Cavaliers sputter vs Pistons

    The Cleveland Cavaliers stumbled out of the post-All-Star game gate as they lost for the second time this season to the lowly Detroit Pistons in Detroit, this time by a 106-103 score.

Lauri Markkanen led Cleveland with 22 points in his return to the lineup with Brandon Goodwin the secondary scorer with 15 points.

Cleveland will go home Saturday to play Washington in the first of a three-game homestand.

Swashbucklings

1) Lauri Markkanen played well in his return to the lineup for yet another shorthanded Cavalier club after missing eleven games and kept the Cavaliers in the game in the fourth quarter as Markkanen scored eleven of his twenty-two points in the period.

2) Cleveland played the game without Darius Garland and Caris LeVert, leaving them shorthanded in the backcourt.

Garland's absence is part of the team's plan to manage Garland through his back issues but LeVert suffered a foot injury in practice and Cleveland is going to have to either add more production from their frontcourt or hope that someone from the second team is able to take advantage of their increased minutes.

3) The one problem that I wondered about when the Cavaliers added Caris LeVert instead of Buddy Hield was LeVert's tendency to get injured.

Sometimes players just find a way to have fluke injuries happen to them.

It's not deliberate but some guys do find odd manners of getting injured.

4) Cleveland can't really complain about the production of Brandon Goodwin (15 pts 5 assists) and Rajon Rondo (12 pts 9 assists) in the place of Darius Garland but it isn't realistic to expect both of those players to play that well every night.

If they could, you have replaced Garland's numbers if not his presence but that is asking a lot from a player that was playing in the G League earlier this year and a thirty-six-year-old fading veteran.

5) The Cavaliers slipped to fifth in the Eastern Conference with the defeat and while they almost seem assured of a postseason berth, that entry isn't guaranteed to be out of the play-in portion.

Only the top six avoid the play-in portion and currently, only two games separate the fifth place Cavaliers and the seventh-place Toronto Raptors.

That's the difference in playing those extra games and adding more mileage to players' legs after a long season and getting a break to prepare as those playoff games are taking place.