- 1 day ago
The Pistons defense was once again too much for the Cavs in game 2.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:01Before we get to our favorite things from the box score
00:04in the Pistons winning to go up two games
00:06and on on the Cleveland Cavaliers
00:07in the Eastern Conference Semifinals,
00:09Kang, I want your overall thoughts on last night's game.
00:12Super impressed with the Pistons.
00:14Ever since trailing 3-1, they have just dealt with adversity, clearly.
00:18When you're down 3-1, every game is an elimination game.
00:20They pull out that series.
00:22Then you go into the Cleveland series,
00:24and you know basketball is a game of runs.
00:26It always happens both ways.
00:28You're up 11, you know, the other team comes back
00:30with their eight-point run or whatever it is.
00:32The key is, how do you stop that run and how do you answer?
00:36And the Pistons answer every time, which is very impressive.
00:39It looks like the Pistons are a better team the first two games,
00:42but that hasn't guaranteed anything
00:44because come the fourth quarter, guess what?
00:46Game one, the Cavs tied it.
00:48Game two, they took the lead in the fourth quarter.
00:51If you watched the first three quarters,
00:52you would have thought that would never happen,
00:53but this is playoff basketball.
00:55And how do you respond?
00:57The Pistons have a true superstar in Cade Cunningham.
00:59He's a closer.
01:00He's a guy you can lean on when it comes to fourth quarter
01:03and getting his team to take back the lead
01:06or take control of the game.
01:07And that's what I'm super impressed about what this team is.
01:10And then you pair the fact that Tobias Harris
01:12has become a legit secondary scorer.
01:14And what I mean by that is just not the second guy
01:16who leads the team in second most points on the team.
01:19He's a guy, they can dump the ball down in the post,
01:21or he can hit a three.
01:23He can make a bucket when you need a bucket
01:26that's not involving Cade Cunningham.
01:27And that's so impressive with this team right now,
01:30especially when Jalen Dern's not averaging
01:31what he averaged during the regular season.
01:33And then you get contributions from everybody else.
01:35That's Piston basketball.
01:36They play as a team.
01:37They win as a team.
01:38They're more effective when everyone is involved.
01:40And that's what happens.
01:40So very impressed with what they're doing.
01:43And I expect a fight from Cleveland come game three tomorrow.
01:47And then, like I said, it's how the Pistons respond
01:50because the Cavs crowd is going to be hyped.
01:52They're going to come out and try to punch you in the face first,
01:54weather that storm, and then continue with what got you here.
01:58And it's a game of runs.
02:00Like I said, get your run back.
02:01You'll get yours.
02:02You got to stop their runs.
02:03And by the way, James Harden didn't look necessarily great
02:06in the first series, but this is the opposite
02:07of Benjamin Button Gator.
02:09I felt like he's aged five years in the last two games.
02:12What is going on with him?
02:13He looks 36.
02:15He looks 46.
02:16I think it's both games he's had more turnovers than field goals.
02:19And I saw a stat on ESPN that it's the 30th time
02:23that he's done that in the playoffs
02:24where he's had more turnovers than field goals.
02:27So it's not new for him to turn the ball over in a playoff game.
02:31But he looks definitely a step slower.
02:34He can't defend.
02:37I mean, when the Pistons were...
02:38He could never defend, but he can't even move offensively now.
02:41Yeah, I guess I was just stunned like...
02:44Because the Pistons had a couple of opportunities last night
02:47where they were able to isolate offensively their player against Harden.
02:52And when they did, my God, it was just...
02:54It was stealing candy from a baby.
02:56It's chopped liver.
02:57You salivating.
02:58Yeah, just walking around him.
03:00No.
03:00Going baseline.
03:01And I think it was Asar just dribbled right around him,
03:03dunked it from the baseline.
03:05Like, yeah, that's...
03:07Harden is...
03:07He can still shoot.
03:09He's still dangerous.
03:10And he's fast becoming...
03:12And may have overtaken Strews as the most annoying player on the Cavs
03:16after last night's performance with all the foul baiting that was going on.
03:19And, you know, the fake tough guy thing that he's throwing out there.
03:23He's trying to intimidate the Pistons, and it ain't happening.
03:25They're laughing at him.
03:26Like, I'm not intimidated by you.
03:28Get out of here.
03:29No.
03:29When other teams target Duncan Robinson,
03:32that's what the Pistons should be doing with James Harden.
03:33That's the target.
03:34That's the matchup you want.
03:35Go after him.
03:37Okay.
03:38So, there's a whole bunch from the box score that I love.
03:42And you guys have just brought up Harden.
03:44So, I'm going to start there.
03:45I want to start there.
03:48Ask yourself, how many points, how many baskets did Ron Holland have last night?
03:54Because it felt like Ron Holland made his presence felt.
03:58Right?
03:58Would everybody agree you felt Ron Holland impacted that game last night?
04:03The few minutes he's on the floor, I thought he was impactful defensively for sure.
04:06I think he had maybe one basket?
04:08He had none.
04:09None?
04:09He didn't score.
04:11But we talk about critical moments in the game.
04:14He almost took the roof off the place if he had knocked down the three.
04:16Yes.
04:18Critical moments in the game.
04:21Pistons are up seven midway through the second quarter.
04:25And remember that little push that Assar Thompson gave James Harden where James Harden flew?
04:30Yeah.
04:31He took off.
04:32Yeah.
04:32I think that actually may perhaps have been a foul.
04:39Oh, did Harden sell it?
04:42But, I mean, it worked.
04:44Assar gets his third foul.
04:46Okay?
04:47So, Ron Holland comes in and immediately draws James Harden.
04:52That's his defensive assignment.
04:54Here's what James Harden did the rest of the half with Assar Thompson on the bench.
04:59Okay?
05:00Okay?
05:03James Harden, bad pass, turnover.
05:06James Harden, missed driving layup.
05:09James Harden makes two free throws.
05:10James Harden, lost ball, turnover.
05:12This is many of these possessions with Ron Holland covering James Harden.
05:17James Harden, made free throw, made free throw.
05:19James Harden, missed 10 foot driving floating shot.
05:23James Harden, missed three point pull up.
05:25James Harden, missed three point pull up.
05:28James Harden, make 11 foot fade away shot.
05:31That's the rest of his half with many of these possessions.
05:36Ron Holland drawing the defensive assignment.
05:39They clearly said, okay, Assar's out.
05:43James Harden, go to work.
05:45And Ron Holland, forced turnovers, forced missed shots, held his own.
05:50He had one made field goal the rest of the half.
05:52Halfway through the second quarter to the rest of the half.
05:56That is a great job by Ron Holland on the defensive end.
06:00Oh, he is great defensively.
06:02And I think that's why Piston fans, and myself included,
06:05were wondering where he was in the Orlando series.
06:07And then, quietly, I'll shut up because they end up winning the Orlando series.
06:11But glad to see that he's inserted in this series because they need him.
06:16This is a guard-led team.
06:19You know, that backcourt that Cleveland has has potential to be very potent.
06:23We know what Mitchell already is.
06:25And my God, Mitchell is, he is so lightning quick.
06:29And he's also got some sneaky size to him.
06:32But he is lightning quick.
06:33I thought, literally, when Tobias went down with the ankle injury, I'm like,
06:37did he really just break his ankles with the crossover dribble on Tobias?
06:41Because he was just spectacular.
06:44But they were able to withstand all that.
06:47And it's this team buying into the defensive side of the ball that is very familiar with Piston fans
06:55over the last, you know, 37 years of basketball.
06:58This is what they do.
07:00When they put the brand on defense, they win.
07:04And here's the disclaimer, okay?
07:06Because this disclaimer is important.
07:07It may still work out.
07:09This series is not over.
07:10No, it's not.
07:11There is a long way to go here.
07:14And as I said, the version of the Cavs that play game one and game two is not winning this
07:18series.
07:18We're going to get a different version of the Cavs when they go home.
07:21There's no question in my mind.
07:23And if it doesn't work out, I went back and looked, because we get a lot of complaints about the
07:30trade deadline.
07:31A lot of complaints about the trade deadline.
07:34And everyone to a media website claimed that a big winner at the trade deadline was Cleveland because they got
07:44James Harden.
07:45And this morning on Get Up, Mike Greenberg asked J. Will, hey, this was a big move at the trade
07:51deadline.
07:51How's it working out?
07:52And J. Will said, not that well.
07:54Nine games in the postseason, James Harden, 52 field goals, 47 turnovers.
08:00And this was listed.
08:01Some websites, ESPN, the number one winner move was the Cavs.
08:05The Ringer, Cavs.
08:07Yahoo, Cavs.
08:08All of them.
08:08Everybody said this was the kind of trade deadline move that'll make a difference.
08:13Because they were the only team that went out and got a player of serious substance, at least on paper.
08:21But he's exposed for being a step slow and a day late.
08:26Yeah.
08:26And look, you know, sometimes the best trade deadline moves are the ones you don't make.
08:31And I don't know what the future holds.
08:34And we always talk about it's a hot topic in Detroit is trade deadline moves.
08:41This could be a stark reminder that trade deadline moves aren't a panacea.
08:45They aren't the medicine that cures all your ills.
08:48This was a big move.
08:49This was a winner move.
08:51And so far, it's not working.
08:53But like I said, I can't emphasize enough.
08:54There's a lot of basketball to be played.
08:57I think James Harden's frustration is starting to show because he's out there trying to pick fights.
09:03He gets him to a couple of pistons.
09:06I think it was both Holland and Assar who had the he's elbowing, pushing after the whistle.
09:11Like, I think that's a very overt sign of his frustrations.
09:16Oh, he's definitely frustrated.
09:17But I think he's also a KG Wiley veteran that knows that he's got to do something to try to
09:23get under the skin of his opponents.
09:25And the pistons aren't falling for it.
09:27You know, maybe they'll get back at him, but they just still deep down, there's still great defensive players.
09:32Like, OK, what are you yelling at me for?
09:34I'm still going to play great defense against you.
09:36Maybe I'm not that gifted offense.
09:38I don't have this 18 foot jump shot in my back pocket.
09:41Don't need it, dude.
09:42I just got to stop you.
09:43That's what I got to do for my team.
09:44And when you talk about the trade deadline, how different would this piston team look if they didn't have Tobias
09:50Harrison, Assar Thompson, because that's probably what it would have taken to acquire one of these other players, along with
09:56first round draft picks.
09:58Do you want to see what that piston team looks like?
10:00You know what?
10:00There's no question that people were very casually casting aside Tobias at the trade deadline.
10:07And we talked about his influence on this team, his veteran presence, and it was very dismissive.
10:14The way people treated that.
10:16And look, these aren't victory laps.
10:18There's a long way to go.
10:19There's a long way to go.
10:20I get afraid that this is going to be interpreted as victory laps.
10:23But do you remember everybody was because the only way to make salaries match was ship out Tobias.
10:28And because he's an expiring contract.
10:30It was such an afterthought.
10:31So what?
10:33Yeah.
10:33And at the time, one of the big reasons that we would cite, because it's what other people would cite
10:38to the reporters, is they wouldn't want to trade Tobias because he means so much to the team.
10:45And people are like, well, it doesn't matter or whatever.
10:47There's chemistry.
10:47You can find chemistry with other players.
10:48And maybe you can't.
10:49But what they know is that they love Tobias.
10:53They loved him before the playoffs started.
10:55And they're loving him now.
10:56I mean, was it six straight games now where he's got 20 points in the playoffs?
11:00He's been fantastic for this team.
11:02It's seven, right?
11:03I don't know.
11:04I think it might be seven.
11:05Yeah, it's seven now.
11:06Is it seven, right?
11:07I'm sorry.
11:07Five against Orlando Wright.
11:09And now we got two here.
11:10He's been amazing for this team.
11:12Everybody always said he was a postseason performer.
11:16Well, that's one of the reasons why, though, at the trade deadline, his name was mentioned, too.
11:19The number one reason was his contract.
11:21It was just obvious.
11:22You had to match salaries.
11:23He had expiring contract.
11:24Huge number.
11:25Number two was you're going to trade, in theory, someone better than Tobias Harris.
11:31You're getting someone in return that's better than Tobias Harris, especially in the playoffs.
11:34And that was the thought behind that process of, hey, Tobias has got to go.
11:37So I don't think anyone really wanted to trade him, but everything just made too much sense
11:42when you put it into the trade machine, right?
11:44And with the salary cap and things like that, he was the guy.
11:46He was the guy that had to go.
11:47Yeah, he had to go.
11:48If he made like $8 million a year, he wouldn't even be mentioned in those.
11:51He'd be the throw-in, if anything.
11:53But he wouldn't even be mentioned.
11:54But he doesn't.
11:54He makes a lot more.
11:55This version of Tobias is hard to beat.
11:57Oh, this one, yeah.
11:58This one.
11:58In hindsight, you see what he's doing, then you'd be like, no, I don't want to trade him.
12:01Seven straight games to over 20.
12:02Yeah, so the best trades you made are the ones that you didn't make.
12:05All right, so we got more to get to, including something else from the box score that we
12:08ran out of time to touch on.
12:10But it was, I mean, it's just, it's Detroit's ace in the hole.
12:13And it was on display last night.
12:16We'll get to that today at 10.50.
12:18Have more Pat stories at 11, as we'll touch on it throughout the day.
12:22It is Carson Anderson here on 97.1.
Comments