20 Second Timeout

Russell Westbrook's Legacy is Defined by His Work Ethic and His Elite Productivity

Russell Westbrook's catchphrase is "Why not?" and his career is defined not just by that boundless optimism but by the fierce work ethic that justified his faith in himself. Westbrook retired on Wednesday after a tremendous 18 season career, announcing the decision in a social media post that began, "Sometimes you don't even know when you've already watched the end. You had to be there. And now it's over." The post included a video of Westbrook's highlights narrated by Michael B. Jordan. Westbrook silently walked through an unfinished Museum of Unspoken Answers while wearing a shirt that reads "Don't Rock With What They Say" on the front and "Why Not?" on the back. Westbrook reportedly had offers to play this season from the Sacramento Kings--the team he played for last season--and the Washington Wizards (one of his former teams), but he decided to leave the game on his terms.

Make no mistake, Westbrook can still play--and he is not playing at a veteran minimum salary level, either. Last season,Westbrook averaged 15.2 ppg, 6.7 apg, and 5.4 rpg for the Sacramento Kings in 64 games. Those numbers ranked 59th, 13th, and 67th in the league. He averaged more assists than regular season MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, more rebounds than Tobias Harris (the starting power forward for the number one seed in the Eastern Conference), and more points than Nikola Vucevic, Jaden McDaniels, and Mikal Bridges. Westbrook ranked first on the Kings in assists, fourth in scoring, and fourth in rebounding (minimum 300 total rebounds). 

Early in the season, he passed Jason Kidd for most career rebounds by a guard. Westbrook and LeBron James are the only players in pro basketball history who have scored at least 25,000 points and dished for at least 10,000 assists. Westbrook ranks fifth in ABA/NBA history with 10,351 assists, and 16th in ABA/NBA history with 27,176 points. He is the all-time leader in triple doubles in a career (209) and a season (42 in 2016-17). Westbrook led the league in triple doubles in six seasons (2015-19, 2021), he led the league in assists three times (2018-19, 2021), and he won two scoring titles (2015, 2017). He won the 2017 regular season MVP plus two All-Star Game MVPs (2015, 2016); unlike many of his peers, he played hard in All-Star Games. Westbrook, Oscar Robertson, and Nikola Jokic are the only players who averaged a triple double for an entire season, a feat that Robertson accomplished once (1961-62; he averaged an aggregate triple double for his first five seasons), that Jokic has now done twice (2024-2026), and that Westbrook did four times (2017-19, 2021). Westbrook earned selection to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.

Westbrook reached the top of the game but--unlike many NBA superstars--he was not highly recruited out of high school. He eventually landed at UCLA, and after two years as a Bruin he worked his way up to being the fourth pick in the 2008 NBA Draft by the Seattle Supersonics, who moved to Oklahoma City before the start of the 2008-09 season. Westbrook averaged 15.3 ppg, 5.3 apg, and 4.9 rpg as a rookie to finish fourth in Rookie of the Year voting behind Derrick Rose, O.J. Mayo, and Brook Lopez.

In his third season, Westbrook earned the first of nine All-Star selections and the first of nine All-NBA Team selections after averaging 21.9 ppg, 8.2 apg (ninth in the league), and 4.6 rpg. The Thunder improved from 23-59 in Westbrook's rookie season to 50-32 in his second season to 55-27 in his third season while making the first of four Western Conference Finals appearances in a six year span. By that time, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook had formed one of the best duos in the league. In 2011-12, Durant made All-NBA First Team, Westbrook made All-NBA Second Team, and James Harden won Sixth Man of the Year as the Thunder advanced to the NBA Finals before losing 4-1 to the Miami Heat. 

The Thunder seemed poised to become the NBA's next dynasty, but that iteration of the squad did not reach the NBA Finals again. Harden refused to accept sixth man status, so the Thunder shipped him to Houston before the 2012-13 season. The Thunder did not miss a beat without Harden, finishing first in the Western Conference with a 60-22 record with Durant (All-NBA First Team) and Westbrook (All-NBA Second Team) leading the way. However, disaster struck in the second game of the first round as Houston's Patrick Beverley crashed into Westbrook, tearing Westbrook's right meniscus. The Thunder still beat the Rockets 4-2, but without Westbrook they lost to the Memphis Grizzlies 4-1 in the second round.

Westbrook did not miss a game in his first five seasons but his right knee did not completely heal prior to the 2013-14 season, and he played just 46 games in that campaign. Westbrook hit his stride down the stretch, averaging 26.2 ppg, 7.0 apg, and 6.0 rpg in six April games. Westbrook maintained that high level of play in the postseason, averaging a then playoff career high 26.7 ppg, 8.1 apg, and 7.3 rpg as the Thunder advanced to the Western Conference Finals before losing 4-2 to the eventual NBA champion San Antonio Spurs. 

Many media members make no secret about playing favorites, and it was evident early in Westbrook's career that he was not on the favorites list. In 2014, I prophetically asserted that he was poised to inherit Kobe Bryant's dual status as best guard in the NBA and underrated superstar:  

Kobe Bryant has been the best guard in the NBA for the better part of the past decade or so but an Achilles injury knocked him out of the 2013 playoffs and caused him to miss most of the 2013-14 regular season before a broken leg sidelined him for the remainder of the current campaign; he made the 2013 All-NBA First Team but his reign as the league's top backcourt performer is likely over, even if he returns to action next season. Bryant has been underrated for most of his career, with critics sniping at his alleged selfishness and foolishly suggesting that the L.A. Lakers were better off when Bryant shot fewer times even when Bryant was at the height of his powers, leading the Lakers to championships while also setting various individual scoring records. There are many reasons that the Lakers have sunk to historic lows this season but the biggest single factor is that Bryant played in just six games.

One player seems poised to fill both of Bryant's roles--best guard in the NBA and vastly underrated superstar: Russell Westbrook. Westbrook helped lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to the best record in the Western Conference last season (60-22) after playing a major role in the Thunder's run to the 2012 NBA Finals but the Thunder's 2013 championship hopes were dashed when Houston's Patrick Beverly wiped out Westbrook's knee during the first round of the playoffs; sans Westbrook, the Thunder struggled to eliminate the mediocre Rockets before getting blasted 4-1 in the second round by a flawed Memphis team that was promptly swept by the San Antonio Spurs. 

By 2015, Westbrook had firmly established himself as an elite player while foreshadowing the triple double dominance that would define his career:

Westbrook has already earned four All-Star selections and three All-NBA Second Team nods but in the second half of this season he has taken his game to a new, almost unprecedented level. Westbrook averaged 31.2 ppg, 10.3 apg and 9.1 rpg in February, joining Oscar Robertson as the only players in NBA history to average 30 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in a calendar month (minimum 10 games). During a five game span starting February 24, Westbrook ranked in the top five in the league in scoring (38.2 ppg, first), assists (9.8 apg, third) and rebounding (12.4 rpg, ninth).

He also became just the fourth player in NBA history to have at least three straight 40 point--five rebound--five assist games. Elgin Baylor did this for four straight games in 1960-61, while Michael Jordan (1988-89) and Wilt Chamberlain (1963-64) did it for three straight games each. Baylor also did it for three straight games during the 1962-63 season.

Westbrook has performed at a high level throughout the season and he is the only player in the league who ranks in the top five in scoring (27.3 ppg, first), assists (8.3 apg, fourth) and steals (2.1 spg, third).

Westbrook's critics say that he shoots too much, that he is selfish and that he does not play a winning style of basketball but the Thunder's record states otherwise. The Thunder are 30-19 with Westbrook this season (.612 winning percentage), including 12-5 since February 1 as the team began making a late playoff push despite being without the services of 2014 NBA MVP Kevin Durant for much of that time (the Thunder are 6-4 in the most recent 10 game stretch that Durant has missed). The Thunder are just 5-10 (.333 winning percentage) without Westbrook (that record includes some early season games that both Durant and Westbrook missed).  

In 2014-15, Durant suffered a foot fracture and played in just 27 games as the Thunder posted a respectable 45-37 record but lost a tiebreaker for the eighth and final playoff berth. With Durant sidelined most of the season, Westbrook won his first scoring title (28.1 ppg) and finished fourth in MVP voting.

The last hurrah for the Durant-Westbrook duo happened in the 2016 Western Conference Finals. The Thunder raced to a 3-1 lead versus the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors before the record-setting 73-9 Warriors won three straight games to return to the NBA Finals. Westbrook finished fourth in MVP voting that season, while Durant was a distant fifth, and Westbrook made the All-NBA First Team while Durant made the All-NBA Second Team. 

After shooting 1-7 from the field in the fourth quarter of a game six Western Conference Finals loss at home before losing game seven 96-88 on the road, Durant decided that he preferred to flee Oklahoma City to join the Warriors instead of accepting the challenge of trying to beat them. 

Westbrook reacted not by complaining or demanding a trade but by signing a two year contract extension at a time when the franchise was in a vulnerable state. Over the next three seasons, Westbrook solidified his elite status while keeping the Thunder relevant, starting off with a record-setting 2016-17 season during which Westbrook became the only player other than Oscar Robertson to average a triple double for an entire season. The MVP voters have often been wrong in the past several decades, but I noted that they got it right when they selected Westbrook in 2017: 

Westbrook won his second scoring title (career-high 31.6 ppg), he ranked third in assists (10.4 apg) and he finished 10th in rebounding (10.7 rpg, an unprecedented average for a 6-3 point guard). Westbrook tallied three 50 point triple doubles, setting both the single season and career records in that category.

Westbrook's amazing individual numbers directly correlated with his team's success. He broke Oscar Robertson's single season record by notching 42 triple doubles and the Oklahoma City Thunder went 33-9 in those games, compared to 14-26 in the remaining games; a 33-9 record projects to 64-18 over a full 82 game season, while 14-26 projects to 29-53. Essentially, when Westbrook played at a historically great level he elevated the Thunder to elite status but when he was "merely" good the Thunder were the equivalent of a Draft Lottery team. The Thunder's relative performance when Westbrook was on the court compared to when he was off the court told the same story: with Westbrook on the court, this flawed roster could compete with just about anyone but take Westbrook out of the game and the Thunder morphed into the league's worst team by far. 

His critics note that Westbrook did not win an NBA title, but the reality is that Westbrook's teams often outperformed reasonable expectations, and his MVP season epitomizes that: the Thunder with Westbrook leading the way sans Durant were much better than anyone could have reasonably expected. 

The way that Westbrook's historically great individual performance impacted team success is the most underrated aspect of his career. As David Aldridge recently noted, Westbrook's teams posted a 153-56 record in his 209 regular season triple double games. That .732 winning percentage is equivalent to a 60-22 record for an 82 game season, and such high level team success refutes the notion that Westbrook was chasing individual glory at the cost of his teams; his teams would have not won nearly as many games if Westbrook had not played with such heart and if he had not been so productive. 

In 2019 after Westbrook logged just the second 20-20-20 game in pro basketball history, I placed not just this accomplishment but Westbrook's overall dominance into historical perspective:

Russell Westbrook is on the verge of clinching his third straight season of averaging a triple double--an unprecedented feat that is, inexplicably, largely being ignored--and he is doing so with style: during Oklahoma City's 119-103 win over the L.A. Lakers on Tuesday night, Westbrook posted 20 points, 20 rebounds and 21 assists, just the second 20-20-20 game in pro basketball history. As you probably would guess if you did not know, Wilt Chamberlain was the first player to accomplish this, with 22 points, 25 rebounds and 21 assists in Philadelphia's 131-121 win over Detroit on February 2, 1968.

After Westbrook's jaw-dropping performance, Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas--serving as a TNT commentator during the "Players Only" telecast--said that in an era of great point guards Westbrook is not mentioned enough. Thomas also declared that Westbrook is the "most dominant" point guard of this era. That is true. No other point guard is equally dominant as a scorer, rebounder and passer the way that Westbrook is. Westbrook can match anyone in the league bucket for bucket as a scorer, he rebounds better than most centers and he has become the league's best playmaker, defying the critics who used to say that Westbrook was a shooting guard masquerading as a point guard.

The best thing about Westbrook, though, is the thing that we should be able to take for granted about pro athletes but is in fact an increasingly rare quality: Westbrook plays hard, all the time. He would agree with Jeff Van Gundy's oft-repeated statement that the idea of "load management" is a load of something else...

I understand--but don't accept--that media coverage of basketball is largely driven now by hype and memes and highlights and tweets, but how many NBA players are actually better at playing basketball--at scoring, rebounding and passing--than Russell Westbrook?

After the Thunder lost in the first round for the third straight year, they traded Westbrook to Houston, reuniting him with his former teammate James Harden. The Rockets lost in the first round in the 2020 "bubble" playoffs, and then they sent Westbrook to the Washington Wizards for John Wall. 

Oscar Robertson's career triple double record stood for nearly 50 years--longer than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's career scoring record that LeBron James broke. After Westbrook surpassed Robertson during the 2020-21 season, I placed this feat in historical context:

It is important to understand Robertson's rightful place in basketball history in order to appreciate what Russell Westbrook has accomplished and how great Westbrook is. Westbrook's 28 points, 21 assists, and 13 rebounds in Washington's 125-124 loss to Atlanta on Monday night broke his tie with Robertson on the career triple double list, and established Westbrook as the all-time triple double king. Robertson's record stood for the vast majority of NBA history up to this point, and even with the increasing number of triple doubles we see today it may very well be 50 years before anyone surpasses Westbrook's final total; the second highest ranking current player, LeBron James, has 99 triple doubles. A player could play 72 games a year for 10 seasons, have a triple double every four games, and still not match Westbrook's current total; the high level of durability and productivity necessary to perform like Westbrook does is vastly underrated. 

The fact that the transcendently great Nikola Jokic is likely to pass Westbrook on the career triple double list next season speaks to Jokic's elite status more than it diminishes the value of Westbrook's accomplishment. Jokic currently has 198 career triple doubles, and the next active player on the list is LeBron James (125), followed by Luka Doncic (90). James is not going to approach Westbrook's total, and Doncic's triple double pace has slowed significantly in the past two years, making it unlikely that he will catch Westbrook.

Westbrook averaged a triple double (22.2 ppg, league-leading/career-high 11.7 apg, career-high 11.5 rpg) in his lone season with the Wizards. I am only being slightly hyperbolic when I say that leading the Wizards to the playoffs while averaging a triple double is sufficient to earn Hall of Fame induction for Westbrook, but it should be emphasized that the Wizards did not make the playoffs in the two years prior to Westbrook's arrival and have not made the playoffs in the five years since they traded him to the L.A. Lakers. 

Perhaps the nadir for Westbrook's career was when LeBron James and his media sycophants attempted to make Westbrook the scapegoat for all of the Lakers' problems. It is worth noting that after James led the Lakers to the 2020 "bubble" title, he led the Lakers to just one Western Conference Finals, one second round loss, three first round losses, and one non-playoff season. During Westbrook's lone full season with the Lakers, he played in a team-high 78 games while James was eighth on the team with 56 games and Anthony "Don't Call me 'Street Clothes'" Davis was 11th on the team with 40 games played. I cannot recall another situation during which the team's two best players missed so many games but somehow the team's failure to perform well is supposedly the fault of the team's third option. 

Hubie Brown--who is perhaps the greatest NBA game analyst of all-time--praised Westbrook's play with the Lakers even in a loss: "I'm happy for him. He never quit on himself. He keeps playing hard...He knows that he is going to get hit (driving to the hoop) but he punishes himself because he wants to win the game...He took over this game in the third quarter, and you love to see it because that is who he is. You can knock him, you can say you don't like him, but he plays hard and he earns his money every night."

In marked contrast to Brown's objective take on Westbrook, Amin Elhassan and Zach Harper propagated the unfounded notion that Westbrook is a selfish player who allegedly stole rebounds from his teammates. In 2019, I critiqued this stubbornly held assertion in Are Rebounds Fungible?: 

Last season, Westrbook led the Oklahoma City Thunder in rebounding (11.1 rpg, 10th in the league) and the team ranked second with 48.1 rpg. The Thunder ranked sixth in rebounding differential (+2.4), which means that their high rebounding totals are not just related to pace; they outrebounded their opponents on a consistent basis.

This season, Westbrook plays for the Houston Rockets. If Westbrook were "stealing" rebounds from his teammates, then one could reasonably expect that his former team's rebounding prowess would not decline much in his absence, and that the next best rebounder on his former team (Steven Adams) would increase his rebounding average. Instead, through 24 games (30% of the season) the Thunder rank 25th in rebounding (43.0 rpg) and 23rd in rebounding differential (-2.4). Adams is averaging 9.4 rpg, essentially the same as his 9.5 rpg average last season.

Meanwhile, last season the Rockets without Westbrook ranked 28th in rebounding (42.1 rpg) and 27th in rebounding differential (-3.4). This season, the Rockets with Westbrook rank third in rebounding (48.0 rpg) and ninth in rebounding differential (+1.8).

The numbers show that after losing Westbrook the Thunder went from being an elite rebounding team to being a poor rebounding team, while after adding Westbrook the Rockets went from being a poor rebounding team to being an elite rebounding team. Yes, there have been other personnel changes for both teams--particularly the Thunder, who also lost Paul George--but if rebounds were fungible and if Westbrook were really just "stealing" rebounds it is unlikely that his old team and his new team would have swapped places in terms of their rebounding rankings.  

Westbrook concluded his career by playing a little over one year with the L.A. Clippers followed by single season stints with the Denver Nuggets and the Sacramento Kings. During his brief time in Denver, Westbrook and Jokic set a record by becoming the first teammates to each have a triple double in the same game twice in the same season.

Westbrook's career provides a valuable prism through which to view how narratives are constructed and propagated. A major reason that the quality of media coverage is so poor is that there are low barriers to entry to become a member of the media: 

Westbrook is an all-time great being covered by hacks who accuse him of padding his stats by "stealing" rebounds, a false notion that is unsupported by the numbers. Justin Termine admits that he is "an entertainer, not a journalist," and after listening to him I agree that he is not a journalist but I question how entertaining he is. Termine recently asserted that Westbrook has spent his career accumulating individual statistics that do not correlate with team success. Termine calls himself a basketball historian, but he apparently does not realize how rare it is for a team to reach the Western Conference Finals four times, as the Oklahoma City Thunder did (2011, 2012, 2014, 2016) with Kevin Durant and Westbrook leading the way. Westbrook was an All-NBA Team member in three of those four seasons, and would have made it in all four had he not been limited to 46 games in the 2014 season (he averaged 26.7 ppg, 8.1 apg, and 7.3 rpg during that playoff run to reaffirm his All-NBA status). 

It is notable that Hubie Brown--who Doug Collins correctly called the "gold standard" for NBA commentators--consistently praised Westbrook even when other media members like Amin Elhassan and Zach Harper took unwarranted shots at Westbrook.

A major cause of the low quality of media coverage is the low barrier to entry for the profession, a topic that I have mentioned before but is worth discussing in greater depth. I speak from personal experience because I spent seven years as a credentialed reporter in NBA media rooms, so I saw firsthand how news is gathered, how narratives are manufactured, and how often incompetent media members ask ridiculous questions. Before I became a credentialed reporter, I devoted myself to learning the NBA game, learning pro basketball history, and honing my writing skills, but I found out--to my horror--that obtaining credentials and getting writing assignments has much less to do with what you know than who you know. This is in marked contrasted to other professions and endeavors. For example, in the 1990s, I was an ACE-certified personal trainer, in 1995 I earned the U.S. Chess Federation's Expert title, and in 2016 I became an actively licensed attorney. 

To become a certified personal trainer, you must pass a certification exam.

To become a chess Expert (top 3% of all chess players in the United States), it is necessary to earn 2000 rating points in officially sanctioned tournaments.

To become an actively licensed attorney, you must score high enough on the LSAT to be admitted to law school, you must graduate law school, and you must pass the bar exam. To maintain actively licensed status, you must earn continuing education credits. 

You cannot become a certified personal trainer, a chess Expert, or an attorney based on your connections; to achieve each of those status levels, you must meet objective standards. 

In contrast, anyone who knows the right person can show up at a sports event as a credentialed reporter. There is no education requirement and no competency requirement.

The false perceptions and narratives about Westbrook's time with the Lakers may have damaged his value toward the end of Westbrook's career, but Westbrook also faced the same reality that many NBA veterans are dealing with now: the league's salary structure is focused on highly compensating the elite players combined with cost control for young players and low salaries for aging veterans. Westbrook proved long ago that he can perform at an MVP/All-NBA Team level for teams that make deep playoff runs, and he also showed that he could raise the floor of a moribund team like the Wizards. The notion that Westbrook somehow damaged his legacy by playing for several teams in his last few seasons makes as little sense as the assertion that he "stole" rebounds from teammates. Vince Carter glided into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a first ballot selection with a resume that is not half as good as Westbrook's: Carter did not win an MVP, a scoring title, or an assists title, he never made the All-NBA First Team and in his final seven seasons he played for four teams while averaging more than 10 ppg just once. Those facts are not cited to belittle Carter but rather to point out the absurdity of the comments that are made about Westbrook. 

In an era during which the NBA developed a lot of collective bad habits--including overreliance on three point shooting, the rise of load management, and as many as a third of the league's teams tanking--Westbrook stands out as a player who attacked the hoop to score, rebound, and pass, who loathed missing games, and who would not dream of doing anything other than trying 100% to win every game. 

The NBA is worse off without Westbrook and the example he set.

Labels: Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, James Harden, Kevin Durant, L.A. Lakers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Russell Westbrook, Sacramento Kings, Seattle Supersonics, Washington Wizards

posted by David Friedman @ 12:50 AM

12 comments

Knicks Crush Cavaliers to Reach NBA Finals for the First Time Since 1999

The New York Knicks led the Cleveland Cavaliers 38-26 at the end of the first quarter of game four of the Eastern Conference Finals before cruising to a 130-93 win to complete a 4-0 Eastern Conference Finals sweep. Six Knicks scored in double figures, with Karl-Anthony Towns leading the way (team-high 19 points, game-high 14 rebounds). OG Anunoby scored 17 points, Landry Shamet added 16 points off of the bench, and Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges each had 15 points and five assists. Miles "Deuce" McBride chipped in 11 points in a reserve role, and Josh Hart had another solid all-around game (six points, 11 rebounds, six assists). The outcome was decided early due to a combination of New York's great play and the Cavaliers blatantly quitting; as a result, Brunson, Bridges, and Hart did not play in the fourth quarter.

In short, if the occasion had called for it, Brunson could have easily scored 30 points, and his teammates could have added to their statistics as well--which is yet another example of how foolish it is to evaluate players based solely on numbers without looking at the larger context. Kenny Smith calls a player who pads his numbers on a bad team a "looter in a riot," because even a bad team will likely have a 20 ppg scorer just because of the nature of the NBA game (and the use of the shot clock). One cannot (or should not) assume that individual numbers compiled in one context can also be compiled in a different context. The Dallas Mavericks have long bragged about being in the forefront of the so-called "analytics" revolution, but it is not clear if "analytics" took the Mavericks to the top or dragged them down from the top. In 2011, Dirk Nowitzki carried the Mavericks to their lone NBA title, but the Mavericks promptly broke up his supporting cast and then more than a decade later they made two very questionable major personnel decisions; the Lakers appreciate the gift of Luka Doncic, and the Knicks very much appreciate the gift of Jalen Brunson.

The Knicks received the Bob Cousy Trophy for winning the Eastern Conference Championship. Brunson averaged 25.5 ppg and 7.8 apg while shooting .487 from the field in the Eastern Conference Finals en route to capturing the 2026 Larry Bird Eastern Conference Finals MVP; previous honorees include Jayson Tatum (2022), Jimmy Butler (2023), Jaylen Brown (2024), and Pascal Siakam (2025).

Coach Mike Brown, who has received much unwarranted criticism from uninformed media members, deserves a lot of credit for lifting an already very good team to the next level by not only implementing productive changes at both ends of the court but also by instilling a group feeling of camaraderie--but chemistry cannot be quantified, so the "stat gurus" refuse to believe that it matters or even exists. 

In my NBA Finals Preview, I will further discuss the Knicks' remarkable 2026 playoff run--which now includes a record three elimination game wins by at least 20 points each--but a lot needs to be said about the Cleveland Cavaliers, a fully healthy team with the league's highest payroll that overtly quit versus the Knicks; the Knicks deserve full credit for how well they are playing, but when a team repeatedly fails to get back on defense and repeatedly fails to make basic defensive rotations in the half court that team has quit, and that is what we saw from the Cavaliers at the end of game three and then carrying over into game four.

In game four, Donovan Mitchell scored a game-high 31 points on 9-18 field goal shooting, but that was not nearly enough to even keep the game close--and several of his highly touted teammates were conspicuous in their absence. No, Evan Mobley (15 points, seven rebounds, four assists, no blocked shots) is not the next Tim Duncan. No, Jarrett Allen (six points, three rebounds)--who played well in Cleveland's two game seven wins earlier in this year's playoffs--is not dependable enough. Mitchell was the only main Cleveland player who met reasonable performance expectations in the Eastern Conference Finals, averaging 27.3 ppg on .475 field goal shooting, albeit with shaky floor game numbers (2.3 apg, 3.5 tpg).

Then, of course, there is the ongoing playoff saga of James Harden--and don't fall for the propaganda that he is getting old: he played fine during this regular season, and he has been falling apart during the playoffs throughout his career. His record in games when his team faced elimination since fleeing Oklahoma City in 2012 is now 5-14, and he played poorly in most of those games. Recent examples include scoring 11 points on 4-9 field goal shooting in Philadelphia's 99-90 loss to Miami in 2022, scoring nine points on 3-11 field goal shooting in Philadelphia's 112-88 loss to Boston in 2023, scoring 16 points on 5-16 field goal shooting in the L.A. Clippers' 114-101 loss to Dallas in 2024, and scoring seven points on 2-8 field goal shooting in the Clippers' 120-101 game seven loss to the Denver Nuggets in 2025.

After the Cavaliers traded Darius Garland for Harden, I declared, "I can write the template for the Cavaliers' 2026 elimination game loss now, and after the game I can fill in the blanks around the words "James Harden disappeared" and "James Harden scored just xxx second half points."  As I predicted, James Harden disappeared, and James Harden scored just zero second half points on 0-3 field goal shooting, finally reaching a nadir that not even he can surpass and adding yet another pathetic line to his horrific elimination game resume.

The Cavaliers acquired Harden to be the difference, and he was, because the Cavaliers have taken on his playoff identity: shoot bad shots at a low percentage (.416 field goal percentage in game four, .426 field goal percentage in the four games overall), make careless turnovers, don't hustle back on defense, and then quit in an elimination game. Harden and the Cavaliers checked off every one of those boxes. Harden provided yet another playoff game with a "concert tour" field goal percentage (2-8 for a chilly February outing), a "Harden" (a game with more turnovers than field goals made--here, a game-high five turnovers versus just two field goals made), and lackadaisical defense. As Shaquille O'Neal said at halftime, "James is doing what he usually does--disappear." Harden finished with 12 points, four assists, and five turnovers. He shot 0-6 from beyond the arc, and if the Knicks had not charitably fouled him (why foul a guy who can't make a shot?) to give him eight free points then he would not have even reached double figures in scoring. In the Eastern Conference Finals, Harden averaged 16.0 ppg on .389 field goal shooting (including .179 from three point range) with 3.0 apg and 4.3 tpg. It is difficult to win when your floor general with a supposedly genius-level basketball IQ can't make a shot, has more turnovers than assists, and is the opposing team's number one target to attack on defense.

"Stat gurus" love Harden, and they love lavishing outrageously false praise on him. Kirk Goldsberry called Harden "the greatest scorer of this NBA era," a ludicrous notion that I debunked in 2019. Daryl Morey declared that James Harden is a better scorer than Michael Jordan. 

The Cavaliers clearly relied on such delusional thinking when they acquired Harden, and it is evident that delusional thinking pervades the organization. All you need to know about the misapplication of "advanced basketball statistics" can be summarized in this quote from Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson, who declared that "analytically" his Cavaliers won two of the first three games versus the Knicks. In the real world of real numbers, the Cavaliers lost the first three games before quitting in game four, and every game was decided by at least 11 points (the first game went to overtime after the Cavaliers squandered a 22 point fourth quarter lead). Analytically, it would appear that Cleveland's 22 point lead was the outlier in this three game sample size, because otherwise the Knicks outplayed, outcoached, outshot, and outhustled the Cavaliers.

When you are delusional enough to think that you are winning on a spreadsheet despite getting destroyed on the basketball court, you are not smart enough or self-aware enough to make decisions that will lead to winning a championship.

Let's be perfectly clear: it is smart to use statistics with understanding and in the larger context of how basketball is played/should be played--but there are a lot of "stat gurus" who have made a lot of money peddling fish oil as NBA executives and media members without having a clue about how to evaluate players or teams, and those are the people whose faulty thinking I have been refuting for decades.

It is true that the Cavaliers advanced one round farther this year than they did last year, but they did that despite Harden more so than because of him--and the Cavaliers did not assemble the most expensive roster in the league to fall eight wins short of capturing the NBA title. Just like this season was "NBA Finals or bust" for the Knicks, the same was true (or should have been true) for the Cavaliers.   

Labels: Cleveland Cavaliers, Donovan Mitchell, Jalen Brunson, James Harden, Karl-Anthony Towns, Kenny Atkinson, Mike Brown, New York Knicks

posted by David Friedman @ 12:33 AM

6 comments

Knicks Outplay and Outcoach Cavaliers to Take 2-0 Eastern Conference Finals Lead

After trailing the Atlanta Hawks 2-1 in the first round, the New York Knicks have apparently morphed into some combination of Bill Russell's Boston Celtics, the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar-Magic Johnson L.A. Lakers, the Michael Jordan-Scottie Pippen Chicago Bulls, the Shaquille O'Neal-Kobe Bryant L.A. Lakers, and the Kevin Durant-Stephen Curry Golden State Warriors. I am not suggesting that the Knicks are as good as any of those fabled championship teams, nor am I even predicting that the Knicks will win the 2026 NBA championship--but it is worth noting that the Knicks have already accomplished things that none of those teams accomplished, including posting the best point differential in a 10 game span in NBA playoff history, winning three consecutive playoff games by at least 25 points, opening a series with a 35-plus point win after ending a series with a 35-plus point win, and building a 47 point halftime lead in a playoff game. 

The Knicks may not be one of the greatest teams of all-time, but their statistical profile matches or even exceeds the statistical profiles of many dominant championship teams. The Knicks own a nine game playoff winning streak, and have a 2-0 Eastern Conference Finals lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers as that series shifts to Cleveland for games three and four. The Knicks led game one 23-16 at the end of the first quarter but then they did not just hit cruise control--they hit snooze control, falling into a 93-71 hole with 7:52 remaining in the fourth quarter. What happened next is one of the greatest comebacks (or greatest collapses, depending on your perspective) in NBA playoff history, as the Knicks outscored the Cavaliers 44-11 the rest of the way en route to a 115-104 overtime win. 

The Knicks turned things around with a brutally direct offensive tactic: Jalen Brunson attacked James Harden one on one, and if the Cavaliers had a different primary defender on Brunson then the Knicks used whoever Harden was guarding as a screener to force a switch putting Harden on Brunson. Brunson scored 15 fourth quarter points on 7-9 field goal shooting, and he finished with a game-high 38 points on 15-29 field goal shooting. We have seen many playoff duels featuring two players trading baskets, but it is unusual to see a player touted as one of the greatest guards ever being torched one on one this way. Harden had 15 points on 5-16 field goal shooting along with three assists and a team-high six turnovers, yet another "Harden" game; media members have apparently only recently noticed that Harden's playoff trademark is to have more turnovers than field goals made, but I pointed this out three years ago. Donovan Mitchell led the Cavaliers with 29 points, but Harden's atrocious defense meant that the Cavaliers were often taking the ball out of the net and playing against the Knicks' set defense as opposed to attacking in transition after rebounds or steals. Harden dominating the ball on offense and getting torched on defense is wonderful for the Knicks and horrible for the Cavaliers, which brings us to the topic of coaching.

New York coach Mike Brown is often maligned, but he is coaching circles around Cleveland's Kenny Atkinson in this series. Brown's defense is making it tough for Cleveland to score, and his offense is exploiting the Cavaliers' defensive weaknesses (mainly Harden). Atkinson was oddly reticent to call a timeout during Cleveland's game one collapse, and his postgame remarks suggested that he is detached from reality, contractually obligated to never criticize Harden, or both. Atkinson kept a straight face while insisting that Harden has been one of Cleveland's best defensive players, and he implausibly suggested that the Cavaliers had played well for three quarters before running into some bad luck late in the game because Brunson hit tough shots. The reality is that Harden has been a traffic cone as a perimeter defender throughout his career (he defends OK in the post, but that is of minimal value for a point guard who is guarding perimeter players), and the Knicks outplayed the Cavalier both early in the game and down the stretch. The Cavaliers maybe had about 15-20 minutes of good basketball, but Atkinson fiddled while Rome burned in the closing moments, and the result had nothing to do with luck.

Naturally, many media members said that the Cavaliers could not recover from losing game one, apparently forgetting that the Cavaliers bounced back from a 2-0 deficit in the previous series to beat Detroit in seven games; the question is not whether the Cavaliers are resilient, but whether the Cavaliers have matchup advantages that will enable them to beat New York four times.  

The Cavaliers took a 13-7 first quarter lead in game two, but the Knicks led 53-49 at halftime, never trailed in the second half, and were up by as much as 19 points before winning, 109-93. The Cavaliers finally stopped letting Brunson torture Harden one on one, but after they trapped Harden they had no effective response to Brunson's passing. Brunson finished with 19 points plus a playoff career-high 14 assists. Many of Brunson's assists went to Josh Hart, who scored a game-high tying 26 points. The Knicks shot .518 from the field, and each starter scored at least 14 points. Brown had been using Karl-Anthony Towns as a point center, but the Cavaliers' defense against Brunson turned Brunson into the primary playmaker, with Hart adding seven assists as well. Towns had 18 points, a game-high 13 rebounds, and just one assist; those numbers do not mean that Brown "forgot" about Towns or "doesn't know how to use Towns," but rather that the Knicks exploited the gaping holes in Cleveland's defense in other very effective ways.

Mitchell led the Cavaliers with 26 points, but Harden shot just 6-15 from the field to accumulate 18 points. Harden had no turnovers but also just two assists; the Cavaliers are smart to get the ball out of his hands as much as possible to limit his turnovers, but his inefficient shooting and leaky defense led to a game-worst -22 plus/minus number. The bottom line is that Harden is a defensive liability, and he cannot be hidden in the playoffs versus a good team that is well-coached. Evan Mobley had 14 first half points on 5-8 field goal shooting, but Atkinson, Mitchell, and Harden held Mobley to zero second half points on zero second half field goal attempts.

The Cavaliers are 8-8 in the 2026 playoffs, including 6-1 at home and 2-7 on the road, so I would not be surprised if the Cavaliers win at least one game versus the Knicks in Cleveland, and I will not fall into the common trap of being swayed by what happens from game to game; it is hilarious to listen to people who don't understand basketball--or who are trying to gain attention with hot takes--make outlandish proclamations on the basis of one game. No matter what happened in the previous game, the next game starts 0-0 with a different officiating crew and different circumstances. Playoff basketball is about matchups, and matchup advantages do not change (unless a player gets injured, or is disqualified via fouls or ejection); over the course of a series, I expect the team with the most matchup advantages to prevail, and that is why I expect the Knicks to win this series even though the sweep talk is premature. I picked the Knicks to win in six games, and that still seems reasonable, pending what happens in game three. Harden often has one or two decent games before his final choke of the series, and if he does not collapse in game three then the Cavaliers may hit enough shots to win.

Labels: Cleveland Cavaliers, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Jalen Brunson, James Harden, Josh Hart, Karl-Anthony Towns, New York Knicks

posted by David Friedman @ 3:24 PM

2 comments

New York Versus Cleveland Preview

Eastern Conference Finals

#3 New York (53-29) vs. #4 Cleveland (52-30)

Season series: New York, 2-1

Cleveland can win if…the Cavaliers' defense limits Jalen Brunson's scoring while also shutting down the passing lanes for Karl-Anthony Towns, whose playmaking has unlocked a new level of productivity and efficiency for the Knicks' offense. The Cavaliers will also need to get high level performances from Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen.

Mitchell averaged a team-high 28.1 ppg, 5.6 rpg, and 3.6 apg in the second round as the Cavaliers upset the number one seeded Detroit Pistons, and he shined in Cleveland's 125-94 game seven rout at Detroit with a game-high 26 points, a game-high eight assists, six rebounds, and no turnovers. After the Pistons seized a 2-0 series lead, Mitchell scored 35 points and 43 points in the next two games as the Cavaliers tied the series at 2-2 before squeezing out an overtime win on the road to take a 3-2 lead. In Mitchell's 43 point performance--a 112-103 Cleveland win--he only scored four first half points before tying Sleepy Floyd's 1987 playoff record for points in a half (39) to carry the Cavaliers to victory. Overall, Mitchell is averaging a team-high 25.6 ppg, 5.2 rpg, and 3.3 apg in the 2026 playoffs as the Cavaliers have won game seven in back to back series.

Mobley averaged 15.9 ppg, a team-high 7.4 rpg, 4.9 apg, and a team-high 2.7 bpg versus the Pistons. He is averaging 17.0 ppg, a team-high 8.0 rpg, 4.1 apg, and a team-high tying 1.9 bpg in the 2026 playoffs. Mobley has not developed into the Tim Duncan-level MVP performer that Cleveland fans hoped/dreamed that he would become, but he is a versatile big man who is capable of impacting the game in many ways at both ends of the court.

Charles Barkley criticized Allen for being too nice and too soft to be a dominant player, but Allen came up big in both of Cleveland's game seven wins: he had a game-high tying 22 points, a game-high 19 rebounds, and a game-high three blocked shots as the Cavaliers defeated Toronto 114-102, and then he contributed 23 points, seven rebounds, and one blocked shot as the Cavaliers shut down the Pistons. Allen averaged 14.7 ppg, 6.3 rpg, and 1.4 bpg versus the Pistons, and he is averaging 13.1 ppg, 7.3 rpg, and a team-high tying 1.9 bpg in the 2026 playoffs. 

James Harden ranks second on the team in playoff scoring (20.1 ppg) and first in assists (6.2 apg), but he also has the second highest turnover average in the playoffs (4.8 tpg) while shooting just .415 from the field. Harden once bragged of his offensive prowess, "I'm not a system player; I am a system," but the reality is that Harden generates too many empty possessions on offense while being a traffic cone as a perimeter defender (he uses his strength and quick hands to be a solid defender in the paint on the occasions when he gets back on defense). 

In my Detroit Versus Cleveland Preview, I emphasized Harden's awful elimination game resume:

His playoff career includes "concert tour" field percentages, and so many games with more turnovers than field goals made that such inverted performances should be called "Hardens." He posted "Hardens" in Cleveland's losses in game three (eight turnovers, five field goals made) and game four (seven turnovers, six field goals made) versus Toronto. Harden's resume prior to 2022 in games when his team faced elimination included a 2-9 record, .399 field goal percentage, and an average of nearly six turnovers per game, and then he added more sad lines to that resume by scoring 11 points on 4-9 field goal shooting in Philadelphia's 99-90 loss to Miami in 2022, by scoring nine points on 3-11 field goal shooting in Philadelphia's 112-88 loss to Boston in 2023, by scoring 16 points on 5-16 field goal shooting in the L.A. Clippers' 114-101 loss to Dallas in 2024, and by scoring seven points on 2-8 field goal shooting in the Clippers' 120-101 game seven loss to the Denver Nuggets in 2025 (he provided false hope by scoring 28 points on 10-20 field goal shooting in game six as the Clippers forced a game seven, notching his first elimination game win since 2020). Harden was shaky at best in his first elimination game with Cleveland (18 points on 3-9 field goal shooting, three assists), which foreshadows how he will likely perform in this series versus a team that is more talented and tougher than the Raptors. 

The Cavaliers reached the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2018 despite Harden scoring just 13.5 ppg on 5-19 field goal shooting (.263) in their two game seven wins, as Harden's elimination game resume grows (or shrinks, depending on how one looks at this). 

It is often said that Harden has a high basketball IQ--but a player with a high basketball IQ would not consistently commit careless turnovers during the most important playoff games. Many commentators make excuses for Harden's recent playoff failures by citing his age, but the record demonstrates that Harden was a playoff choker as a young player and during his prime, so his collapses in the biggest playoff moments cannot and should not be attributed to age or to any factor other than a serious shortcoming in Harden's mentality for such high leverage games. 

Harden may produce some good or at least decent performances early in this series, but the Cavaliers cannot count on him if the series extends to six or seven games. If the Cavaliers beat the Knicks they will do so despite Harden, not because of him. There is a heavy burden on Mitchell, Mobley, and Allen to perform not just at the All-Star level that is rightfully expected of them but even higher than that to compensate for Harden's shortcomings. The Cavaliers acquired Harden to be the difference, and he has caused internal problems on previous teams when he did not like his role, so no matter how poorly he plays it is not likely that coach Kenny Atkinson will limit Harden's role or his minutes. Harden leads the Cavaliers in playoff minutes (37.4 mpg) 

New York will win because…the Knicks are the most dominant team in the 2026 NBA playoffs, ranking first in point differential (19.4 ppg), field goal percentage (.517), and three point field goal percentage (.408) while ranking second in scoring (120.4 ppg) and points allowed (101.0 ppg).

Jalen Brunson led the Knicks in scoring (29.0 ppg) as the Knicks swept the 76ers 4-0 in the second round, and his shooting splits during that series (.513/.448/.920) were exceptional. Overall during the 2026 playoffs, he is pacing the Knicks with 27.4 ppg with shooting splits of .485/.409/.864. Brunson is undersized and not a great defensive player, but his efficient clutch shooting makes up for his deficiencies. He is also a good playmaker, ranking second on the team with 6.0 apg versus the 76ers, and he had just seven turnovers in four games.

Karl-Anthony Towns made the All-Star team six times--including each of the last three seasons--as a high scoring big man who also rebounds well, but during the 2026 playoffs he has become an elite passing big man. He led the Knicks with 7.5 apg versus the 76ers while also averaging 15.5 ppg on .618 field goal shooting and ranking second on the team with 8.0 rpg. He is averaging 17.4 ppg, a team-high 10.0 rpg, and a team-high 6.6 apg during the 2026 playoffs. Towns' playmaking may be the biggest surprise of the playoffs; he had never averaged more than 2.6 apg in the playoffs and his playoff single game career-high in assists had been five, but in the 2026 playoffs he has logged his first two postseason triple doubles while posting at least six assists in seven of the Knicks' 10 playoff games.

OG Anunoby averaged 21.0 ppg with a team-high .640 field goal percentage in the first two games versus the 76ers before missing games three and four with a right hamstring strain. He is expected to be available for the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals. Anunoby leads the Knicks in playoff steals (1.9 spg) while ranking second in scoring (21.4 ppg) and blocked shots (1.1 bpg), and third in rebounding (7.5 rpg).

Mikal Bridges (17.5 ppg on .638 field goal shooting) and Josh Hart (10.5 ppg, team-high 8.8 rpg, 4.0 apg, team-high 2.0 spg) also had strong performances versus the 76ers.

Other things to consider: It is fascinating to watch narratives evolve to fit agendas. Before the playoffs began, the Atlanta Hawks were characterized as a dangerous team that could be tough to beat. After the Hawks took a 2-1 lead in their first round series versus the Knicks, commentators could not decide whether to praise the Hawks or blast the Knicks. Then, the Knicks reeled off three straight wins, and the new narrative became that the Hawks were not a very challenging opponent.

The Philadelphia 76ers have been "next year's champion" for many years, and the hype machine ramped up after they came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Boston Celtics in the first round. Media members love to praise Joel Embiid and "The Process," insisting that if Embiid can stay healthy then the 76ers could beat anyone in a seven game series. Spoiler alert: Embiid never stays healthy, and his career playoff series record is 6-8, including 0-6 in the second round. 

The Knicks annihilated the 76ers in the second round, capping off a 4-0 sweep with a record-setting 144-114 game four win; the Knicks tied the NBA playoff record with 11 three pointers in the first quarter, tied the NBA playoff record with 25 three pointers in a game, set a franchise record for most points in a playoff game, and set a franchise record with their seventh consecutive playoff victory. This is the first time the Knicks swept a best of seven playoff series since 1999.

The narrative then shifted from the 76ers being a formidable opponent to the Knicks reaching the Eastern Conference Finals without facing a strong opponent. 

The reality--separated from any narratives and agendas--is that the Knicks' point differential of 19.4 points per game through their first 10 playoff games this year is the best point differential in a 10 game span in NBA playoff history. The Knicks are the fifth team to log multiple 140 games in the same postseason. Unless one makes the implausible argument that the Knicks faced the weakest opposition in the first two rounds in the history of the NBA playoffs, one should give the Knicks credit for starting the playoffs in dominant fashion.

Of course, the Knicks' job is not done: owner James Dolan made it clear prior to this season that he expects this team to win a championship, and that is why he fired successful coach Tom Thibodeau to bring in Mike Brown, who led the Cleveland Cavaliers to the 2007 NBA Finals, and who won the NBA Coach of the Year award in 2009 and 2023. 

Commentators who don't understand basketball have often accused Mike Brown of being a subpar offensive coach and a coach who is not good at making adjustments. When Mike Brown led the Sacramento Kings' high-powered offense, his critics did not admit that they had been wrong about him; instead, they spoke about his alleged "evolution" as a coach. Don't be surprised if Brian Windhorst uncorks another article about Brown's supposed "evolution," because it is unlikely that Windhorst and his narrative-spewing cohorts will admit that they have ever been wrong. 

Brown is an excellent coach who adapts his methods and game plans to the personnel on his roster; he did that in Cleveland, L.A., and Sacramento, and now he is doing it in New York. That is not to say that he has learned nothing during his long coaching career. Anyone who is good at his craft understands the importance of being a lifelong learner--but there is a difference between an accomplished person learning versus a person being deficient and then learning to be competent, and Brown's critics erred by portraying his as deficient. During Brown's first stint in Cleveland, the Cavaliers ranked 15th in scoring and 16th in field goal percentage in the 2005-06 season (his first year as an NBA head coach), and they improved to ninth and third respectively by the 2009-10 season (after which the Cavaliers fired him).

In my recap of game two of the 2021 NBA Finals, I discussed at length ESPN's fascination with mythical adjustments:

Many of ESPN's talking heads have been obsessed for years with "in game adjustments" but Jeff Van Gundy is one of the few ESPN commentators who downplays such talk, perhaps because he is the only current ESPN commentator who has actually coached in the NBA Finals. During the 2010 NBA Finals, Van Gundy explained that playoff series are not decided by in game adjustments because "You are who you are by this time of the year and you have to go with your best stuff and expect them to go with their best stuff." During last night's telecast, Van Gundy made similar points, and after the game he mentioned that NBA games are often decided by one or two key plays, or simply by shots made/missed, and that there are not adjustments that can change those things.

Bill Russell refuted the in game adjustment nonsense years ago, cautioning, "You have to make adjustments that your team can make" and explaining, "When I played, when we had to make adjustments we would adjust not to what we did wrong but we would try to get back to what we did right and do that. That is the only way you can take control of the game," to which I added, "The idea that a coach can come up with something completely new between games--let alone during a 15 minute halftime break--is absurd and that is why San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich gives snarky answers when media members ask him stupid questions about what kind of adjustments he is going to make."

Unfortunately, many NBA commentators do not understand what they are watching, and are incapable of coming up with anything other than declaring that a team lost because that team's coach did not make the right adjustments. Stephen A. Smith repeats this tired refrain after almost every game, not realizing that his nickname is "Screamin' A", not "Strategy A" (though "Strategy F" would be an accurate assessment of what passes for analysis by him).

Perhaps when someone is paid millions of dollars per year to pose as an expert about something for which he does not have anything approaching expert level understanding there is pressure--self-imposed and/or from the bosses who sign those checks--to make bold statements and assertions.

It will be interesting to watch the narratives shift from game to game during this series. 

In my 2025-26 Eastern Conference Preview, I ranked the Knicks as the Eastern Conference's best team, but in my 2025-26 Playoff Predictions I picked the Boston Celtics to win the Eastern Conference Finals; I was impressed by Boston's late season performance after Jayson Tatum's return, and I was concerned about the Knicks' inconsistency. The 76ers punished the Celtics for relying too much on three point shooting instead of attacking the immobile Joel Embiid, while the Knicks found their groove in the playoffs, as documented above.

New York will defeat Cleveland in six games.

Labels: Cleveland Cavaliers, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Jalen Brunson, James Harden, Jarrett Allen, Karl-Anthony Towns, New York Knicks, OG Anunoby

posted by David Friedman @ 12:11 PM

0 comments

Donovan Mitchell Dominates as Cavaliers Rout Pistons to Advance to the Eastern Conference Finals

Donovan Mitchell scored a game-high 26 points, dished for a game-high eight assists, grabbed six rebounds, and did not commit a turnover while leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 125-94 rout of the Detroit Pistons in Detroit in game seven of the second round. Three other Cavaliers scored at least 20 points each: Jarrett Allen had 23 points and seven rebounds after posting 22 points and 19 rebounds in Cleveland's game seven win versus Toronto in the first round, Sam Merrill added 23 points off of the bench while shooting 5-8 from three point range, and Evan Mobley contributed 21 points, a game-high 12 rebounds, and six assists. 

The Cavaliers shot 43-85 from the field (.506) while holding the Pistons to 30-85 field goal shooting (.353), and the Cavaliers dominated the Pistons in points in the paint (58-34) and rebounding (50-41). The Cavaliers will travel to New York for the first two games of the Eastern Conference Finals, with game one tipping off on Tuesday night.  

The Pistons led 3-2 at the 11:14 mark of the first quarter, and then it was all downhill for the home team after that moment. The Cavaliers outscored the Pistons 31-22 in the first quarter, capped off by Mitchell banking in a buzzer beating 38 foot three pointer. The Cavaliers extended the lead to 20 points in the second quarter, enjoyed a 64-47 halftime advantage, and led by double figures the rest of the way, pushing the margin as high as 35 points in the second half. Allen and Merrill paced the Cavaliers with 15 first half points each before Mitchell put the game out of reach by exploding for 15 third quarter points.

After winning just 14 games in 2023-24, the Pistons climbed to 44 wins last season, and then had an East-leading 60 wins this season, establishing themselves as an elite defensive team that relied heavily on Cade Cunningham to score (23.9 ppg in the regular season, 28.1 ppg during the playoffs) and to create scoring opportunities for his teammates (9.9 apg in the regular season, 7.5 apg during the playoffs). In game seven, the Pistons' vaunted defense collapsed under the pressure of Mitchell's drives, Merrill's three point shooting, and dives to the hoop by Allen and Mobley. Cunningham authored the lowest scoring game of his brief playoff career (13 points on 5-16 field goal shooting), tying Duncan Robinson for second on the team behind Daniss Jenkins' 17 points. Cunningham was leading the playoffs in scoring (29.3 ppg) before disappearing in game seven (last night's performance dropped him to second place behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander), but he also committed a league-worst 79  turnovers in 14 playoff games (5.6 tpg). For the Pistons to make deeper playoff runs, Cunningham must be more efficient offensively but he also needs more help. Jalen Duren earned his first All-Star selection this season, but he was a non-factor during most of this series, and he mustered just seven points along with nine rebounds in game seven after averaging 19.5 ppg and 10.5 rpg during the regular season. Duren averaged 10.2 ppg and 8.5 rpg in the playoffs.

You may have noticed a very prominent name that is missing so far in this game recap--and that name is missing because he was missing in action during game seven: James Harden lived up to his deserved reputation for disappearing when his team faces elimination, scoring just nine points on 2-10 field goal shooting. After the Cavaliers traded Darius Garland for James Harden, I predicted, "I can write the template for the Cavaliers' 2026 elimination game loss now, and after the game I can fill in the blanks around the words 'James Harden disappeared' and 'James Harden scored just xxx second half points.'" The Cavaliers have not been eliminated from the 2026 playoffs, but they advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals despite Harden, not because of him, and in this game seven James Harden disappeared and James Harden scored just three second half points on 1-6 field goal shooting. If Harden had not been carried by Mitchell, Allen, Mobley, and Merrill then this would have been yet another winnable elimination game that Harden's team lost because Harden's performance fell well short of reasonable expectations. Channeling the late Denny Green, Harden is who I thought he was, but the Pistons let him (and the Cavaliers) off the hook. The best thing that can be said about Harden's game seven performance is that he only had one turnover, but the main reason for that is that the Cavaliers wisely took the ball out of his hands and put the ball into Mitchell's more capable hands. 

It is surprising that neither the Amazon Prime crew nor ESPN's SportsCenter anchors even mentioned in passing that Harden--selected as a member of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team and acquired by the Cavaliers because he was expected to help the team advance past the second round en route to winning the NBA title--played so poorly in the Cavaliers' most important game of the season thus far. Would Kobe Bryant or Russell Westbrook have escaped condemnation for a 2-10 game seven shooting performance if their teams had won despite them and not because of them? The answer to that rhetorical question is obvious, and speaks volumes about the narratives that dominate media-driven conversations not just about sports but about many topics.

After Harden fled Oklahoma City in 2012 because he did not want to be the Thunder's third option behind Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, I declared, "Harden is a very good player but all of his weaknesses will be exposed in Houston if the Rockets expect him to be a franchise player. Harden is not an All-NBA First or Second Team caliber player. He is not someone who can draw double teams over the course of an 82 game season and then carry a team deep into the playoffs as the number one option. He is not Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant or LeBron James." Although Harden subsequently accumulated a bunch of regular season honors--including multiple All-NBA selections and even one regular season MVP--my assessment of his inability to lead a team to a championship as the number one option proved to be right on target, and his performances during the 2026 playoffs emphasize that point: the Cavaliers survived game seven versus the Toronto Raptors in the first round even though Harden managed just 18 points on 3-9 field goal shooting, and then they routed the Pistons in this game seven despite Harden not making a meaningful contribution. You might think, "Who cares as long as the team is winning?"--but the potential problem for the Cavaliers if they don't win two more playoff series this year is that they gave up young All-Star Darius Garland to overpay old All-Star Harden, so if this all-in move does not result in winning a title then the Cavaliers lack the financial flexibility needed to improve the roster. The Cavaliers had the league's highest payroll in 2025-26, topping the Knicks by nearly $6 million. 

Harden's resume in games when his team faced elimination since leaving Oklahoma City includes a 5-13 team record, 21.4 ppg on .385 field goal shooting, and 4.67 tpg. Two of those five wins are with this year's Cavaliers, and Harden's numbers in those two wins are 13.5 ppg on 5-19 field goal shooting (.263) with three turnovers. Harden has become less of a turnover machine in elimination games since 2022, but that can be attributed to him not handling the ball as much in those games.

Don't fall for the hype that Harden used to be a great playoff performer but now his numbers are going down because he is getting older. Harden averaged 29.2 ppg and a league-leading/career-high 11.2 apg in the 2016-17 regular season, but he had just 10 points on 2-11 field goal shooting with six turnovers as his Houston Rockets lost to the San Antonio Spurs 114-75 in game six of the second round. Recently, Sirius XM NBA Radio host Amin Elhassan--who loves to take potshots at all-time greats Bob Cousy and Russell Westbrook--defended Harden's playoff career by asserting that Harden is never given credit for having notched 11 40-point games in the postseason. That comment misses the larger point: no one is suggesting that Harden is incapable of playing well in the playoffs or that he has never played well in some playoff games; the problem--irrefutably shown by the numbers cited above--is that when Harden's team needs him most he often disappears and his team loses the vast majority of those games. The fact that two of Harden's five career wins in games when his team faced elimination happened this season with Harden in a secondary (or lower) role behind Mitchell just reinforces the main point that I have been hammering home about Harden for 14 years: Harden is a talented player whose game and mentality are not well-suited for being the number one option on a championship contending team.

Despite Harden disappearing in game seven, the Cavaliers have reached the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2018, which was LeBron James' last season with the team. This is a significant accomplishment for Mitchell--who has made the playoffs in each of his nine NBA seasons but had never advanced past the second round until now--and for the big man tandem of Mobley (2025 All-Star and Defensive Player of the Year) and Allen (2022 All-Star) as the franchise tries to move out from James' shadow.

Labels: Cade Cunningham, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Jalen Durden, James Harden, Jarrett Allen

posted by David Friedman @ 8:45 AM

0 comments

Thoughts About the Second Round: "Playoff Harden," Red Hot Knicks, Redick's Rhetoric, and San Antonio's Youth Versus Minnesota's Experience

The James Harden playoff era with the Cleveland Cavaliers began 2-0 but has taken a predictably downhill trajectory after that auspicious start: Harden amassed 38 turnovers and 35 field goals made in his next seven playoff game while shooting .385 from the field, and the Cavaliers are 2-5 in those games. In his last four playoff games, Harden has shot 17-51 (.333) from the field while committing 17 turnovers, and the Cavaliers are 1-3 in those games, with the one win happening mainly because Jarrett Allen had a double double in the third quarter versus a shorthanded Toronto team. 

The Detroit Pistons lead the Cavaliers 2-0 in their second round series after opening game two with a 14-5 run before winning, 107-97. The second game looked much like the first game, a 111-101 Pistons victory. Harden had 22 points on 6-15 field goal shooting with seven assists and seven turnovers in the first game before fully activating "Playoff Harden" mode in game two: 10 points on 3-13 field goal shooting, three assists, and four turnovers--a "concert tour" field goal percentage combined with his trademark "Harden" (a game in which a player--usually Harden, hence the name--has more turnovers than field goals made).

It is baffling that the Cavaliers' front office believed that Harden would be the missing piece for a championship run, and it is bizarre to hear his coach and teammates publicly praise his basketball IQ, his playoff experience, and his leadership. High basketball IQ players do not consistently have more turnovers than field goals made in the most important games, experience means nothing if the experience consists of choking while losing, and leadership is supposed to mean helping a group or a team complete a mission, not being a major reason that a group or a team fails to complete a mission.

I am trying to picture how Harden exercises leadership by sharing his high basketball IQ playoff experiences in the Cavaliers' locker room: does he wax poetic about when he had seven points on 2-8 field goal shooting in last year's 120-101 elimination game loss to the Denver Nuggets, or does he speak in general about shooting .399 from the field while averaging 5.9 tpg as his teams went 2-9 in his first 11 elimination games after he fled Oklahoma City? 

When it matters most, you can count on Harden to consistently do four things: 1) shoot less often than usual (which throws off the rhythm of his team), 2) shoot a lousy percentage from the field, 3) turn the ball over at a high rate, and 4) be slow to get back on defense after turning the ball over.  

Harden's awful play should not completely distract from how the Pistons are manhandling 2025 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Evan Mobley, who had one more rebound than a dead man in game two. The Cavaliers are a low energy team, and it is safe to say that Harden's careless, desultory play is not energizing any of his teammates. A great player cannot control how his teammates play, but a great player typically has an impact that makes his team better, particularly in the games that matter most. Harden is labeled as a great player, but his impact on team success does not match that label.

The series shifts to Cleveland for the next two games. It took the Pistons seven games to eliminate the Orlando Magic in the first round, so it would not be surprising if the Cavaliers win a game or even two at home, but it will be very surprising if the Cavaliers win four of the next five games to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. After the Cavaliers acquired Harden in exchange for Darius Garland, I declared, "I can write the template for the Cavaliers' 2026 elimination game loss now, and after the game I can fill in the blanks around the words 'James Harden disappeared' and 'James Harden scored just xxx second half points.'" That article is in draft mode now, and I expect to post it sooner rather than later.

In the Eastern Conference's other second round series, the New York Knicks are on an impressive run since falling behind 2-1 to the Atlanta Hawks in the first round. The Knicks lead the Philadelphia 76ers 2-0 after humiliating the 76ers 137-98 in the series opener before surviving game two, 108-102. After seeing the Knicks drive by Joel Embiid as if he were a traffic cone in game one, the Boston Celtics should be sick to their stomachs about jacking up 49 three pointers in their 109-100 game seven loss to the 76ers; if they had attacked Embiid to wear him out and get him in foul trouble then it is likely that they would have earned the right to battle the Knicks in the second round. Embiid missed game two versus the Knicks due to ankle and hip injuries, and he is listed as questionable for game three. He is still a force in the paint offensively when he wants to be, but sliding his feet on defense--or even staying upright--has been challenging for him. Embiid exploited the Celtics' inexperienced centers, but the Knicks have the size and strength to battle with him, so in some ways that 76ers look better without him--at least in this particular matchup.

Turning our attention to the Western Conference, J.J. Redick's postgame press conferences after losses are fascinating. According to Redick, his team's losses can primarily be attributed to not following the game plan. Put another way, if only his players were smart enough and disciplined enough to execute his brilliant game plans then the L.A. Lakers would never lose. When asked about specific things he could tell his players, Redick consistently says "I have already conveyed that message to them" or words to that effect. In other words, "I told them everything that they need to know to be successful, so if they fail then that is their fault, not mine."

As a player, Redick never won a championship in college or in the NBA. It is interesting to listen to press conferences of championship coaches on the rare occasions when their teams lose; they tend to give credit to the opposing team, and they tend to accept blame for things that they could have done better. Bill Belichick has won more Super Bowls than any coach--and his Super Bowl-winning defensive game plan from Super Bowl XXV when he was the New York Giants' defensive coordinator is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame--but when his teams lost he would often say that he has to coach better and the players have to play better. When was the last time that Redick admitted that he needs to coach better? 

Last year, Redick's Lakers lost 4-1 in the first round to the Minnesota Timberwolves, after which I discussed the biggest mismatch in the series: 

The Lakers' late collapses versus the Timberwolves can be explained at least partially by coaching. It is important that a coach understand matchups, time and score, the rhythm of the game, and the fatigue level of his players. The Lakers had the two best individual players in this series--four-time NBA champion LeBron James, and Luka Doncic, who led the Dallas Mavericks to the NBA Finals last year--but the Timberwolves exploited their matchup advantages in the paint while keeping James and Doncic reasonably under control without creating openings for the Lakers' supporting cast to make an impact.

The Timberwolves enjoyed a significant coaching advantage: Chris Finch versus J.J. Redick may have been the biggest mismatch in this series. Redick established multiple records in his playoff coaching debut: no coach had ever played the same five players for every minute of the second half of a playoff game until Redick did that in the game four loss, and no Lakers team had ever lost in the first round of the playoffs while seeded at least third. Redick set an unofficial record for the fewest times that a coach ever took responsibility for his team's loss.

Finch led the Timberwolves to the Western Conference Finals last year, and he is now the first coach in franchise history to advance past the first round in back to back seasons. In contrast, Redick is a first year NBA coach with no prior coaching experience beyond the youth level, and his NBA playoff coaching resume now shows a 1-4 record while coaching the third seeded team versus the sixth seeded team. When a reporter asked Redick a reasonable question about his substitution patterns, Redick arrogantly scoffed, "Weird assumption" before storming out of the press conference. Redick's combination of arrogance with lack of knowledge is not likely to lead to sustained success.

This year, the shorthanded Lakers beat the shorthanded, dysfunctional Houston Rockets 4-2 in the first round to give Redick his first playoff series win as a coach, but now they are halfway toward being swept in the second round. The Thunder are without the services of their second best player, Jalen Williams (grade 1 left hamstring strain), but they posted the NBA's best regular season despite him missing most of the season, and it is evident that they don't need him to beat the Lakers, who are missing their best player as Luka Doncic recovers from a left hamstring injury. The Thunder keep rolling along because they minimize distractions/drama while collectively playing hard and smart at both ends of the court. 

After the Thunder dispatch the Lakers, they will face the winner of the San Antonio-Minnesota series. The Minnesota Timberwolves may be the NBA's version of Rasputin--any time you count them out, they rise to the occasion. Maybe we should not be surprised that a team that has reached the Western Conference Finals each of the past two years is resilient and tough. The Thunder lost Donte DiVincenzo to a season-ending torn right Achilles, Ayo Dosunmu is out with calf and heel injuries, and Anthony Edwards is hobbling around with a left knee hyperextension and bone bruise, but the Timberwolves took out the Denver Nuggets in six games in the first round before beating the Spurs 104-102 in game one to steal homecourt advantage. The Spurs bounced back to win game two 133-95 but now must play the next two games in Minnesota. The Timberwolves are a veteran team with a lot of positive recent playoff experience, while the Spurs' key rotation players have very little playoff experience. The Spurs need to get a split on the road to regain homecourt advantage, and two wins would put them in the driver's seat heading back home for game five. Game three will tell us a lot about how long this series will last, because this is the Spurs' first real postseason challenge after winning 4-1 in the first round versus the outmatched Portland Trail Blazers. I picked the Spurs to beat the Timberwolves in six games, and if the teams split the next two games then we are probably on track for that result, because I expect the shorthanded Timberwolves to wear down as this series progresses.

Labels: Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, J.J. Redick, James Harden, L.A. Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Philadelphia 76ers, San Antonio Spurs

posted by David Friedman @ 9:31 AM

1 comments

Detroit Versus Cleveland Preview

Eastern Conference Second Round

#1 Detroit Pistons (60-22) vs. #4 Cleveland (52-30)

Season series: Tied, 2-2

Cleveland can win if…Donovan Mitchell and James Harden form a reliable 1-2 scoring punch while Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen dominate in the paint. The Cavaliers, who have looked soft at times this season, must meet force with force at both ends of the court.

Mitchell led the Cavaliers in scoring during the regular season (27.9 ppg with shooting splits of .483/.364/.865) and he led the Cavaliers in scoring during their 4-3 first round win over the Toronto Raptors (23.1 ppg with shooting splits of .438/.333/.875). The obvious differences are that both his scoring and his field goal shooting dropped precipitously from the regular season to the playoffs. His regular season scoring and field goal percentage both were just below his career high numbers (28.3 ppg and .484 field goal shooting in 2022-23), but his playoff scoring is on pace to be the second-worst of his nine postseason appearances. After scoring 32 points and 30 points as the Cavaliers won the first two games of the series, Mitchell scored 24 points or less in each of the next five games. Mitchell's playoff career has been filled with highs--including leading the league in playoff scoring in 2020 (36.3 ppg on .529 field goal shooting)--and lows, but his teams are 0-4 in second round series, which dulls the shine of his 27.8 ppg career playoff scoring average (seventh best all-time).

Harden averaged 20.6 ppg and a team-high 6.1 apg versus the Raptors, numbers that are in line with his regular season numbers in the 26 games he played with the Cavaliers (20.5 ppg, 7.7 apg)--but Harden's turnovers jumped from 3.2 tpg in the regular season with Cleveland to 5.1 tpg versus the Raptors. His playoff career includes "concert tour" field percentages, and so many games with more turnovers than field goals made that such inverted performances should be called "Hardens." He posted "Hardens" in Cleveland's losses in game three (eight turnovers, five field goals made) and game four (seven turnovers, six field goals made) versus Toronto. Harden's resume prior to 2022 in games when his team faced elimination included a 2-9 record, .399 field goal percentage, and an average of nearly six turnovers per game, and then he added more sad lines to that resume by scoring 11 points on 4-9 field goal shooting in Philadelphia's 99-90 loss to Miami in 2022, by scoring nine points on 3-11 field goal shooting in Philadelphia's 112-88 loss to Boston in 2023, by scoring 16 points on 5-16 field goal shooting in the L.A. Clippers' 114-101 loss to Dallas in 2024, and by scoring seven points on 2-8 field goal shooting in the Clippers' 120-101 game seven loss to the Denver Nuggets in 2025 (he provided false hope by scoring 28 points on 10-20 field goal shooting in game six as the Clippers forced a game seven, notching his first elimination game win since 2020). Harden was shaky at best in his first elimination game with Cleveland (18 points on 3-9 field goal shooting, three assists), which foreshadows how he will likely perform in this series versus a team that is more talented and tougher than the Raptors.

After the Cavaliers acquired Harden in exchange for Darius Garland, I declared, "I can write the template for the Cavaliers' 2026 elimination game loss now, and after the game I can fill in the blanks around the words 'James Harden disappeared' and 'James Harden scored just xxx second half points.'" Nothing that I saw in the Toronto series made me alter the article template that I prepared for Cleveland's elimination game loss.

The Evan Mobley-Tim Duncan comparisons are delusional, but when Mobley is at his best he is one of the top big men in the league. He ranked third on the team in scoring versus Toronto (18.1 ppg) while leading the team in rebounding (8.6 rpg). Mobley is a very good player, but he is not a dominant player in the way that Duncan controlled the action at both ends of the court.

Charles Barkley often says that Jarrett Allen seems too nice, and the first six games of the Toronto series validated that observation, but Allen showed a little nastiness just in time to save the Cavaliers in game seven with a game-high tying 22 points, a game-high 19 rebounds, and a game-high three blocked shots. Allen had a double double in the third quarter alone (14 points, 11 rebounds) as the Cavaliers outscored the Raptors 38-19. Allen's dominating performance saved the day, and let Harden off the hook despite his typically erratic elimination game field goal shooting.

Detroit will win because...the Pistons are more physical than the Cavaliers and because Cade Cunningham is the best player on either team.

Cavaliers versus Pistons is the NBA's version of a "run and shoot" NFL offense versus a team that plays "ground and pound" offense while knocking you around on defense. During the regular season, the Pistons ranked 28th in three point field goals made but they finished third in field goal percentage, third in points allowed, and third in defensive field goal percentage; during the playoffs, the Pistons rank 16th (last) in three point field goals made per game, but first in points allowed and first in defensive field goal percentage. Granted, the Pistons' playoff defensive numbers are boosted by playing the Orlando Magic, who just fired coach Jamahl Mosley in no small part because of the Magic's historically inept offense, but the Pistons will pose far more challenges for the Cavaliers than the Raptors did.

Cunningham seems poised to be an MVP candidate and All-NBA Team member for years to come after averaging 23.9 ppg and 9.9 apg (second in the league) during the regular season before averaging 32.4 ppg and 7.1 apg as the Pistons defeated the Magic, 4-3. He is taller, bigger, and younger than Mitchell and Harden, and--unlike the Cavaliers' guards--he consistently plays hard on defense in addition to running the Pistons' offense.

Jalen Duren disappeared at times versus Orlando, but he came up big in Detroit's 116-04 game seven win (15 points, game-high 15 rebounds), and he averaged a team-high 9.4 rpg during the series. He is an efficient scorer (.528 field goal percentage versus the Magic) who understands his limitations (he did not attempt a three pointer in the first round). The Pistons need him to be productive versus Mobley and Allen.

Tobias Harris has made a career out of being the third option but in the first round he averaged 21.6 ppg, trailing only Cunningham. He erupted for 30 points in game seven.

Ausar Thompson provides defense, rebounding (8.7 rpg versus the Magic) and efficient scoring (8.1 ppg on .510 field goal shooting versus the Magic), while Duncan Robinson is a three point sniper whose defense is much improved. 

Other things to consider: The Cavaliers fired J.B. Bickerstaff in 2024 after he led the team to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2018. His replacement Kenny Atkinson won the 2025 NBA Coach of the Year award after leading the Cavaliers to the Eastern Conference's best record (64-18) but the Cavaliers again lost in the second round. Meanwhile, after the Pistons hired Bickerstaff in 2024 their win total jumped from 14 to 44, and Bickerstaff finished second to Atkinson in the Coach of the Year voting. This season, the Pistons posted the Eastern Conference's best record while the Cavaliers regressed to the fourth seed. This playoff series cannot provide a definitive verdict on Cleveland's decision to replace Bickerstaff with Atkinson, but the overall trendline of the past two seasons seems to favor Detroit over Cleveland.

Speaking of coaching, it must be mentioned that both teams were pushed to seven games by lower seeded first round opponents.

Cunningham is the seventh player to have at least 30 points (team-high 32) and at least 10 assists (game-high 12) in a game seven as he led the Pistons to a comeback from a 3-1 deficit versus the eighth seeded Magic. It is not surprising that the Pistons won the series, but it is baffling that the offensively challenged Magic--who scored less than 100 points in four of the seven games--beat the Pistons three times. 

The Cavaliers jumped out to a 2-0 series lead but then struggled to close out the undermanned Raptors, who finished the series without the services of leading regular season scorer Brandon Ingram (left heel injury suffered in game five) and starting point guard Immanuel Quickley (who missed the entire series with a right hamstring strain). In game seven, the Cavaliers trailed 47-38 with 2:58 remaining in the first half before tying the score at 49-49 by halftime. The Cavaliers opened the third quarter with a 9-0 run, and they maintained a double digit lead for the final 16:53 of the game thanks to strong second half performances by Allen (16 points on 5-8 field goal shooting, 14 rebounds) and Mitchell (15 points on 6-11 field goal shooting) to overcome a typical Harden disappearing act in the second half of an elimination game (eight points on 1-4 field goal shooting). 

Before beating the Magic, the Pistons had not won a playoff series since 2008, while the Cavaliers have not advanced past the second round since LeBron James led them to the 2018 NBA Finals. Playoff experience matters, but when neither team has meaningful collective playoff experience other important factors have added weight. Such factors include which team has the best player, which team is more physical, which team plays better defense, and which team has homecourt advantage. The Pistons have the advantage in all of those categories.

Detroit will defeat Cleveland in six games.

Labels: Cade Cunningham, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Jalen Durden, James Harden, Jarrett Allen, Tobias Harris

posted by David Friedman @ 2:10 PM

0 comments