The Cleveland Cavaliers fought hard but ultimately lost this game in the second quarter. Let’s see who won and lost the day.
WINNER- Evan Mobley’s Defense
Having the reigning Defensive Player of the Year on your roster can do wonderful
things. Evan Mobley has been on a tear recently, and it feels like he’s blocking almost every shot in his path.
Mobley had 4 blocks today. In the game before, he also had 3 blocks. Before that? He had 5 blocks against the Phoenix Suns and another 3 blocks in San Antonio. That’s 15 blocks in four games. A player who can reject shots like that completely warps the dynamic on the court. He’s a one-man wrecking crew.
Cleveland has crept back into being a top-10 defensive team over the last two weeks. They were pretty good today, outside of a catastrophic second quarter. It’s no coincidence that Mobley’s return to the lineup has coincided with the Cavs getting their groove back on defense.
LOSER – That 2nd Quarter
Did we mention something about a catastrophic second quarter? Let’s talk about it.
The Cavs opened this game strong on both ends of the floor. They carried over their defensive integrity from the fourth quarter versus Denver and allowed the Pistons to score just 19 points on 27% shooting in the first quarter. Not too bad.
Then the second quarter happened.
Detroit two-way standout Daniss Jenkins had 21 points in the quarter, all on his own. He shot 7-7 from the floor, including six three-pointers. The Cavs left him open one too many times, but he also converted an and-one finish at the rim and nailed a contested three-pointer at the buzzer.
The Pistons finished the second quarter with 47 points, nearly rivaling the Cavaliers’ 56 total points at the half. This was a disastrous frame that ultimately cost them the game.
Cleveland won the other three quarters by a combined total of 15 points. They lost this game by four.
LOSER – Inefficient offense
The Cavs were somewhat comfortably in the driver’s seat before they began turning the ball over today. It had been a back-and-forth affair with the Cavs’ offense keeping them in front. But careless turnovers lead to a cascading effect where the Pistons took control.
Cleveland finished with 17 turnovers, and Detroit cleaned up 21 points off of those turnovers. It wasn’t everything, but it was enough to swing this game. Especially when the Cavs turned it over on their final attempt to tie the game before Detroit eventually put it away with an offensive rebound.
Just as damaging, the Cavaliers couldn’t find the bottom of the net tonight from downtown. They shot 14-43 from deep. Most of these were quality attempts. Some of them were as bad as turnovers. The entirety of Rocket Arena let out a groan before Lonzo Ball bricked a three-point attempt in the fourth quarter, for example.
This has been a trend for the Cavs all season. High volume shooting on low efficiency. Opponents are packing the paint against them — and Cleveland can’t force them to adjust. Evan Mobley had only 4 points on 2-4 shooting in the second half, primarily because Detroit was able to overload in the paint and successfully recover to contain the perimeter.
You aren’t going to win many games if you turn it over 17 times, get outscored in the paint 40-30 and miss nearly 30 three-point attempts.
