Cleveland Cavaliers bounce back with a win against the Detroit Pistons

Cleveland Cavaliers get back into the winning column

The Cleveland Cavaliers bounced back from a tough loss to secure a 102-94 win on the road against an equally undermanned Detroit Pistons team. With a less-than-dominant evening this time around, the Cavs did just enough to stave off their resilient division rivals on the road to improve to 13-7.

A far cry from their previous matchup where the Cavaliers dismantled the Pistons despite missing their All-Star backcourt duo of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland, this one went down the wire until the final minutes.

With a slow start, the Cavs fell behind by double-digits early and had to play catchup for nearly the entire night. In fact, it wasn’t until around halfway through the final quarter that they were able to get ahead for good by limiting the home team to just 16 points.

Donovan Mitchell led the Cavs with 32 points despite struggling to score from the field for the most part, while backcourt partner Darius Garland added 19 markers of his own to go with 10 assists in the win.

The Cavs will continue on the packed road trip

Another promising takeaway was Evan Mobley, who rose up in the absence of Jarrett Allen (back) and Kevin Love (thumb) by putting in a double-double of 20 points and 13 boards. Cleveland was also without key rotation players Caris LeVert (ankle) and Lamar Stevens (illness).

With all these injuries to key rotation pieces, head coach J.B. Bickerstaff has been banking on solid reserves willing to step up to the plate. Whether it be backup scoring from gunners like Cedi Osman or defensive cogs like Isaac Okoro. Even deep-bench guys like Mamadi Diakite and Raul Neto saw significant action in Detroit.

Ugly wins are equally important in the character-building of young squads such as Cleveland’s, especially when down a few players. Their defense picking up will no doubt play a part in determining the successes or failures of the team in the short term.

No rest for the weary, however, as the Cleveland Cavaliers will have less than 24 hours turnaround–including the travel time–before facing off against conference rivals Toronto Raptors north of the border.