Key: Homestand Finale
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The Cavaliers –who’ve dropped four straight – and Pistons – who’ve lost nine of 11 – have both been struggling and near the bottom of the Central Division, but with a home-and-home series set for the next three days, something will have to give.
The Wine & Gold are coming off a wild loss on Sunday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse – falling behind by 25 points in the third quarter, mounting a major comeback to take a brief one-point lead, then allowing Minnesota to score the next 14 points to pull away for the victory. The loss kept the Cavaliers winless on the homestand, with tonight’s meeting against Detroit as the final home contest before embarking on their longest roadie of the season – a six-game, 11-day trip that begins on Thursday night in Motown.
The Pistons are on the opposite end of the road spectrum; tonight’s game in Cleveland is their final contest of a six-game trip. Their previous matchup was a Sunday night loss to the Lakers in Los Angeles. In that contest, L.A. blocked 20 Pistons’ shots – most in the NBA since 2001, with Anthony Davis swatting eight offerings and Dwight Howard swatting six more.
The Pistons hung a 33-point loss on the Wine & Gold earlier this season – canning 18 triples and getting 67 points from their bench in their first visit to Cleveland.
Key: Double Trouble
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Detroit’s one constant over the past decade has been their All-Star big man, Andre Drummond, who’s posted Hall of Fame numbers throughout his prolific career.
Last year he led the league in essentially all rebounding categories and is right back at it this season – topping the NBA in rebounds (15.8), defensive (11.5) and offensive (4.3) rebounding. Defensively, he’s also one of two players (along with Orlando’s Jonathan Isaac) who rank in the top 15 in both steals and blocks this season.
Drummond tormented the Cavaliers on both ends in the Pistons’ December 3 victory in Cleveland – finishing with 17 points, 14 rebounds, four assists, five steals and four blocks. In 28 career meetings against Cleveland, the former UConn standout has averaged 15.5 points and 13.1 rebounds per.
Tristan Thompson, who’s been around for just about all 28 of those meetings, missed Sunday’s outing with flu-like symptoms, one night after leading the squad with 14 rebounds against Oklahoma City.
With that effort, Thompson has now grabbed double-digit boards in seven of his last eight outings. Tonight will mark his 29th career matchup against Detroit – averaging 8.9 points and 8.0 boards over that stretch. In the December 3 loss, the former Texas standout finished with 10 points and a team-high 14 boards.
Key: Reserve Judgement
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Both the Cavaliers’ and the Pistons’ leading scorers on Sunday night finished with 28 points and neither one of them were in the starting lineup.
For Detroit, former Cavalier Derrick Rose continued his red-hot run – posting his fourth 20-point outing in his last five games off the bench, averaging 21.6 points per while shooting 49 percent from the floor and 40 percent from deep over that stretch.
Overall, the Pistons bench combined for 55 points in their Sunday night loss to the Lakers – with Svi Mykhailiuk chipping in 14 points and Langston Galloway added 13. Rose, Mykhailiuk and Galloway – along with Markieff Morris – all notched double-figures in Detroit’s lopsided win over Cleveland in early December.
The Cavaliers came into Sunday’s contest shorthanded and were even thinner when Kevin Porter Jr. pulled up with a left knee injury. (Later determined to be a sprain, sidelining him for at least the next two weeks.) With Porter down, that allowed the recently-acquired Dante Exum to show his stuff.
On the night, Exum finished with a career-high 28 points on 11-of-13 shooting, including a perfect 4-of-4 from beyond the arc, adding three boards, two assists and a steal. The fifth-year guard from Australia notched 24 of those points in the second half and was a perfect 9-for-9 from the floor after intermission.