Max Strus picked off a Cade Cunningham inbounds pass and turned it into an easy transition layup with 2:30 left, putting the Cleveland Cavaliers ahead for good in a 116-109 win over the Detroit Pistons on Saturday in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The play was the kind that summed up Detroit's night. Cunningham had three of his eight turnovers in the fourth quarter, and the Pistons finished with 16 giveaways that led to 27 Cleveland points, the most they have surrendered off turnovers in the playoffs. Cunningham still scored 27 points and posted a triple-double, but the turnover count kept giving the Cavaliers extra chances when the game tightened.
Detroit did enough in other areas to make the loss sting. The Pistons took 91 shots to Cleveland's 74, outrebounded the Cavaliers 40-33 and owned a 17-5 edge on offensive boards. They also had 19 second-chance points to Cleveland's 11, yet the extra possessions did not matter as much as the wasted ones.
Cunningham said after the game that the mistakes were bad plays that cost Detroit a chance to win. J. B. Bickerstaff was even blunter, saying 16 turnovers were too many and that giving up 27 points off them made life too easy for a team that wants to set its defense in the half court.
The numbers around Cunningham tell the same story across the series. He entered the night leading the playoffs with 30.2 points per game, but he also has 58 turnovers in the postseason. Detroit has relied on his scoring to stay in games, and on Saturday the burden of carrying the offense came with the price of too many empty possessions.
Ausar Thompson was one of the few Detroit players to swing the game in the other direction. He played 29 minutes because of foul trouble and finished with nine points, seven rebounds, five assists and two blocks, while posting a game-high plus-12. Thompson said the loss did not shake the team's belief, and the Pistons will need that kind of confidence if they are going to answer a game that slipped away on the margins and the mistakes.
