Actual 7 Game Series: '16 Cavs vs. '16 Pistons

[Lamrock]

With the Cavs having clinched the top seed yesterday, Indiana winning and the Pistons taking an L against the Heat, our first playoff match-up is set, as the Pistons end their six year playoff drought to face LeBron and the Cavs.

The first stop on LeBron's annual run to the finals, the Pistons are well coached, have a star in Drummond and from what I've read, are pretty solid. Personally, I haven't seen this team play for more than a few minutes, but I love SVG so I think they'll be able to steal a game. Cavs in 5 is my call.

[[Q]]

Sweep? Love watching SVG on TV. He's hilarious.

[Andrew]

I'll go with the Cavs in five as well. I think Detroit is capable of avoiding the sweep, but LeBron's getting into "Playoff Mode" and the Cavs have kind of quietly won 57 games (with a chance to make it 58 tomorrow), so I'd say they're still the most formidable team in the East.

[buzzy]

This a sweep.

[JaoSming]

going with Cavs in 6, because I am totally awake and missed Cavs in 5 by that much

[mp3]

I think the Pistons win at least one of there home games.

Cavs in 5.

[NovU]

Irving for Paul; Love for Melo; Wade to CLE with the MLE

This.

LBJ has mentioned about his wants. That obviously was translated to him not being happy with Love and Irving.

[benji]

JOEL ANTHONY WITH EIGHT BLOCKS

CAVS ON NOTICE

[NovU]

loolz

these 2 teams are so evenly matched.

[big-shot-ROB]

I've never seen such bulshit in my life. I promise I won't see any more cavs game. The referees are winning the game for cleveland. LeBron is the worst elbower of the entire league. He always initiates contact and gets defensive fouls. This games are so rigged. As an european, I can't believe the shit im seeing.

[NovU]

I dunno. You can only blame refs so much. They were inconsistent but not heavily favoring Cavs. It felt like the Cavs tightened their defense in fourth and Pistons were over-dribbling and killing their own rhythm in offense. Pistons being a young team, they just didn't know how to handle pressure in fourth. And it's just tougher when Reggie Jackson is your only go-to-guy in fourth.

[mp3]

SVG fined $25k for criticism of the refs, finally got around to watching game 1 last night and have to say iam right there with Stan the Man.

The refs let LeBron do whatever he wanted straight from the tip off with clearing out a way to the basket using whatever means necessary, if your a "Star" do you really need so much help??

[NovU]

NovU's neat o stat of the night

A. Drummond 4 for 16 from the line

[NovU]

A. Drummond got issues. Supposedly a best Pistons player can't be on the court when things matter the most because he is the worst player ever from charity line. Despite couple games being close, the Cavs take this series at ease. What a shame. Pistons deserves to get demoted to a D-League.

[air gordon]

Detroit played a great game last nite I thought. The cavs were precise with their ball movement and those offensive rebounds were crucial to their victory

[Brave Sir Rubin]

This Pistons team does look fairly decent. Maybe a piece away from being a good Eastern Conference team.

[PeacemanNOT]

The Big three are playing very well considering they're playing against a team that shouldn't really be an eight seed team.

[Andrew]

[big-shot-ROB]

Sweep.

Cavs are more talented and that's something you can not fight against. I only watched game 1 and 4, and those were pretty competitive games. Pistons had the lead for most of both games. Was only on the 4th quarter of those games that the talent of the Cavs put all things in place. Nice shooting by Detroit. Although this is a sweep, most games weren't blowouts as Spurs vs Grizzlies. Pistons should be proud of what they've achieved. It looks like they have a foundation. Congrats to them.

[NovU]

kudos to cavs team. A sweep is a sweep.

[Andrew]

Sweep.

Cavs are more talented and that's something you can not fight against. I only watched game 1 and 4, and those were pretty competitive games. Pistons had the lead for most of both games. Was only on the 4th quarter of those games that the talent of the Cavs put all things in place. Nice shooting by Detroit. Although this is a sweep, most games weren't blowouts as Spurs vs Grizzlies. Pistons should be proud of what they've achieved. It looks like they have a foundation. Congrats to them.

I agree. It's one step at a time for a rebuilding team, and the Pistons made some very respectable strides this year. I'm sure they'd have liked to have salvaged some pride by at least taking a game or two, but they came close.

[air gordon]

LMAO- jalen rose in studio busts out the walis and walis tingting

a full year of Harris, Drummond dare i say improves his post game, Stanley Johnson... good times for detroit ahead

[benji]

Reggie Jackson needs a better backup, really the entire team does. And the entire team needs someone other than Jackson who can handle the ball. He botched that last play by going for the three and the win. And botches lots of them by doing things like trying unnecessarily to draw fouls first and not even truly attempting a shot. He forgets about his teammates more than Brandon Jennings did, which is pretty awesome. Brandon Knight would be a pretty nice guard to have now.

In the ESPN 5-on-5, the one guy was calling the Tobias Harris acquisition a disaster because he's a tweener and they already had Morris and has a four year deal. But Harris was fantastic since they got him. And he's 23. When he was on, the whole team dynamic would change.

I liked Stanley's improvement over the year, there was no way they could have thrown him at LeBron like that a few months ago. It was great to see a rookie get so much burn after the Curry-Kuester-Frank-Cheeks era. That said, he reallly needs a three. KCP getting consistent this year and then turning into a late game no care killer probably saved his long term prospects.

Apparently SVG wants to kick the tires on signing Nene or similar to a short-term deal to bulk up the front line and give the team a post playmaker. Also late-game Andre insurance.

I'm not as concerned as others about the D. Team is young, putting pieces together still, Stan can crank up a D like he did in Orlando. Getting the team out of the offensive gutter was the important thing. A bench and another couple playmakers either internally or signed will do a lot, especially with the current East situation.

[NovU]

Tobias Harris pick up was reasonable. His contract will make him more appealing as every contract before pre-2016 will look like a bargain deal after this season.

Reggie Jackson's a nice 3rd tier guard, can be 2nd tier on good nights. Not too bad.

Concern is still on Drummond and his overratedness. He's the ultimate centerpiece but comes with a serious flaw.

[benji]

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/15425 ... gundy-says

Detroit Pistons center Andre Drummond is willing to consider a throwback free throw style to improve a glaring hole in his game, according to coach Stan Van Gundy.

"As far as shooting underhand or anything else, it's fair to say my discussion with Andre yesterday and the discussions [general manager] Jeff [Bower] and I have had and staff -- everything is on the table," Van Gundy said Thursday, according to The Detroit News.

"It won't be a unilateral decision," Van Gundy said. "We'll do some research on some things and come up with what we think is a good approach, talk to Andre and see what he thinks and develop an approach going forward.

"We all know it's an important thing -- Andre more than any of us -- he's pretty open to anything. There's a lot of ways to attack this problem, and we'll all have a hand in it."

Part of the problem is taking practice success into games. Drummond says he shoots free throws "really good" outside of games, and Van Gundy estimates that his practice conversion rate is 65 percent.

"It's just hard, for whatever reason, to translate from the practice floor to the game," Van Gundy told ESPN's Tom Haberstroh. "Look, you're standing there by yourself, with the game stopped, and everybody's watching. Let's say a guy misses a jump shot. The play goes to the other end, and everyone's focused on what's happening there. But Andre's standing there at the free throw line, all everybody's talking about who's watching the game is his free throw shooting. It's hard. It's really hard."

"The one thing we do know is the traditional approach and nothing else, of simply trying to correct mechanics and go in the gym and shoot a lot of free throws, has not worked," Van Gundy said Thursday. "So we've got to [try something] else. We've got to be a little more creative in how we approach it."

based svg