After dropping Tyronn Lue’s head coaching debut against Chicago on Saturday night, the Wine and Gold have returned to their winning ways – beating a stubborn T-Wolves team on Monday night and blowing past the shorthanded Suns on Wednesday, sweeping both squads and making it 14 of their last 15 against the Western Conference at The Q.
LeBron James and Kevin Love tallied 21 points apiece in the win over Phoenix. LeBron did his damage on only eight shots from the floor, adding nine of Cleveland’s 34 assists; Love finished with a game-high 11 boards for his 21st double-double of the season.
The Pistons – who dropped the Cavaliers, 104-99, back on November 17 – are coming off a Wednesday night win over the Sixers at The Palace, where they’ve gone 15-7 so far this season. In that game, Cleveland led by double-figures with 8:43 to play before the Pistons went on a 21-10 run to get the win – snapping a four-game home losing streak to the Wine and Gold.
The Cavaliers would love to even the series on Friday night, building some momentum for a monster rematch against the Spurs on Saturday night.
Andre Drummond is having a huge season for Detroit and on Thursday night was named to the Eastern Conference All-Star squad.
The NBA’s rebounding leader (15.2 rpg) also leads the league in double-doubles with 37 and has compiled 85 of them since the start of last season. He’s had five games this year of 20 points and 20 boards and has 19 games of at least 15 points and 15 boards – nearly triple the amount of his next competitor (Dwight Howard, 7).
But the Pistons’ big does have a very pronounced Achilles’ heel – and that’s when he steps to the free throw line, where he’s shooting less than 36 percent this season. In a game against Houston earlier this month, Drummond made 36 trips to the stripe – breaking an NBA record with 23 misses. Eight days ago, the Cavaliers went into a Hack-a-Jordan strategy that worked out well against the Clippers at The Q and Tyronn Lue said he won’t hesitate to use that against Drummond tonight.
Either way, Tristan Thompson (and Timofey Mozgov) will need to be at their best going against the best pure big man in the East on Friday night.
The last time Cleveland faced the Pistons in Detroit, Kyrie Irving was still quite a ways from rejoining the lineup.
Since he’s returned, Irving’s been up and down and has struggled over the past couple weeks – notching just one 20-plus point game in his last six, averaging 12.3 ppg over that span. But everyone knows that Kyrie has the ability to go off in Motown. Almost exactly one year ago, he dropped 38 points on the Pistons – going 13-for-23 from the floor, including 6-of-10 from long-distance.
He might not need that kind of explosion on Friday night, but he’ll have to be at his best against the much-improved Reggie Jackson. Jackson, who was rewarded with a big contract in the offseason has continued his ascension as one of the East’s top point guards – averaging a career-best 19.3 points per game, nearly five points better than his previous best. Among Conference point men, Jackson ranks fifth in scoring, third in assists, fourth in field goal percentage and fifth in double-doubles. This year, he became the first Piston since Isiah Thomas to record a 30-point, 15-assist game – going off for 34 points and 16 helpers in a win over Denver.
Another Piston who’s continued to improve in his third-year is 2-guard, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who’s averaging a career-best 14.7 points per for Stan Van Gundy’s squad.
Not only has he gotten better every year, he’s improved month-by-month – averaging 16.9 points per contest in January, while drastically upping his shooting averages from the field and beyond the arc.
But on Friday night, he’ll be matched up with a red-hot J.R. Smith, who’s coming off an 18-point game against Phoenix, going 7-for-11 from the floor, including 4-of-6 from beyond the arc, adding a season-high four steals. Over his last 13 games, Swish is averaging 16.7 points per, shooting nearly 49 percent from deep. In the first meeting of the season against Detroit, the 12th year guard finished with 15 points on 6-for-10 shooting, including 3-of-6 from long-distance to go with a pair of steals.
He and Iman Shumpert have formed one of the best and most versatile one-two punches at their position in the East since arriving in Cleveland last January – and they’ll be put to the test against Caldwell-Pope and impressive rookie swingman, Stanley Johnson, again on Friday night.
The Cavaliers will only have one All-Star representative in this year’s mid-season classic, but he’s a pretty good basketball player.
On Friday night the 12-time starter, LeBron James, returns to The Palace – an arena where he famously tortured the home team in his first go-round with the Cavs, but averages only 24.4 ppg against them for his career, the lowest mark against any Eastern Conference opponent. LeBron has been exceptionally efficient over his last two outings, going 18-of-23 from the floor. In Wednesday’s win over Phoenix, the four-time MVP attempted only eight shots – the lowest amount in six years and tied for his second-fewest in his career. The good news is that he hit seven of those shots, finishing with 21 points and a game-high nine assists.
James led all scorers with 30 points in the first meeting with Detroit this year – netting 13 in the second quarter and scoring with 15.8 seconds remaining to cut the Pistons’ lead to a deuce (before Reggie Jackson’s four straight free throws iced the win). It’ll be a little bit of deja vu for LeBron on Friday night as he squares off primarily against another Morris twin – Marcus – as the Cavs try to even the season series – with the final two games of the set to be played in Cleveland, on February 22 and April 13.
