00:00For anyone frustrated that I haven't waved the pom-pom like yourself
00:03and Anthony Lima and Ken, don't forget about Ken.
00:06He's on vacation, but that's a big old pom-pom waver there.
00:09I think tonight is the perfect opportunity for the Cavs to begin earning my trust.
00:13Okay, good.
00:13I agree with that because one thing you've wanted is them to do something on the road.
00:18This is a road playoff game to start off a series.
00:20You flip it back to basically home court advantage being the Cavs with a win tonight.
00:24And so, yeah, there's a lot that they can show you tonight.
00:27Well, so I think it definitely starts with winning on the road.
00:31And not just winning, playing well enough to win and playing every possession like it's the last.
00:37For most of that Toronto series, I don't want to say most of it
00:40because the Cavs did come out and kick some ass the first one and a half games
00:43and they did win the first two games.
00:45But because you're starting this series on the road,
00:48if you came out with the same intensity in game one that you did in game one of the Toronto
00:52series,
00:53I think that's the perfect tone setter for this.
00:56Because the reality is Detroit is going to set the tone in some of these games
01:00because that's the only way they can win.
01:02So being able in their house to basically cast the first stone,
01:08that's something I haven't seen from the Cavs outside of that Miami series
01:11where they just dictated the whole damn thing and that's not what I expect in this one.
01:15It's not something I'm really accustomed to seeing with the Cavaliers,
01:19especially when it comes to on the road.
01:20I guess I'm trying to figure out how early into this game are we going to have some sort of
01:24big chippiness, big fights, and who's going to be the one to deliver that?
01:28Isaiah Stewart.
01:29We don't even really have to.
01:30No, but is Schroeder going to be the one that I have to go on the attack?
01:32Oh, I hope so.
01:33I have to make sure that I set the tone.
01:35And he knows all these Pistons players.
01:36They're all friends.
01:37And they just played with him last year.
01:39He knows them.
01:40I want him to basically turn around and just, I don't know, get in their face,
01:45yell at him, push at him, do whatever he needs to do to let him know it's different now.
01:48I think I would like him to wait until Beef Stew starts something.
01:52And then I want Schroeder to finish it.
01:54I mean, wouldn't you think if you're the Pistons,
01:55don't you think that's one of the edges you have is the toughness in this whole entire series?
01:58Wouldn't you try to lay that foundation about as early as possible?
02:01Yeah, I mean, yes, I think it's a toughness and a mentality thing.
02:06And, okay, I'm not trying to play both sides of the fence here.
02:09You do have to still make sure to play your game.
02:12No, for sure.
02:12But, like, the Pistons, I think the Pistons are still going to be angry
02:15about what happened in the regular season.
02:18You think they're thinking that far back?
02:19Not the game.
02:20You're forgetting the words.
02:22Remember after the Pistons game, the Cavs came out and said they're not in our league?
02:27Wasn't that in January?
02:28That was February.
02:29February?
02:29That was after a game that we didn't have Mitchell or Harden in,
02:34and they came out in the Cavs.
02:35It was one of the rare times after a Cavs game this season
02:37where we watched the Cavs just be very, very vocal.
02:40If I was the Pistons, I'd still be pissed about what happened there.
02:42I mean, it's three months ago.
02:43You might be right, though.
02:44Here's the thing.
02:45Anything that adds juice to this series.
02:47The only ones that really kind of just said anything towards the Pistons way,
02:50everybody else just kind of treated the Pistons like stuffed teddy bears, essentially.
02:54Yeah, everybody kind of just ignored them.
02:55But, I mean, listen, I think the fact that it's on the road.
02:57I also just think, like, this team is the best exemplification of the gym class heroes.
03:05Like, this team is only here.
03:07That's what I've called them all year.
03:07The Pistons were only number one seed in the East because they just played harder
03:13than everybody in the regular season while everybody else was kind of taking their time.
03:17Certainly the Cavs did as well.
03:18Well, yeah, and we have some of the defensive numbers that support some of what you're discussing,
03:22especially when it comes to they were number one in steals.
03:24They were number one in forcing turnovers.
03:26They were number one in committing personal fouls.
03:28They were number one in blocked shots.
03:29They were top five in various rebounding categories.
03:32Like, the Pistons, this team, everything you saw Toronto do, they did it on steroids.
03:37But do they do it because it was the regular season and they could just bully people around?
03:40I think that is part of the narrative, yes.
03:42Well, but I think to speak to that, like, Toronto won a different way
03:46than they ended up being competitive in the Cavs series.
03:50And Toronto adapted into a more physical team
03:53because that was the only way they could hang with the Cavaliers.
03:56They certainly weren't hanging in a myriad of other ways.
04:00Detroit's smart enough to know our one way to beat the Cavs
04:04is to do what everyone's done for now going on four years,
04:07which is punch them in the mouth and see how they respond.
04:10And so, like, that's a different, like, Toronto's coach
04:13messed around for, like, a game and a half before he was like,
04:16oh, wait, the Cavs aren't good at physicality.
04:18Maybe we should push them around.
04:20I don't think J.B. Vickerstaff's going to do that.
04:22So I expect that you're going to get a team trying to make a statement tonight in Detroit.
04:27And I think the Cavs understand you can't let a game early,
04:31whether it's this game or the next game, you can't let one,
04:34you need at least one of these because no one in the NBA,
04:37including people here in Cleveland, believe that you're going to do this.
04:41After seven games, did you learn Darko's last name or no?
04:44No.
04:44Yeah, I didn't think you were going to.
04:46Good coach, though.
04:47Yeah.
04:49It's fine.
04:50Yeah.
04:50Listen, I'm Hungarian.
04:52If you're Hungarian, I'll learn your Eastern European last name.
04:55Is that it?
04:56Any other Eastern European?
04:57I'm sorry, you're dead to me.
04:58It's just completely dead.
04:59I haven't forgotten 1956.
05:00Look it up.
05:01Okay, then.
05:02I don't really know what that means.
05:03I was going to say, can you tell me what happened in 1956?
05:05It was the Hungarian Revolution.
05:06Is that what that was?
05:07But I don't remember a lot of other Eastern Europeans helping us out there.
05:10By the way, nobody was.
05:11It's okay.
05:13Communism was bad.
05:14However, no, I mean, this is the kind of game that begins to swing my faith.
05:19And that's what this whole series is about to me.
05:21The whole series is the Cavs earning my trust.
05:25Because this is where they've stalled out the three previous years.
05:28It's where Donovan has stalled out, what, six of the nine years he's been in the playoffs in his career?
05:33Something like that?
05:34Like, this is where I do think that people who don't buy into the Cavs and the pom-pom wavers,
05:41such as yourself, where I do think this is where the rubber meets the road for all of us.
05:45And that doesn't have to be, because I do think we've gotten a little tribalized in the you're right and
05:50I'm wrong and I'm a part of it.
05:52So I'm not trying to act like I haven't been.
05:54But I think we're all in agreement of, like, all right, this is what we've been building for.
05:59This is what the hardened trade was about.
06:01We're definitely all in agreement you can't lose this series.
06:02And you look ahead, and it is all right there.
06:07So now is the time.
06:08Like, this is, I don't want to hear one person in this series start to think, well, we still have
06:13next year.
06:13I don't give a rat's ass about next year.
06:15I don't give a rat's ass about this summer.
06:17Like, I'm living and dying with this game tonight, and I will for the rest of this series, because this
06:22is the only thing that matters.
06:23And I desperately want the Cavs to play like that, because if you do that in every game, you're winning
06:29this series, and you're probably winning it a lot quicker than anyone thinks you are.
06:32Yeah, it'll just be interesting to see what kind of tenacity they come out with tonight.
06:35And I'm dying to find out, if we talk about that energy, whether they have it or don't.
06:39I'm just kind of convinced that there's just going to be laissez-faire moments with this Cavs team that just
06:43kind of exist with them, because it's just the collection of players that they have.
06:46I know that's not something a lot of people want to hear.
06:48You wish that they just had so much intensity 24-7.
06:52They just don't.
06:53They don't.
06:53Because there were so many moments in that Toronto series where they should have been like, all right, now it's
06:57time to go, now it's time to do it, and they didn't.
06:59So, like, I'm not necessarily expecting that.
07:02I just need a little bit more urgency than what you showed previously.
07:04So, you're probably right, by the way.
07:06Allow me to start with the – I think you're right.
07:09Like, expecting the Cavs to be a wildly different team at this point is just probably not who they are.
07:15And this is – and in fairness to them, if you just keep drawing the worst matchup possible for you,
07:22although Indiana played a different style of basketball than Pistons do, Pistons played a different style of basketball than Toronto,
07:28Toronto played a different style of basketball than Orlando did three years ago, and all of them just decided we're
07:34going to play this one specific way to beat the Cavs.
07:36So, at some point, you would imagine the Cavs would be like, I think we know what they're going to
07:41try and do to us.
07:42But, like, for what you're saying, if you want to come – if you want to come out – if
07:47you come out flat in this game, at some point, if you just flip the switch, I'll forgive you.
07:52I think that's what –
07:53So, the thing is, it's going to look like a flipping of the switch, but the reality is, is they're
07:56just going to end up making more shots.
07:57Or missing.
07:58That's, like, how this series is going to go, in my estimation, Nick.
08:01It's pretty simple.
08:01Detroit can't score the basketball.
08:03They didn't do so in the Orlando series at all.
08:05They had three games that didn't even score 100 points.
08:07You have so many opportunities to just be that offensive juggernaut that they've been, and one of the best offensive
08:12teams in the NBA.
08:13That's how you win this thing.
08:15And so, like, it's going to look at times like they're just chucking up threes, and they're not able to
08:18hit, and they're not able to – like, they're not doing their part.
08:20The reality is, this series will really be defined by the make-or-miss aspect of it all.
08:25Yeah.
08:26There's one other thing, though.
08:27You do actually need to play defense in this series.
08:29And whether the late closeout was, like, the entirety of the plan defensively in the last series, if you do
08:37that same stuff in this series, they're all professional basketball players.
08:41If you leave these guys wide open, they're going to hit more threes than you think they are.
08:46They're 28th in three-point makes.
08:47They're 29th in attempts in the season.
08:49Where was Toronto?
08:50They were the last – they were on the 20s, like the early 20s.
08:54Again, like, the Pistons are worse than what Toronto was.
08:57And the other thing about Toronto is that they then had – they had guys in that series that just
09:00kind of came out of nowhere and weren't expected to be part of the Toronto plan.
09:04I'm talking about Jacoby Walters.
09:05I'm talking about even Jameson Battle.
09:07I'm talking about, like, some of those guys, even Shed, that came out and hit threes at a prolific rate.
09:11And so, like –
09:11It's because they were wide open.
09:12The Pistons – yeah, but the Pistons, they just – they won't take the same amount of shots as the
09:16idea here.
09:17Like, they won't.
09:18Where I credit the Raptors is they at least got to the idea of, like, all right, we're going to
09:21at least up our usage and up what we do.
09:23The Pistons, at no stretch, have shown that they're willing to do that.
09:27If you leave them wide open.
09:29Like, here's the thing.
09:30The offense was not good in the Toronto series.
09:32I think the bigger reason why that was so much closer is you just – there was a different level
09:38of physicality from them to what they were doing on offense and you were doing on defense.
09:43And then you just kind of said, hmm, perimeter defense is optional.
09:48This is the playoffs.
09:49You really cannot do that with anyone.
09:51And I think the Raptors did prove that.
09:53At 216-474-0092, and Nick Wilson says, at J. Peterlin on social media, social media reactions on X, powered
10:00by Shabin Jewelers, Cleveland's premier jewelry store.
10:03I mean, game six, there was a do-or-die for them.
10:05They had to win that game against Orlando.
10:07They made nine threes.
10:08Game seven, do-or-die, same scenario.
10:10Were they leaving them wide open on the perimeter?
10:12Yeah, they were daring them to shoot it.
10:13They made ten threes.
10:14They had the fewest amount of made threes out of any playoff team this postseason.
10:18Like, the one advantage, I think, that really goes to the Cavs' favor is that even if they dare Detroit
10:23to shoot the three, Detroit has not shown an ability to want to take that shot.
10:27Mike on Twitter is saying Dennis Schroeder is going to be full deli.
10:31Sorry, I'll strike that and reverse it.
10:33Dennis Schroeder is going to be a deli-level folk hero after this series.
10:37The guy is full of bleep and vinegar, and that's going to make a difference.
10:40I hope you're right.
10:41I would love a good series in the last round, but I'd like a good, stirring it up series from
10:46Dennis Schroeder.
10:47Schroeder's got to be our goon.
10:48I'm ready for it.
10:49He's got to be the goon.
10:50Six-foot-one goon.
10:51X-factor goon.
10:52I want it.
10:53I need to see it.
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