to put Detroit away. Even Anderson Varejao did a great job of setting up screens to free penetration and force Detroit’s defense to sink deeper on help and float farther away from their original defensive assignments.

Cleveland won because they fed off Detroit’s mistakes, they ran offenses that involved more than two people, they locked Detroit down in the fourth, and because LeBron was a threat to always get into the rim. Those attributes are traits that all good teams feature—punishing miscues, running complicated offenses, having stellar defenses, and relying on a power player who can always score at the rim.

The Pistons are a team that make too many mistakes, only run complicated offenses when they focus on Rip Hamilton, have a defensive liability in Iverson, and lack any post player who can always score at the basket against single coverage.

That’s why Cleveland may be the best team in the East when everything is said and done, and why the normally consistent Pistons will be lucky to get home court advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.

No Garnett, No Problem

Often times, Boston’s “big three” gets marginalized by fans and the media because each player sacrifices stats and production in order for their team to perform at its peak level. 

With Kevin Garnett out with the flu though, Paul Pierce had the green light to show that despite averaging less than 20 points, Pierce is one of the best offensive players in the game.

Pierce helped the Celtics decimate the Timberwolves, 109-101, with 36 points on 13-24 shooting from the field, 9-9 shooting from the stripe, eight rebounds, and six assists. 

It was a vintage Pierce performance who overmatched Minnesota’s inferior wing defenders, and overmatched interior help defenders.

The other “big three” member who suited up, Ray Allen, also turned in a stellar performance with 22 points on 7-15 shooting.

Al Jefferson paced the Timberwolves with 34 points on 15-21 shooting, but while his offense was dominant, he was a non-factor on defense, and his inability to box out allowed the Celtics to grab 15 offensive rebounds.

Orlando Flexes Muscle Against Toronto

You could see it coming from a mile away—the toothless Raptors with absolutely no physical presence, matching up against the strongest player in the league, Dwight Howard.

Taking a cue from their five-game first round series win against Toronto last year, the Magic were able to pound the Raptors into oblivion 113-90.

No matter which Raptors defender was assigned to stop Howard, they had no answer, and superman bulldozed his way to 29 points and 14 rebounds against Toronto’s underwhelming front line. Chris Bosh was a non-entity with only 11 points, nine rebounds, a solitary assist, and four turnovers.

Bosh repeatedly disappears against the league’s more physical front lines, plays with no toughness whatsoever, and is the leader of a team which has been a colossal disappointment. Why exactly is he heading to the All-Star Game?

Of course, Bosh wasn’t alone on Toronto’s front line. Andrea Bargnani continues to get lost defending screen/rolls, and is constantly abused on the defensive end. The only use he has as a player is if he’s hitting his shots, and he went 4-16 against Orlando. Toronto has only to look at its frontcourt to see why they’re at the back of the Eastern Conference.

Kings of the Basement

The Kings got 37 points from Kevin Martin to beat the Thunder 122-118 in overtime. While Sacramento won, the game was noteworthy for Oklahoma City’s exceptional play from their young trio of Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green, and Kevin Durant.

Durant scored 33 points, Green scored 28, and Westbrook put up 34, including going 20-22 from the free throw line. The trio combined for 95 points and 31-35 free throw shooting.

That’s the major difference between the Thunder and the Kings. Kevin Martin is legit and has room to grow, and John Salmons is a solid veteran, but the Kings have too few young impact players, and too many over-the-hill veterans. 

Oklahoma City’s nucleus is extremely athletic, and even their veterans, players like Nick Collison, Joe Smith, Chris Wilcox, and Desmond Mason, can defend, rebound, and fill roles.

So even though Oklahoma City lost the game, and even if Oklahoma City winds up with a worse record than Sacramento at the end of the year, the Thunder have much more hope for becoming a better team in a shorter amount of time than the plan-less Sacramento Kings.