Pistons rally for 104-99 win over Cavs despite James’ 30

Which team is the real Detroit Pistons?

The Cavaliers lost their second consecutive game Tuesday night, and LeBron James is not happy. Drummond has had a double-double in all 11 games this season.

It’s clear the Cavs are frustrated with the way they’re playing. Like, we lost in the Finals. Beat the Lakers, and you had a good trip. It’s never that simple. The Pistons’ 6-5 start following Tuesday’s inspired win over the Cavaliers puts them precisely where they deserve to be. As a result, teams would no longer be able to waltz around down low the second James casts Cleveland’s center a mean glare. If this reared-up James is here to stay, verbal lashings and all, then the rest of the Eastern Conference better brace itself for a nightly fight whenever it takes on the King. “We need to toughen up”, Blatt admitted.

Andre Drummond is a double-double machine down low. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is maturing each week as a shooter and a scorer.

Call that a nice bounce-back for Reggie Jackson.

“It’s not always about being Iron Man”, said James, who averaged 33.5 points and 9.0 rebounds in their last two games. There have been so many snapshots of this during just the first 11 games. “I still had a few turnovers, five, I guess, but I knew I just had to be aggressive and play my game and really be on attack tonight”. No, Van Gundy won’t go there.

“I actually think he, DeAndre Jordan, guys like that, they are the new breed of National Basketball Association centers”, Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said. At least most of the time. “Por-zing-is!” in the fourth quarter, shortly after his three-point play following an offensive rebound gave the Knicks a 93-81 lead. When everything clicks, he is the Russell Westbrook type Pistons fans were hoping for when the team acquired him last season. That’s an impossible standard. “I think he was encouraging them and I think he was pushing and driving his teammates to as a unit, individually and collectively, do better”, Blatt said. That’s the challenge for Jackson as he looks to guide the Pistons into the playoffs for the first time since 2009. Jackson is nearly the pure embodiment of the Pistons this season. He’s talented. They’re talented. Their offense struggled, but the defense consistently kept them in games. He’s chastised him in practice, and shown disapproving body language during games whenever Mozgov makes a mistake, something which unfortunately has happened often in eleven games. They… well, you get the picture. He pointed out that the Warriors look hungrier than them.

“The two words him and I talked about were (being) aggressive and decisive”, Van Gundy said. When we don’t turn the ball over, we share the ball offensively, we got the ball popping, and we defend at a high level, we’re a pretty good team.