The Cleveland Cavaliers travel to The Palace of Auburn Hills on Friday night looking to take a 3-0 series lead over the Detroit Pistons in their first-round Eastern Conference Playoffs series.
The Cavaliers saw out the first two games of the series at Quicken Loans Arena with a commanding 107-90 victory over the Pistons on Tuesday night. The team was led in scoring by LeBron James, who put up 27 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals while going 12 of 18 from the paint. Kyrie Irving recorded 22 points and 4 dimes, shooting 8 of 18 from the field and 4 of 7 from long range, while J.R. Smith finished the contest with 21 points and 7 three-pointers. Irving has been the top offensive threat in the early goings of the club's postseason run, averaging 26.5 points in the first two games. The entire Cleveland unit was white hot from beyond the arc, where they shot 52.6% in the win, in addition to their 50% field goal shooting. The last time the Cavs swept an opponent out of the Playoff was last year, when they ousted the Atlanta Hawks 4-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Despite Tuesday's loss, the Pistons can take some solace in the fact that they received contributions from every member of their starting five, all of whom posted double-digits in the loss. Andre Drummond, the NBA's leading rebounder during the team's 2015-16 regular season campaign, led the charge with 20 points, hauling in 7 rebounds and shooting 8 of 13 from the field. Reggie Jackson had 14 points, 4 boards, 6 assists and 3 steals on an night that saw him so 7 of 14 from the paint. Tobias Harris and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope each contributed 13 points, with Harris making 7 of 8 shot attempts from the charity stripe and Caldwell-Pope taking in 8 rebounds as Detroit return home with a sizeable mountain to climb against their division rivals. The defeat marks the tenth consecutive postseason defeat at the hands of the Cavs. The last time the Pistons won a Playoff game on home court was on May 26th, 2008, during their Conference Finals series against the Boston Celtics.
