Cavaliers at Pistons
The Cleveland Cavaliers put on a spectacular shooting exhibition in Game
2 and attempt to take a 3-0 lead in the first-round series when they
visit the Detroit Pistons on Friday. Cleveland drained 20 3-pointers in
Wednesday's 107-90 victory over the Pistons to tie the NBA playoff
record shared by the Seattle SuperSonics (1996), Dallas Mavericks (2011)
and Golden State Warriors (2015).
The top-seeded Cavaliers received seven 3-pointers by shooting guard J.R. Smith and four from point guard Kyrie Irving in the 20-of-38 shooting effort. "I don't care if you're left by yourself, 20 of 38 is pretty good shooting," Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy told reporters of the Cleveland shooting. Eighth-seeded Detroit has its back against the wall after the two road losses and faces a must-win situation in Game 3. The Pistons let a fourth-quarter lead get away in Game 1 and saw its hopes in Game 2 fade away with a 15-point third quarter.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FSN Ohio (Cleveland), FSN Detroit
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS: Smith scored 21 points in Game 2 after struggling to nine points on 3-of-9 shooting in the opener. Consistent shooting from Smith would complement the trio of small forward LeBron James, power forward Kevin Love and point guard Kyrie Irving. "We have shooters and they are designated snipers and I'm not one of them," James told reporters. "I'm more like a tank or something like that."
ABOUT THE PISTONS: Detroit is playing a physical series with no interest in backing down and rookie forward Stanley Johnson mixed it up with James during Game 2. "Their whole team talks," Johnson told reporters. "All those guys on the bench, they're like cheerleaders. Only seven, eight guys are playing, but they're all talking. They might as well be in the stands." Starting forward Tobias Harris is struggling and averaging 11 points on 7-of-22 shooting in the series while forward Marcus Morris had just 11 points on 2-of-10 shooting in Game 2 after scoring 20 points in the series opener.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Cleveland has made 32 3-pointers in the series - Detroit has 19, 15 coming in Game 1.
2. James is averaging 24.5 points on 21-of-35 shooting through two games.
3. Detroit C Andre Drummond was 4-of-16 from the free-throw line in Game 2 and is averaging 16.5 points and nine rebounds.