Quick Notes - Game 6 Rewatch
There were a lot of things that went wrong tonight. Almost every loose ball went the Pistons way and there is an objectively obvious and stark contrast between the energy and effort both teams displayed.
For the Cavs, Donovan Mitchell put out an all-time stinker and once again, turnovers were a massive hinderance to the Cavs efforts. The bench was also basically non-existent. Merrill and Strus hit a few shots, but were pretty ineffective overall and beyond the former getting thrown down by his throat, was a pretty forgettable night for the reserves. The main 3 off the bench went for 16 points on 21/31/100 splits.
It should also be mentioned that Jalen Duren played his most physical and effective game, and the supporting cast of role players for the Pistons played nearly perfect. Robinson, Jenkins, Reed, and Sasser combined for 48 points on 64/53/67 splits. Though, I think that has more to do with the Cavs defense then shooting variance.
However, there were some schematic changes of note from the Pistons.
- On the Pistons side, it's clear that there was a major emphasis on solving the Cavs doubling of Cade Cunningham. Instead of having Harris or Ausar set the screen, they continually had Robinson or Jenkins come off the screen and pop for an open shot and/or get the Cavs into rotation. This action completely crushed the Cavs tonight -- I'm curious if they abandon the doubling of Cade, it was disastrous tonight. I counted at least 10 possessions in which Duncan Robinson either had a wide-ass-open 3, or had a clear pass to Paul Reed setting up in the paint and then driving straight to the rim. Cavs literally had no answers for it. I do think the Cavs best chance of winning is to make Cade drop 40 points on you in high efficiency -- he's consistently faded down the stretch of these games, yet pretty much never had to shoot the ball tonight because of the Pistons game plan on attacking the Cavs hard trap. On the other hand, when it was Duren coming to set the screen he was much more aggressive rolling directly to the basket.
Here's a few examples of Detroit countered the doubling of Cade with Duncan:
Clip 1 - Robinson popping out after the screen
Clip 2 - Robinson popping out after screen and then giving it to Paul Reed after the late and heavy closeout by Strus/Mobley
Clip 3 - Just spamming it at this point
They also made some personnel changes -- they went small -- really small. The Pistons played lineups that had Duncan Robinson and Paul Reed as the two tallest members on the court -- this lineup was insanely effective offensively.
On the defensive side, the Pistons also mixed in more soft traps while still occasionally pulling out hard traps. Following the Cavs big run to end the 1st half, the Pistons abandoned the hard trap and followed the screener every time. The Cavs were feasting on high hard traps with Mobley being the roll man, receiving the ball and getting into the paint and making a decision with it. They also had a ton of success in the series with Strus and Merrill popping out for 3s. Tonight however, the Pistons dropped quickly and recovered after the screen was set, following the roll man much more frequently in the past. They pretty much dared Donovan and Harden to beat them 1 on 1 the majority of the night. It appeared that the Cavs have been top locked and double teamed so frequently this postseason, they forgot what to do when they weren't.
Donovan Mitchell was also even worse on the rewatch. There's countless times Mitchell is not passing to a wide open Cavalier well within his vision. He also is late to rotation way too many times to count. He's not the only one, but eeeesh. It's not pretty.
Lastly, the Cavs missed a ton of wide open 3s all night. There's at least 10 attempts where there isn't a defender in site and we only hit a handful of them. Not great.
If anyone wants clips of these actions or examples, I can put more effort into this, but just wanted to write down some observations and get them out there.
TL;DR: The Cavs energy and effort was poor tonight and key players simply didn't make shots. However, the Pistons made some major changes on both ends of the ball and the Cavs did not react to them well at all.