Detroit — If you can’t beat ‘em, bait ‘em.
That seems to be the theme early in these NBA playoffs, and after the Pistons took Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Tuesday night, it was also the implied threat from Cleveland’s star guard, Donovan Mitchell.
Staring at the stat sheet following the Cavaliers’ 111-101 loss, Mitchell took issue with one column in particular. He noted the free-throw disparity, as Detroit finished the game with 35 attempts to just 16 for Cleveland, and Mitchell had just two on a night where he took 19 shots from the field in 35 minutes.
“A friend of mine got fined for talking about flopping, so I’m not gonna try to double down, but, I mean, I feel like that’s what I gotta do at this point,” Mitchell said, shrugging. “I’m trying to get downhill, trying to get to the bucket and sometimes there’s people in my way and I’m trying to fight through contact and I’m not getting these calls. I had, what, 16 (free throws) in the last series? I’m just not getting the calls. I don’t know why. I don’t flop, maybe that’s why.”
That’s his opinion, anyway. And across the league it is a maddening trend, as some of the league’s marquee players — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Joel Embiid, Jalen Brunson and Mitchell’s own teammate, James Harden, among them — have turned flopping and flailing into a modern art form.
It boiled over last weekend when Boston’s Jaylen Brown lashed out at the officiating in the Celtics’ first-round series loss to Philadelphia, calling out the 76ers’ Embiid for embellishing calls and insisting that type of flopping has “ruined our game.” As Mitchell referenced, Brown was later fined $50,000 by the NBA for his comments, which included accusations that the league had an “agenda” against him.
Standing their ground
Of course, Mitchell’s agenda here is pretty obvious, too. And a day later, when I asked Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff about it, he did what came naturally as the leader of one of the NBA’s toughest teams: He pushed back.
“I mean, we have to be who we are,” Bickerstaff said. “We’re a physical basketball team. That’s the way we’re going to play. And if the league is going to start rewarding flopping, we’ll see, right? But it’s a violation, that’s what I was told. We’ll see what happens.
“Donovan is very intelligent. It’s all messaging, and we understand that. But again, our message is: Flopping is a violation.”
Mitchell, to be fair, prefaced his comments after Game 1 by saying, “I want to separate this from the game. The free-throw disparity is not why we lost tonight.” But after averaging 6.1 free-throw attempts during the regular season, he’s averaging just 2.3 in eight playoff games this spring, “and it’s frustrating a little bit,” he added, “because I’m such a dynamic driver.”
Right, we all see what he’s driving at here. But he’s also being guarded in this series by arguably the league’s best perimeter defender in the Pistons’ Ausar Thompson. And as we saw again Tuesday, Thompson has taken to heart some of the lessons he learned in his playoff debut last year, when Brunson’s foul-baiting bit him against the Knicks, forcing him to the bench early and often in that six-game series.
“I mean, it’s the discipline that it takes, right?” Bickerstaff said. “And how do you continue to put pressure on people and be physical with people and wear on people, but being intelligent with your hands? So you watch A.T. and he’s one of the best positional defenders I’ve seen. His ability to put his feet between you and the basket, no matter where you are, is second to none. And he’s got an unbelievable feel for when the ball is exposed, how quick his hands are to get to it without fouling as well.”
Bring it in
And if you watch what really happened in Game 1, when the Cavs committed 20 turnovers — 10 from the Harden-Mitchell backcourt tandem — you’ll see Mitchell occasionally settling for floaters in the lane rather than attacking the rim. He wasn’t the only one, either, and after the Pistons averaged nearly 10 blocks a game against Orlando in the first round, it’s worth noting they had just three Tuesday night. That’s largely because almost half of Cleveland’s field-goal attempts (38 of 80) were 3-pointers, and only 21 were at the rim. By contrast, Detroit had 36 rim attempts, and only took 26 3s.
Some of that’s because of all the transition opportunities the Pistons had, scoring 31 points off those 20 turnovers. Some of it’s because they grabbed 16 offensive rebounds too, helped by the fact that Cleveland center Jarrett Allen picked up three first-quarter fouls and played just 18 minutes in Game 1. But some of it is also this: The Pistons played with more energy in Game 1, as Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson noted: “They were at a 9.5, we were at a 7.”
Add it up, and the answer is pretty simple. So is the solution, really.
“I’m just going to continue to plead with him to get to the paint, get to the rim — that’s all you can do,” Atkinson said, when asked about Mitchell’s moaning. “That’s all you control. We just gotta keep driving the ball. You meet aggressiveness with aggressiveness.”
If they do, they should know the Pistons will be waiting.
john.niyo@detroitnews.com
@JohnNiyo
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Niyo: Pistons won’t take the bait as Cavs cry foul over Game 1 flop
Reporting by John Niyo, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
