Pistons’ Game 1 Cavs ‘killer’ emerges with so much attention on Cade Cunningham

The Cleveland Cavaliers came into Tuesday’s second-round NBA playoff matchup knowing that Cade Cunningham would be the head of the snake for the Detroit Pistons in Game 1. Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson referred to him as “the leader” in his pregame press conference.

“He has a ball in his hands a lot,” Atkinson said. “But this team did win 60 games, not just because of him. So, they have really good players surrounding him. Really good bench. That’s hurt us in the past. So yes, definitely a big concentration on him, but Tobias [Harris] is playing great. [Jalen] Duren obviously, he’s given us a lot of problems during the regular season with his rebounding, force to the rim. So it’ll be a great team challenge for us.”

Atkinson was correct in his assessment, except he didn’t name the player who turned out to be Detroit’s X-factor.

“Unfortunately, Duncan Robinson gets free,” Atkinson said postgame. “That was a killer, right? He got free for some frustrating ones for us, right? You’ve got to chase him. You’ve got to stay attached, and I thought that was a big key.”

Robinson scored 13 of his 19 points in the second half, snaking around the half-court and taking sharp angles to drag defenders with him into bodies. He was 5-of-8 from beyond the arc, and on one closeout from Donovan Mitchell, he dribbled to his right for a paint drive for a finish with a foul.

“They’ve got some good screeners, one. Two, that’s kinda his game style,” Keon Ellis said after Game 1. “He knows that guys are gonna be on him. He’s gonna run through multiple screens, and you have to be willing to chase him off multiple screens. I think he knows that his game, and him shooting off of screens, he’s elite at that, too. So I mean that’s just how he is, and you’ve got to know that coming in. He got a couple of clean looks, and he was able to knock ’em down.”

Cavs assess job defending Pistons star Cade Cunningham

An NBA MVP candidate on a 60-win team, Cunningham is going to make his opponents pay one way or another. In the regular season, the Cavs were one of his worst matchups, though, so it was unknown how the playoffs would look. In the series opener, the 24-year-old star was the engine of Detroit’s attack, but it was a standard performance for a player of his caliber.

Jarrett Allen was sidelined for over half of Game 1 in foul trouble, which takes Cleveland’s top rim protector out of the equation and messes with the rotations. Even without him, however, this was a pretty decent job from the Wine and Gold on Detroit’s most dangerous weapon.

Despite him producing 23 points, 7 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals in a game-high 41 minutes, Cleveland held Cunningham to 6-of-19 from the field with four turnovers, throwing literally everybody his way. Dean Wade spent 5:15 on him, doubling his regular-season coverage time. Jaylon Tyson, who guarded Cunningham the fourth-most amount of time in the league, was tasked with the assignment for 2:32.

“Jaylon has big size,” Atkinson said before the game. “That’s important on Cade, it’s hard to put smaller guys on him. So Jaylon’s good at harassing and making him work. He obviously can get resistance on those midposts, mid-range stuff. It’s important to have a guy that can contest those because Cade’s one of those elite mid-range shooters.

“This will be by committee. Cade can’t just get one defender or one look. You’ve got to mix up coverages, mix up defenders. So definitely, JT will spend some time on it.”

Max Strus and Donovan Mitchell were the other two who defended Cunningham for over two minutes of court time each, and James Harden ended up doing so for 1:27. Of those who were the most effective, Strus held him to 1-of-4 from the field, which was a three-ball, and no free throws. Tyson and Harden didn’t allow a field goal, although the former committed a foul on a triple try.

“It’s pretty good. It can be a lot better,” Harden said of the job the Cavs did collectively. “I mean, obviously, we know who Cade is and what he’s capable of and what he’s been doing. And it’s not just one person’s job. It’s all of our job to make it difficult on him, not just him, but this entire team, but we know he is the head of the snake.

“So we’ve got to be better at figuring out ways that we can make it more difficult for him and more difficult for Duncan Robinson with five threes, things like that, to where we can control. And we’ll have a better chance in Game 2.”

Ellis was given a look as well against Cunningham despite not playing in Cleveland’s last three playoff games.

“I think we were solid,” Ellis said. “I think we could still make it tougher on him to try to throw him off of his normal routine.”

“I think we can still do better, honestly,” Evan Mobley added, in agreement with his teammates. “But there was some spurts where we made it difficult on him and didn’t let him get the ball sometimes. I think we just got to do that more and more, especially throughout this whole entire series, and just wear him down as much as possible.”

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