Love and Irving are eager for their second tastes of the postseason.
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Love and Irving are back healthy now following a pair of grueling rehabs.
Irving scored 31 points in his first playoff game since being injured last year in the NBA Finals and Love, who was knocked out in the first round by an injury a year ago, added 28 to lead the Cavaliers to a 106-101 victory over the young and confident Detroit Pistons in the opener of their first-round playoff series Sunday.
McRae said it was a surreal experience watching LeBron James, Kevin Love, J.R. Smith and Kyrie Irving cheering him on from the bench. All three made critical plays after the Pistons seemed to be making an attempt to pull off a stunning upset.
“I don’t feel any pressure”, Van Gundy said. “Kevin set the tone early posting up, getting into the paint and getting a couple of fouls”.
But it wasn’t easy.
The San Antonio Spurs had a far easier assignment on home court as they crushed the Memphis Grizzlies 106-74 in the opening game of their Western Conference first-round series. Marcus Morris scored 20 points, second on the team behind Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, finishing with 21, enjoying the pro-shooting style while it lasted. “You’re going to have to win here”, Van Gundy said.
Van Gundy said after the game he was proud of the way his players handled themselves in the loss. “You’re in a playoff series, and I’m not really looking to stay close, that’s not my objective here”.
Van Gundy later backtracked on his comments, stating during his postgame press conference the officiating “evened out., but by then the damage to his pockets had been done”.
The Pistons led at halftime and entering the fourth quarter.
“For these two guys, they were just excited to get back to this moment”, Cavs forward LeBron James said.
Honestly, I’d be happy with the game being called the way it was during game 1. They slowly took control the rest of the way behind their stars. It starts with our mindset. Those were great numbers but a bit less than his averages of 16.2 points and 14.8 rebounds per game during the regular season.
Detroit gave Cleveland all it could handle, especially in the first half.
A finely tuned sarcasm meter wasn’t necessary to pick up Van Gundy’s droll reply. Defensively, the Cavs yield 98.3 points against the opposing teams. Love also added 13 rebounds.
“We don’t care who you put in front of us”, said Jackson, slapped with a technical with 3:24 left. “That’s our mindset. We know what they’re capable of and how they can get hot and get on a run”. It was, to me, blatantly obvious.
If Game 1 was considered physical, Game 2 on Wednesday at The Q could up the ante.
Jackson was asked after the game whether he had any regrets. The veteran coach could have been using that interview to draw the attention of the officiating crew for the next game, hoping they might tighten up on James down the road. Every minute, every quarter, every game helps.
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LeBron James clarified after practice on Tuesday that it’s the Cleveland Cavaliers versus the Detroit Pistons, not LeBron James versus the two Detroit Stans.
