NBA Playoff Preview – Detroit Pistons vs. Cleveland Cavaliers

BetOnline NBA Playoff Betting Odds

To Win Series
Cleveland Cavaliers   -4000
Detroit Pistons   +1200

Schedule

Game 1 — April 18, Detroit at Cleveland, 3 p.m.
Game 2 — April 21, Detroit at Cleveland, 8 p.m.
Game 3 — April 24, Cleveland at Detroit, 7 p.m.
Game 4 — April 26, Cleveland at Detroit, 3:30 p.m.
Game 5* — April 29, Detroit at Cleveland, TBD
Game 6* — May 1, Cleveland at Detroit, TBD
Game 7* — May 3, Detroit at Cleveland, TBD

Detroit managed to get one step beyond this point last season, but lost to the Celtics, who subsequently beat Cleveland in the Eastern finals. Of course, one of the pivotal moves for this Detroit team was trading Chauncey Billups to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for Allen Iverson. This in effect broke up a team that had brought a championship and much playoff success to the Motor City, almost without rhyme or reason, other than clearing salary cap space in order to sign other people. Iverson did not disappoint from a pure scoring standpoint, but his presence took chemistry away from the situation.

When he came back from an injury, Michael Curry, a relative youngster in terms of the NBA’s head coaching ranks, told him that he would be coming off the bench. Iverson objected, and shortly thereafter it was announced that he was going to be shut down for the season due to that injury.

This probably winds up being a benefit to the Pistons, who have had to turn to other people to see what they can do. One of those people is Will Bynum, who came off the bench to score 25 points or more eight times in the last 17 games. Rodney Stuckey is playing point guard, and he probably isn’t any less of a pure distributor than Iverson was. Tayshaun Prince plays sort of a point forward spot for them.

The Pistons don’t win at home like they used to and that’s a shame for them, since the Cavs don’t seem to lose at home, dropping just two decisions all year at the Quicken Loans Arena. The acquisition of Mo Williams seems to have made much of the difference for Cleveland, as he has taken some of the scoring pressure off LeBron James. Also, the Cavs allowed less points than anyone, and was second in the league in opponents’ field goal percentage (43.1%). Detroit couldn’t seem to buy a basket the last three times these teams have played, tallying 80, 78 and 73 points, although they had the rebounding edge in two of those games. The last eight games between the two have gone under the total, so don’t look for many wide-open games.

Boston showed what could be done when conspiring to shut down LeBron, but you can’t keep him down for very long, and he’s got support this season, including a lot of depth. This is a pretty healthy club coming into the post-season, so don’t look for them to wear down.

Detroit did not finish with a head of steam, losing nine of its last 14 games. However, count me among the growing segment of the population who believes that in this situation, the Pistons are probably better off without him and the problems he brings. Let’s remember that for the most part, this Detroit club has much more playoff experience, and may be ready for one last hurrah. What that means here in this case is that they win one game.

JAY’S PREDICTION: CLEVELAND (-4000) IN FIVE GAMES