00:01okay got sidetracked there a little bit probably the biggest moment in the game last night it was
00:07really interesting who detroit went to now maybe it was circumstance maybe cleveland was looking
00:12for something else but they're tied at 93 in the fourth quarter late cleveland is scratched and
00:19clawed detroit fended and fended and fended and finally cleveland got over the top and harden got
00:24fouled shooting a three and he made all three free throws detroit calls a timeout it's 93 93 did you
00:30roll your eyes i sure did at what you get fouled shooting a three the shooting his legs out i
00:40did
00:40you think it was a foul kate landed on his foot yeah i mean it was a um just supposed
00:45to be a lot
00:46questionable call i guess if i put it in in relative comparison watching um um sga in
00:55oklahoma city and um brunson in new york what what harden does pales in comparison to the theatrics
01:06and i give i give both brunson and sga credit is they are completely comfortable absolutely
01:13embarrassing themselves embarrassing themselves with the way they play the game they have managed
01:20to take their pride and put it aside they've managed to feel no shame and just flail all over
01:28the court so what harden does seems like it's child's play compared to those two it is a little
01:33bit different i mean the frequency with those guys do it on um like it feels like 50 of their
01:39shots are
01:39done like that and harden isn't that high a percentage but he does it nonetheless
01:42k did it a couple times last night too and and i'm fine with it because he's our guy but
01:47that hardened guy and he puts his shoulder down barreled himself like a running back coming to the
01:52line and doesn't get called for the charge but it's okay it's all right pistons won and you're
01:58talking about this play so that in no so it's time it's tied at 93 it's tied at 93 after
02:04those three
02:04free throws and and the pistons call a timeout and here's the next several possessions
02:13uh cade feeds jalen duran for a dunk 95 93 duran gets a blocked shot actually it started with
02:23cleveland with the ball now that i think about it cleveland had the ball and it was 93 93 duran
02:28blocks
02:28a shot cade then feeds duran for a dunk duran then gets a defensive rebound on the other end
02:35cade feeds duran for a dunk 97 93 then another dunk and then an offensive rebound by duran during a
02:45dunk
02:45and an offensive rebound jalen duran was the guy who came through when they were tied at 93 starting
02:54with a block because cleveland had the ball i forgot the cleveland started that that sequence with the
02:59basketball and it was a guy whose postseason performance specifically on the offensive end
03:07and maybe exclusively on the offensive end has come come under heavy scrutiny
03:12and he was he was huge with the game on the line it was great look the whole team stepped
03:20up at the
03:20right times right um i i really like what danis jenkins provided last night he hit a jumper right
03:27after that sequence by the way he was knocking down shots and he was taken to the rack and coming
03:31with the baskets most importantly he was grabbing rebounds and and tipping rebounds offensively to his
03:38teammates uh but jayland duran was big in the fourth quarter in particular his defense throughout the
03:43game has never gone unnoticed it's something we always mention even without the points and the team
03:48certainly wants everybody to know that too that it's more there are more contributions to be made in a
03:53basketball game other than just scoring uh on the score sheet and we all recognize that and he's
03:58he's not getting 20 he's getting half of that but what he's doing is grabbing rebounds he's playing a
04:03phenomenal defense and we love that but kate cunningham is the star of this team he's the superstar of this
04:09team he's a legit mvp candidate and even on the night where he's not shooting great from the field
04:14he can still take games over that's okay fourth quarter time for kate to show up and he did
04:19and he did like he got his points it wasn't a ton of points but got over 20 points in
04:24the game
04:24and in the fourth quarter you started to see him get other people involved where he started to rack up
04:29some assists something i noticed in the game last night and maybe this is obvious but it's something
04:35that people have been bringing up in the orlando series a lot and we're seeing it in the in the
04:41last
04:41couple games the last game seven and the now here in game one of the round two is that they
04:47are
04:47absolutely giving him help in bringing the ball up the court it's not kate bringing it up the court
04:53a ton and i think that's why we've seen maybe the the assist totals go down a little bit is
04:58because
04:58he's not being the one that's depended on to to run everything it's sharing it other people can do
05:05this hey ashara's going to bring it up tobias is going to bring it up uh danis jenkins i mean
05:09danis jenkins played with 29 minutes last night yeah he was he got a lot of minutes off the bench
05:15and
05:15it's not like anybody in the starting five suffered from it and they're all played starters
05:18minutes and they have six guys playing starters minutes now so i think helping to take the burden
05:24off of kate is is big because you're asking him to do so much and it spreads himself out so
05:32much
05:32he's got to play defense he's got to distribute the basketball he's got to drive the lane he's got
05:35to knock down three-point shots he's got to draw fouls he's got to do all this stuff playing over
05:3940
05:39minutes in the postseason exactly having him not bring the ball up the court i think has made a big
05:45difference with this team and being able to rely on other players to do that it's also cut down on
05:50some of the turnovers that he's had some of the dumb turnovers that we've seen their turnovers
05:54are going to happen but when they're really unforced like we've seen those get infuriated we've seen
05:59far fewer and fewer of those which is great so you've talked about how he he didn't have his
06:04greatest scoring night but when the game was on the line through the first three quarters
06:09kate had three assists yeah in the fourth quarter he only had one made basket but he had four assists
06:16in the fourth quarter alone three of them to jaylen duran who was fantastic at the right moment
06:23and and look there was early in the postseason it felt like all anybody wanted to talk about is
06:29whether or not he deserved a max contract and you know that he was playing himself out of that
06:34max contract and our approach was kind of all right hold on tap the brakes for a couple of reasons
06:40one is there's a lot of evidence here that he can do more on the offensive end and it's been
06:45shown
06:45over the last couple of years but two is you're not paying him based on four games in the postseason
06:52you're paying him on what that have been played you're paying him what you think he is going to do
06:57next
06:59and he's a valuable contributor in in ways that are that exceed scoring and then last night with
07:06the game on the line he was the guy who scored was it by design jb bickerstaff didn't indicate that
07:14after the game but he he went back to when people said and asked a question about him chipping in
07:21on the
07:21offensive end jb said look yeah i mean you guys can talk about that we still want to talk about
07:27his
07:27defensive presence we still want to talk about his rebounding and when when players on other teams
07:33turn the corner and see jalen duran standing there they have second thoughts about what their next move
07:40is and and that is disrupting offenses and and leading to maybe not the field goal attempt they
07:48thought they were going to get which was maybe a player down the lane they're having to kick it out
07:53saw a lot of floaters put in by donovan mitchell and james harden last night they would drive the
08:00lane jalen duran's there and they would just release the ball early these floaters but they went in give
08:05them credit they knocked those those shots were going in other shots were knocked but that's that that
08:11was their scoring last night i things are going to change up for tomorrow night's game and game two
08:15without question teams go back to the to the whiteboards and figure out how they're going to
08:21strategize and and implement their game plans cleveland's got to come up with another plan
08:25the piston's got to be ready for it 248-539-9797 we get to more your phone calls and feedback
08:31coming up
08:32piston fans what did you like the most about last night and once again we're in a is it sustainable
08:39kind of place a lot of text to get caught up if you sent one there's a good chance we're
08:42going to
08:43read it also mixing your phone calls as well on karshen anderson on 97 one
08:47you
08:47you
08:47you
08:47you
08:47you
Comments