A way too early preview for Cavs vs. Pistons: Things won’t get easier for Cavaliers

Anything bought from the links helps support *Fear the Sword*. You can also shop all of Homage’s Cavs gear HERE. The link to the Donovan Mitchell NBA Jam shirt is HERE. This is one of the areas Toronto had success with against the Cavs in the first round. They kept Mitchell from getting into the lane, effectively making him an outside shooter. He wasn’t able to make them pay for that strategy, which is one of the reasons the offense struggled as much as it did. Detroit presents a lot of those same issues. If you can keep Mitchell from getting to the basket, offense becomes a lot more difficult for Cleveland. At the same time, Detroit doesn’t have a defender as equipped as Scottie Barnes was at staying in front of Mitchell. Barnes’s combination of size and length disrupted Mitchell in a way we haven’t seen before in the postseason. Even if Detroit has a better overall defense, Mitchell should be able to get going a little bit easier than he did in the first round. The Pistons’ offense has been the big concern all year. The first round didn’t do anything to dispel those worries. Detroit’s offense became stagnant in the half-court against Orlando. They weren’t able to get the three-ball to fall, Jalen Duran’s easy offense dried up, and everything fell on Cade Cunningham’s shoulders. Cunningham is one of the best players in the league and showed why in the second half of the first round. He single-handedly willed his team to victory as he recorded 45, 32, and 32 points in the three elimination games. Dean Wade will once again play a huge role for the Cavs in the second round. He’ll be tasked with keeping the other team’s best player under wraps. Wade handled that assignment well when he was matched up against Brandon Ingram and Barnes. Cunningham is much better than both, considering his incredible playmaking ability. If you can keep Cunningham in check, the Pistons’ offense can fall apart quite quickly, as we saw in the first half of the first round. Tobias Harris, Daniss Jenkins, and Caris LeVert are fine role players, but they aren’t elite secondary creators. That, combined with the lack of outside shooting, makes them way too dependent on one player than you’d ideally like. Still, this will be a dog fight. The Cavs have struggled mightily with physical and aggressive teams in the playoffs. Detroit will be the grittiest and toughest team this core has ever faced. Even though the Pistons aren’t a perfect team and may not be a true title contender, they will give the Cavs all they can handle. Expect this series to go long. Game 1 tips off Tuesday night in Detroit at 7 PM.