CLEVELAND – They hung around for a couple of quarters and even led by four at the half, and if there were ever a score that told a lie, there it was.
They hadn’t defended. They hadn’t communicated. They hadn’t played anything resembling Detroit Pistons basketball.
They got a throwback performance from Caris LeVert. He scored 17 in the first half. All it did was hide the Pistons’ worst effort of the series, and delay what was coming.
And it came quickly enough, from the moment the second half began, when Cleveland ripped off a 22-0 run to start the third quarter and take control of the game they eventually won comfortably, 112-103.
Now the series is tied. Now the pressure is on the Pistons – the young Pistons, the still-learning Pistons – and their superstar guard, Cade Cunningham, who still hasn’t found enough efficiency and who is still turning the ball over too many times.
He better find that soon. Game 5 usually swings these best-of-seven series. The Pistons can’t afford another uneven performance.
Cunningham’s backcourt violation in the second half when he didn’t get the ball over the halfcourt line in time might have been the lowlight on most nights, but not this night. Cunningham, at least found some buckets late.
Ausar Thompson, meanwhile, played his worst game of the playoffs. He got lost. He got in foul trouble. He got benched.
Meanwhile, James Harden hit three of his first four 3-pointers, all within the first 4:15 of the game. He looked emboldened after hitting the winning shots in Game 3.
Rememer Game 3? When the Pistons had the chance to effectively end the series and couldn’t stop turning the ball over? Or get stops?
It didn’t get to that point here at Rocket Arena on Monday, May 11.
Because Cuninngham couldn’t get going. Because Jalen Duren, once again, started out too tentative, too worried about Jarrad Allen and Evan Mobley at the rim, not using his strength advantage.
Because Paul Reed sat too long. Because, well, Thompson couldn’t do what he does, and when he can’t, the Pistons can’t do near enough to beat a team as good as Cleveland is offensively.
His worst stretch was the start of the second half, when Donovan Mitchell had a personal 8-0 run to get things started. That run began when Thompson let him cut in the lane to catch an easy pass and shoot an easy floater. Actually, he didn’t let him. He simply had no idea where Mitchell was.
Bickerstaff clapped at Thompson.
After missing an offensive rebound on the next possession, Thompson went to complain to the officials instead of getting back on defense. Mitchell scored again, this time drawing a foul after another floater in the lane.
Cunningham clapped at Thompson this time, no doubt telling him to stop complaining.
It didn’t matter. None of it mattered.
The Pistons didn’t match the effort or desperation, and the 8-0 second-half start turned into an 10-0 start and then a 13-0 start and finally 16-0 after Harden hit his fourth 3-pointer of the game.
This after Mitchell hit one, giving him 11 of those 16 points. Mitchell, of course, was theoretically being guarded by Thompson. At least that was the matchup, the hope, the assumption – Bickerstaff had to have assumed.
Why wouldn’t he?
Thompson hadn’t played this poorly in months.
Meanwhile, the Pistons couldn’t score. Or hold onto the ball. Or get a shot to the rim without it getting swatted.
Except for LeVert, who was first off the bench. He immediately hit a midrange pull-up. Tobias Harris hit a corner 3-pointer. After a Mobley driving bank shot, Duren finally took his time, used his bulk and scored easily over Allen.
They got a stop. LeVert followed with a 3-pointer after a Cunningham drive-and-kick. And it was back on. They were back in it.
Cleveland missed some shots, yes. But the defense picked up. It’s always about that for this team.
That intensity didn’t last.
It didn’t matter in the first half, when LeVert saved them, and covered up for a poor and disconnected defensive performance.
Again, the defense starts with Thompson … and ends with Thompson, though no one was sharp on that end. At his best, he is a defensive system unto himself. When he isn’t engaged, which is rare, he floats in empty space.
It can sink the entire defense.
That got Mitchell going, not that he needs help. Cleveland’s star had 21 in the third quarter and pushed the Cavaliers to a 38-point quarter.
The Pistons made a run, spurred by Paul Reed – who else? – and a little more LeVert, and when Duncan Robinson knocked down his first jumper of the night – a 3-pointer late in the third – the Pistons had somehow cut the Cavaliers’ 19-point lead to nine.
Yet there was Harden, who countered with his fifth 3-pointer, and Cleveland ripped off another run that carried into the fourth quarter.
The collapse was swift and surprising. But then, Cleveland has more firepower, and the Pistons lose their slim advantage when they don’t bring it defensively.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ausar Thompson’s worst playoff game puts all the pressure on Pistons
Reporting by Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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