Donovan Mitchell and Ausar Thompson will battle for the last word in their individual rivalry when the Cleveland Cavaliers visit the Detroit Pistons for a win-or-go-on-vacation Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Sunday night.
Each team has prevailed once on the opponent’s court since the clubs each won twice at home to begin the best-of-seven.
Mitchell and the Cavaliers’ 117-113 overtime triumph Wednesday at Detroit gave them a 3-2 lead and put the fourth-seeded club one win away from meeting the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference finals.
But the top-seeded Pistons turned the tables Friday in Cleveland, rolling to a 115-94 victory that has returned the presumed home-court advantage to Detroit.
“It’s going to be a madhouse in there,” Pistons star Cade Cunningham predicted on the eve of the showdown. “The crowd is going to come to play as well. They want to insert themselves in the game.”
The Pistons went 32-9 at home in the regular season, the third-best record in the NBA, before going 3-1 at Little Caesars Arena against the Orlando Magic in the first round of the playoffs. That included a 116-94 home win in Game 7 to advance.
Cleveland also needed seven games to reach this series. The Cavaliers haven’t lost a Game 7 since LeBron James was 23 years old in 2008 against the Boston Celtics. Before beating the Magic, the Pistons hadn’t been in a seven-game series since, coincidentally, eliminating Cleveland in 2006.
Mitchell, the NBA’s seventh-leading scorer at 27.9 points per game during the regular season, has been held to 23 or fewer in three of the six games of the semifinal series. In Cleveland’s Game 5 win, he scored 21 points, shooting 7-for-18 overall and 1-for-8 on 3-pointers. When the Cavaliers were limited to 94 points in Game 6, he was held to 18 points while being harassed into 6-for-20 shooting overall and 2-for-6 from deep.
Thompson, a finalist for NBA Defensive Player of the Year, has gotten much of the credit for Mitchell’s troubles. The Cavaliers recognize the defensive strategy and believe they are prepared to counter it when it matters most.
“Getting him in the open court more where they can’t get their hands on him,” Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson responded when asked for a potential solution to Thompson’s aggressive defense. “When it’s in the halfcourt, it’s clutch, grab, hold. We got to get him in space, in the open court — kick-aheads, kick-acrosses, all that.”
Another key matchup in the series has been between starting centers Jarrett Allen and Jalen Duren.
Allen has won the statistical battle three times, totaling 43 points and 19 rebounds to Duren’s 28 points and 11 rebounds in those matchups, and the Cavaliers have won all three of those games. But when Duren has outplayed his rival — outrebounding him 33-18 — the Pistons have gone 3-0.
The team that has won the rebounding battle has taken four of the six games. With Duren contributing his second double-double of the series, the Pistons owned a 43-40 edge on the boards in Game 6.
