The Cleveland Cavaliers have been two separate teams this postseason. They’ve been an absolute buzzsaw at home. That team has been elite on both ends of the floor and has received multiple superstar performances from their core four. But if you get them away from Rocket Arena, they’ve looked pretty ordinary. This includes multiple fourth-quarter collapses in Games 4 and 6 against the Toronto Raptors and Games 1 and 2 against the Detroit Pistons.
Whether the Cavs can go about changing that trend will determine if they can advance to the conference finals. They need to win at least one game on the road to get past the Pistons. Why not do so in Game 5?
If they are going to steal Game 5, the Cavs will need to do a better job of containing Cade Cunningham when he’s at home. This postseason, Cunningham has averaged 31.8 points and 8.2 assists on 50% shooting in his six home games. That’s considerably more than he’s averaged on the road, including these two games in Cleveland, where he wasn’t his best self.
The Cavs were partially to blame for that change. They trapped him much more in Game 4 than they have at any point in the series.
“Just try get in his way,” Jarrett Allen said when asked on Monday about how to stop Cunningham. “Try to make sure that he rethinks every single pass that he’s going to take. Try to make sure that every single drive to the lane, somebody’s there to bump him, somebody’s there to contest him. Try to make everything as hard as we can for him.”
Whether the Cavs can do so in Game 5 could determine whether they can steal homecourt advantage.
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Who: Cleveland Cavaliers (2-2) at Detroit Pistons (2-2)
Where: Little Ceasars Arena – Detroit, MI
When: Wed., May 13 at 8 PM
TV: ESPN
Point spread: Pistons -3.5
Cavs injury report: None
Pistons injury report: Duncan Robinson – QUESTIONABLE (back), Kevin Huerter – QUESTIONABLE (abductor strain), Caris LeVert – QUESTIONABLE (heel)
Cavs expected starting lineup: James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, Max Strus, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen
Pistons expected starting lineup: Cade Cunningham, Duncan Robinson, Ausar Thompson, Tobias Harris, Jalen Duren
Previous matchup: Donovan Mitchell’s 44 points allowed Cleveland to even the series.
Here’s a look at both teams’ regular-season impact stats via Cleaning the Glass.
|
Offensive Rating |
Defensive Rating |
Net Rating |
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Cavs |
118.9 (8th) |
115 (15th) |
+3.9 (9th) |
|
Pistons |
118.3 (10th) |
109.5 (2nd) |
+8.8 (3rd) |
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