Cavaliers crush in Detroit
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Cavaliers win series, 4-3
Maybe something happened on the short flight to Detroit. Perhaps the Cavaliers became upset after noticing ESPN's website already published a postseason postmortem. Maybe Game 6 left Cleveland chagrined far more sincerely than the Cavs let on.
Maybe it was when Donovan Mitchell was tapping fists at center circle before Game 7's tip and thought to himself, "Daniss Jenkins?"
Probably also thought to himself, "no disrespect, Daniss Jenkins," same as we would. Nobody should exude anything less than the utmost regard for Daniss Jenkins, Donovan Mitchell included. And Daniss Jenkins, starting his third game of the series, was fine in Game 7. But Daniss Jenkins, Caris LeVert, Paul Reed ... these are not third-round players. No disrespect.
The Cavs won with offense. I'm supposed to tell you Cleveland's defense improved and, hey, howyadoin, Cleveland's defense improved. But Cleveland's offense made it increasingly tougher for Detroit to commit to playing defense. Defense did not come as easy to Detroit in Game 7 and the Pistons did not push through this exasperation, preferring to let Pistons scoring make up any difference.
The problem with scoring is that this is, was, the Eastern Conference semifinals. Seven games in, lesser of the two conferences and also nobody's really great at scoring at this point.
And Pistons scoring, in particular? There's really only one Piston scoring.
