The Cavaliers travel to the Palace at Auburn Hills on Friday night to take on the Detroit Pistons. Tipoff is at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Since Dec. 28, the Cavaliers have the best road record in the NBA at 8-1 (.889). The Cavaliers have also won five straight road games against Eastern Conference opponents, winning by an average of 15.2 points (101.4-86.2).
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The Cavs are coming off of a 115-93 win over the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night at Quicken Loans Arena. In the victory, the Cavaliers swiped a season-high tying 12 steals and scored a season-high 33 points off of 23 Phoenix turnovers.
In Wednesday’s win, the Cavs dished out a season-high tying 34 assists on 45 made baskets. Wednesday’s contest marked the second straight game Cleveland had 30 or more assists. The last time the Cavaliers had consecutive games with 30 or more assists happened last season (Feb.8-11, 2015). Over the last two games, the offense is averaging 114.5 points on .529 shooting from the field and 32.0 assists.
During Cleveland’s four-game homestand, the Wine and Gold averaged 106.8 points on .481 shooting, 43.8 rebounds, which include 13.0 offensive boards and 27.5 assists. The Cavs also outscored their opponents in points in the paint (47.0-35.0), fastbreak points (13.3-7.8) and second chance points (17.5-10.8). The Cavaliers are averaging 11.0 offensive rebounds per game this season, which is 9th-most in the NBA.
The Wine and Gold will need to keep up their stellar effort on the glass on Friday night as they face the NBA’s top board grabber in Pistons center, Andre Drummond. Drummond enters Friday’s contest averaging a league-best 15.2 rebounds to go along with 17.3 points.
Detroit (25-21) split a recent four-game Western road trip before returning to The Palace to beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 110-97, in their most recent game on Wednesday.
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Status Update: (Cavs) – None to Report
Status Update: (Pistons) – Jodie Meeks, (Fracture, Fifth Metatarsal, Right Foot, Out)
*Subject to change.
The Wine and Gold have won six of their last eight contests against the Pistons, including four of their last five in Detroit. After tonight’s match, the Cavs and Pistons will play their final two games of their four-game regular season series in Cleveland (Feb. 22nd and April 13th).
The last time these two teams faced one another was on Nov. 17th in Detroit. In that game, the Wine and Gold had all five starters scored in double figures (LeBron James-30, Kevin Love-19, J.R. Smith-15, Mo Williams-15, and Timofey Mozgov-10).
In that Cavs first meeting against the Pistons, LeBron James recorded a game-high 30 points on 11-21 (.524) shooting, including 4-7 (.571) from the three-point line, six rebounds and three assists in 40 minutes of play.
J.R. Smith tallied 15 points on 6-10 (.600) shooting, 3-6 (.500) from deep and two steals in 36 minutes while Kevin Love added 19 points on 7-13 (.538) shooting from the floor, a team-high tying nine rebounds, three assists and one steal in 34 minutes.
After Friday’s game, the Wine and Gold return home on Saturday night for the second-half of a back-to-back – and it’s a big one – taking on the Spurs, who knocked Cleveland off at the AT&T Center a little over two weeks ago. After their rematch with San Antonio, it’s back on the road for the final two games away from The Q before the All-Star break – facing the Pacers on Monday night in Indy and traveling to Tobacco Road for a battle with the Bobcats on Wednesday. GET TICKETS | VIEW FULL SCHEDULE
