time to insert joel anthony?

[ET Da Gawd]

pretty sure he wouldve contested shots better than baynes and dre.

[kurtis48239]

No,I think dre got a taste of playoff basketball and got baptized by the James cavs.I expect Stan to have a game plan in place,and the next game won't look like this one at all.

[flow]

Yes.

[El Chivo]

I'd rather give minutes to Tolli at 5

[epheisey]

I don't think Baynes or Drummond were even close to the issue with the defense. Reggie and Harris were just getting abused. KCP needs to be locked on Kyrie all series, and Stanimal needs to be used against Lebron even more than he was today.

[DBC10]

I think Tolliver might have to run some 5 when KLove is at the 5. Tolliver at least has decentish help defense and recovery since he used to be the Warriors center when Curry first came in the league.

As insane as that sounds. Both Baynes and Dre are going to get lit up from KLove either way.

[Maker_84]

Yes and where in the hell was Jodie Meeks???

[flow]

Yes and where in the hell was Jodie Meeks???

Guess there was no room for Meeks today. Bullock shot well for KCP and Johnson shot well for Harris.

[Blkbrd671]

Did this really deserve a thread?

[StunnaStan]

Look tobias and Reggie got butned a few times, but this dude dre plays defense like a pansy. Nobody on the cavs is scared to attack the rim cause dumb drum is mentally slow to react to help side defense. How does kyrie get all those easy layups???

I was a bit disappointed that Tolliver didn't play. I thought he would start hot. We must get address our backup pg and backup pf positions in the offseason

Feel confident about game 2 but game 1 still lingering in my mind smh

[BadMofoPimp]

Look tobias and Reggie got butned a few times, but this dude dre plays defense like a pansy. Nobody on the cavs is scared to attack the rim cause dumb drum is mentally slow to react to help side defense. How does kyrie get all those easy layups???

I was a bit disappointed that Tolliver didn't play. I thought he would start hot. We must get address our backup pg and backup pf positions in the offseason

Feel confident about game 2 but game 1 still lingering in my mind smh

Maybe, Dre is being smart and not picking up ticky tack fouls because Refs would call fouls on Kyrie/Lebron all day long on Dre if he even breathed on them. Besides the point that once those players reach the paint, if Drummond is not outside the circle, then he is guaranteed to be called for a foul. Especially, if the player he is guarding is not in the circle drawing Drum away. It is a lose lose situation anytime our wing players allow their players a free path to the hoop.

[whitehops]

protecting the rim wasn't nearly as a big a problem as containing penetration. a big part of the cavs' offense is drive-kick-swing and containing the drive really slows them down. the problem is that they have irving and lebron who are great at penetrating and lebron is great at finding the open man which gives them more space to drive.

the cavs shot a low percentage of their shots at the rim, most of their shots were from the perimeter, they were just getting good looks. here's their shot chart: http://on.nba.com/1VdGdvp.

[MotownMadness]

Dre is just a presence down low and creates all those 3 point opportunities. Defenses aren't going to respect Joel Anthony like that. Even when Dre looks like he isn't doing much he really is.

[Todd3]

What's this yahoo talking about? Cavs only had 38 points in the paint. If we allowed that every game, we'd have led the league in paint defense this year. They only converted 25% at the rim vs Drummond, and overall he contested the 7th most shots of all Centers this weekend (18th of 181 players overall).

That is probably as good as it's going to get against a LeBron team in the playoffs in the paint.

They only made 44% FG and 35% 3FG. The defense was fine. The problem was giving up too many offensive rebounds as a team after getting the initial stop, and on offense only getting 24 points in the paint ourselves. That was where they won. They game planned our 2 greatest strengths - rebounding and paint scoring - and focused everything on stopping us there and succeeded.

I expect we will win the rebounding battle at some point, but they are going to keep packing the paint and daring our shooters to beat them, so we need to manufacture PIP other ways. They're not likely to maintain only 4 turnovers per game, so there should be more opportunities to get PIP in transition and we need to capitalize.

Joel Anthony is not the secret to beating LeBron lol

[hoophabit]

Team rebounding is another point to consider. When Drummond sells out and goes for a block his man is usually left open to score, and the Pistons don't do well rebounding. He has to be really choosy about that. It's another matter that a PF with decent size/length/mobility would help address. As previously remarked, MM and TH are nice combo forwards, but sometimes you need more size. Love SJ's performance in the game. All this talk that he should sit, but it didn't look or sound like the coach thought so. He may look like the bonehead 19 YO rookie at times, but he doesn't back down from anyone. That's why SVG persists in playing him. I'm sticking with the opinion that in a few years Piston fans are going to be thrilled with him. Folks are letting Joel's big numbers in the last regular season game skew their perspective.

[Todd3]

Team rebounding is another point to consider. When Drummond sells out and goes for a block his man is usually left open to score, and the Pistons don't do well rebounding. He has to be really choosy about that. It's another matter that a PF with decent size/length/mobility would help address. As previously remarked, MM and TH are nice combo forwards, but sometimes you need more size. Love SJ's performance in the game. All this talk that he should sit, but it didn't look or sound like the coach thought so. He may look like the bonehead 19 YO rookie at times, but he doesn't back down from anyone. That's why SVG persists in playing him. I'm sticking with the opinion that in a few years Piston fans are going to be thrilled with him. Folks are letting Joel's big numbers in the last regular season game skew their perspective.

I think ultimately we may need to bring one of Harris/Morris off the bench and get a more true PF. One that can also spread the defense and be an extra rim protector/rebounder and defend the post. Easier said than done, but there will be 2 players who fit that description in FA in Horford and Pau, and 1 in the draft in Sabonis.