BDL’s 2015-16 NBA Playoff Previews: Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Detroit Pistons

One of the wackier NBA regular seasons in history is over, for better or worse, and the two-month playoff run is set to begin. With the first round upon us, the minds at Ball Don’t Lie decided to preview each series. We start with Cleveland and Detroit.

How They Got Here

• Cleveland: The typical way. The 82-game practice run is over and yet nobody knows if these guys like or can play with each other, a coach got fired, LeBron James acted truly weird at times … and yet the Cavs still look like championship contenders at times.

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Cleveland won 57 games on the back of a sterling, third-ranked offense and the individual brilliance of James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love. Former coach David Blatt was sacked after a 30-11 start to the season, and replacement coach Tyronn Lue actually turned in three fewer wins during the same half-season term (with the caveat that James rested for five of those games, of which the Cavs lost four).

If you’re just checking in now, the Cavaliers didn’t suffer the sort of slow starts that the 2014-15 version did, as an opening night loss to the Bulls was followed by an eight game winning streak. The same lacking cohesion from last season, however, carried over as even during wins the Cavs did not look like the sort of on-a-string outfit that would roll its way into the playoffs.

The inevitable comparisons to the record-setting Golden State Warriors helped make the Cavs, even on a 60-win pace in a Conference that saw two hoped-for rivals (Chicago and Washington) fall completely out of the playoff bracket, hardly helped. This is why Blatt, apparently, had to go.

Lue responded with the same hallmarks that every new coach gives either in-season or pre-season, demanding his team push the ball and play stricter defense, but the Cavs (28th in pace, 10th in defense) were hardly world-beaters in that area. James’ strong finish was someone mitigated by a slow end to the season by Irving, and the team even entered the season’s third-to-last night with a mathematical chance to dive down to the East’s second season.

• Detroit: Through seven years of storm and stress.

President and head coach Stan Van Gundy isn’t working with a roster he put together completely on his own, as Andre Drummond and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope are holdovers from Joe Dumars’ time running the team. There’s just a strain of competence, professionalism and drive that wasn’t there in years’ past.

There’s been no great personnel blowup, save for the slow and exactly process that saw former Pistons big man Greg Monroe slowly turn down mild contract extension advances from the Pistons prior to leaving for Milwaukee last summer. SVG, who lost a chance to draft in 2014 (Dumars sent that pick to Charlotte to free himself of an onerous contract he agreed to), selected Stanley Johnson eighth overall last June.

Still the team has improved to a point that its 44-38 final mark finds the team at six games over .500 for the first time all season. That’s decidedly mediocre, but after years away from relevance Pistons fans will take it.

Van Gundy did swing one major move at the trade deadline, shipping reserve guard and eventual free agent Brandon Jennings to Orlando for hybrid forward Tobias Harris. Harris responded with a fantastic finish to the year, averaging 16.6 points and over six boards in only 33 minutes a night.

Still, a late season abdominal strain to guard Reggie Jackson, Van Gundy’s trade deadline acquisition the previous year, has put the momentum on hold.

Head-to-Head

Detroit won the season series 3-1.

Now, one of those wins came on the season’s final night, with only Tristan Thompson showing up from the Cavalier starting unit as James, Irving, Love and J.R. Smith sat out, as Cavalier signee Dahntay Jones (who wasn’t even on the team a day and a half prior) and unheralded rookie Jordan McRae (36 points) had to lead the pack. Still, the Pistons prevailed while working without the injured Jackson, while Caldwell-Pope and Drummond also sat. In Cleveland, the B-team Pistons downed the B-team Cavaliers by a 112-110 overtime score.

Timofey Mozgov was allowed to get significant reps in Wednesday’s game in order to work himself back into shape after offseason knee surgery. That same shape and surgery, sadly, was the excuse-rife thinking behind Andre Drummond’s massive 25-point, 18-rebound domination of Mozgov all the way back in November, when the Pistons prevailed 104-96. The Pistons dominated the offensive glass while the since-traded Ersan Ilyasova hit four of six three-pointers.

Cleveland’s lone win of the season over the Detroit came on Jan. 29, when Mozgov and Tristan Thompson (now starting ahead of Timofey) combined for 22 rebounds in just about a full game at center, while James, Love and Irving all scored over 20 points on their way toward 77 in total. Cleveland won in Auburn Hills as well, with a 114-106 score.

In his worst shooting game of the season, however, LeBron missed 13 of 18 shots and turned the ball over six times in Detroit’s 96-88 win over Cleveland on Feb. 22. All five Pistons scored in double-figures.

Likely Starting Lineups

The Cavaliers have already announced that Thompson will start ahead of Timofey Mozgov in the playoffs, and this was with the knowledge that either Andre Drummond or Indiana’s bruising Ian Mahinmi was locked in as a first round opponent. Outside of that year-long flip-flop, Cleveland’s lineup has remained the same: Kevin Love, LeBron James, J.R. Smith and Kyrie Irving have started in each of the games they’ve played this season.

Joining Drummond up front will be the similar stylings of Tobias Harris and Marcus Morris. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope mans the off guard position, though the point guard situation remains in flux. With Reggie Jackson out due to that abdominal strain on Wednesday, Stan Van Gundy went with Steve Blake, who managed a tidy 13 points on 5-7 shooting with six assists, with Spencer Dimwiddie in reserve.

Neither are full time answers at the position, however, and nor is recent signee Lorenzo Brown (who, after the late transaction, didn’t make it to the team in time to see token minutes against Cleveland).

Matchups to watch

• Reggie Jackson vs. his strain: These injuries tend to linger, which is the most frustrating part of this. Players, even after rest and rehab, can go entire seasons still feeling the after-effects of a midseason abdominal strain, and for Jackson to suffer his in the last week of the regular season is just cruel.

Reggie Jackson is the force that pushes this team, and if he’s not around to drive things the Pistons are in deep trouble. Stan Van Gundy wasn’t wrong to deal Brandon Jennings in February, he was superfluous at the time and Harris has been a great pickup. It was absolutely a winning trade for the Pistons.

Still, what Detroit wouldn’t give for another look at the lefty right now …

• LeBron James vs. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope: Were everyone in full health, this would absolutely be at the top of the marquee.

KCP gives LeBron James (and most other opponents, while we’re at it) fits. LeBron’s worst shooting games both this season and last came with Caldwell-Pope roaming around, and while he might not begin the game on James (as well he shouldn’t, at a slight 6-5 and with athletic types like Morris and Harris around), his presence in the general vicinity is enough.

• Kevin Love vs. The Stretch Forwards: It will act as a theme all postseason long.

Love himself is a stretch power forward. Or, at least, his coaching staff wants to turn him into one. He still has issues making his way out past the three-point line in order to close out against those who like to face up – as does his reserve stretch four, Channing Frye. Marcus Morris and Tobias Harris aren’t exactly lights out from behind the arc, but they both shoot around the league average from there and can make life hell on opposing defenses.

How Cleveland Can Win

The Cavs have to find a way to send all bodies to the glass on both ends. In a league that has basically given the kiss off sign to offensive rebounds, the Pistons go after the glass on that end not because Stan Van Gundy views himself as some sort of against-the-grain iconoclast, but because he’s playing the hand he’s been dealt. Meanwhile, the Cavs have to find some creative way to make a consistently efficient scorer out of James. For once, it’s not Love and Irving we’re worried about.

How Detroit Can Win

It all starts with Jackson. If he’s unavailable or even limited, the Pistons turn into an entirely different team. Reggie missed three games this season, and the only win amongst the trio came against Cleveland’s C-team on Wednesday.

If Jackson springs back to life at an approximation of where he was pre-injury, the template is already in place: Detroit took three of four from Cleveland this year by pounding the glass and talking defensively. They’re a decidedly average team in all areas, but against Cleveland the team’s rebounding and matchup attributes tend to stick out.

Totally Subjective Entertainment Value Ranking: 7 out of 10

(Yes, a Pistons team. Ranked that high.)

Were it any other opponent for Detroit, this would be a snoozer. The Pistons have long been one of the league’s more insufferable teams to watch, which is saying something because the squad never really bottomed out to the dregs of the NBA standings. With a healthy Reggie Jackson, though, they provide a matchup element for the Cavaliers that could be fantastic to watch.

That’s if Reggie’s healthy. If he isn’t, drop the score down five points. Even when Cleveland wins, as fun as those stars can be sometimes, the show is so dispassionate and joyless that you’d rather be elsewhere.

Prediction:

With Reggie Jackson?

Cavaliers in six.

Without him?

I’m not watching.

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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops