- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,151,225
- Reaction score
- 59
You must be registered for see images attach
DETROIT — The Cavs met the moment.
Game 7. On the road. Coming off an inexcusable effort. Biggest game of this era. Franchise-altering stakes.
In the face of all that, with immense pressure on this outcome, Cleveland delivered its best and most dominant performance of the playoffs, leaving no doubt by dismantling the Detroit Pistons, 125-94, on Sunday night inside Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena.
More Cavs coverage
- NBA announces Eastern Conference finals schedule for Cavs vs. Knicks
- For Cavs, this was more than a win, it was a playoff exorcism – Terry Pluto
- Who’s the tough guy now? The 5 biggest takeaways from the Cavs’ Game 7 win vs. Pistons — Jimmy Watkins
The Cavs advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2018. It’s the franchise’s first time accomplishing that without LeBron James since 1992.
“I think the biggest thing is just a response from Game 6,” Donovan Mitchell said. “I think at the end of the day we did a lot of really good things for three and a half games and Game 6 was a letdown. Ultimately, it’s just how do you respond? It’s not always going to be just straightforward and black and white. It was a little bit of a blow to us, how we came out in Game 6, but the biggest thing is we responded with force for 48 minutes tonight and not letting the moment get too big.”
Entering the night as 4.5-point underdogs, the fourth-seeded Cavs spent nearly 48 minutes relentlessly terrorizing the top-seeded Pistons at both ends of the floor.
They were tougher, more physical and more forceful. They outworked and outhustled Detroit, a team known for its stifling defense and tenacity. Cleveland’s surgical and pass-happy offense had the Pistons scrambling around, as the ball whizzed from side to side and shots poured in from everywhere.
The overwhelmed and overmatched Pistons led for just 29 seconds. By one measly point.
And this Game 7 massacre started early.
When Mitchell beat the first-quarter buzzer with a 33-foot bank shot from the Pistons logo that gave Cleveland a 31-22 lead, it felt like a sign.
It was the Cavaliers’ night. A near wire-to-wire narrative-altering statement.
As the lead reached a then game-high 20 points with 2:53 remaining in the second quarter, there was an audible chant coming from the thousands of bused-in fans that chairman Dan Gilbert brought to Detroit and had sprinkled throughout the arena.
Let’s go Cavs! Let’s go Cavs! Let’s go Cavs!
By the end of the opening half, the visitors were up by 17.
Entering the night, teams down more than 15 at halftime of Game 7 were 0-13 all-time.
Make it 0-14 now.
Determined to not give the Pistons any life and avoid being on the wrong side of history, the Cavs opened the second half with an 8-2 surge, going up by 23 points and ripping away what was left of Detroit’s spirit.
Cleveland built that lead to a game-high 35 multiple times, as Pistons fans darted for the exits and the fourth quarter became a boisterous wine and gold celebration.
“It does mean something,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said. “I think this was just the next step for us. First day of training camp, I put up the playoff record over the last three years — 11-15. I’ve been saying all year, we have a lot to prove, and we still have more to prove. That’s kind of the next part of it. But we proved something to ourselves that we could take another step."
Mitchell, who is advancing past the second round for the first time in his nine-year career, altered his reputation as a postseason underachiever with a tone-setting masterclass.
“He was better than Donovan Mitchell. Is that possible?” Atkinson said. “It started with him. He had complete control of the game. He kept this thing together this year when things weren’t going great. He was the beacon, the light. He carried us on and off the court.”
Mitchell finished with a team-high 26 points on 10 of 22 from the field to go with eight assists and seven rebounds in 31 sensational minutes before committing a purposeful foul to exit with 4:01 left.
As Mitchell departed, he waved toward the Pistons as if to say, “Get them out of here.” Then he pointed to his fiancée Coco Jones seated courtside along the baseline and embraced each coach and teammate on the bench.
Mitchell can finally exhale. He slayed one demon.
“A breath of fresh air,” Mitchell said when asked about finally reaching the conference finals. “We didn’t just come here just to [make this the] goal when we started the season. Even last year when we lost Indiana, we had our goals set on getting to the Finals, and we’re just one step closer. It’s been almost a decade of running into the same issue, right? We can breathe a little bit.”
Jarrett Allen, the Game 7 star in round one, had 23 points and seven rebounds. Sam Merrill, who had a few of his teeth chipped as a result of a first-half charge, poured in 23 off the bench, going 7 of 10 from the field and 5 of 8 from 3-point range. Evan Mobley also reached the 20-point mark, tallying 21 to go with 12 rebounds and six assists.
The Cavs shot 50.6% from the field and 32.4% from beyond the arc. They dished out 31 assists against just 13 turnovers, taking care of the ball and forcing the Pistons’ limited offense to execute in the half court most of the night.
They couldn’t.
Detroit scored its lowest point total of the series. It shot just 35.3% from the field and 30.8% from beyond the arc.
Pistons leading scorer Cade Cunningham was held to 13 points on 5 of 16 shooting and 0 of 7 from deep.
It was Cleveland’s largest margin of victory in a Game 7 in franchise history.
When the Cavs boarded the team charter Saturday afternoon, players didn’t just pack for a few days in Detroit. They brought oversized suitcases. They weren’t expecting to go home.
It’s on to New York. Four wins away from the NBA Finals.
“For us, we can’t really look at it and say, ‘All right, we did it, we got to conference finals.’ That’s not the end all,” Mitchell explained. “We’ve still got more to do. It’s all about the belief in the locker room. We’ve got each other’s back and that’s the biggest thing. I believe we’ve all been a believer since day one, and we’ve got more work to do. We’re always going to have bumps in the road, but it’s how we stick together.
“We’ll go to war with each other any day of the week.”
Up next
The Cavs will play the Knicks in Game 1 of the conference finals on Tuesday night. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m.
Read the original article on cleveland.com. Add cleveland.com as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Continue reading...
