Max Strus picked the right night to remember he is a problem. The Cleveland Cavaliers wing dropped 20 points on six made 3-pointers in Game 5 against the Detroit Pistons, and the Cavs walked out of Rocket Arena with a 3-2 series lead in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
This was the version of Strus that the Cavs traded for. Quick trigger, no conscience, ready to punish any closeout that is half a step slow. Detroit kept loading up on Donovan Mitchell, and Strus made them pay six different times from deep.
Cleveland needed every bit of it. Cade Cunningham is averaging a monster series for Detroit, and Jalen Duren is bullying the Cavs’ frontcourt on the offensive glass. Without Strus pulling defenders out of the paint, this Cleveland offense gets ugly fast.
The bigger story is what this win does to the Pistons. Detroit is now staring at elimination in front of a hostile road crowd in Game 6. The Pistons are the No. 1 seed in the East. They are also a team that already needed a Game 7 to escape the No. 8 Magic in Round 1.
That history matters. This Pistons group has shown it can play down to a fight. Cleveland is far better than Orlando, and Cleveland is now feeling like the team that should be playing in the Conference Finals.
Strus has been streaky in these playoffs. He had stretches of the Toronto series where he looked like he was shooting an invisible ball. Game 5 was the reminder that when his feet are set and Mitchell is drawing two on the catch, he is one of the best release-the-pressure shooters in the league.
What This Means for Cleveland
Coach Kenny Atkinson now has the luxury of playing Game 6 with house money. The Cavs can close it out in Detroit on Friday, or they can drop a competitive road game and still come home for a Game 7. Either way, the math swings hard in Cleveland’s favor.
Donovan Mitchell finished with 31 points and shot the ball with the kind of patience he did not have during his first run in the postseason with this group. Mitchell is now 4-0 in career Game 7s. If this thing goes the distance, that resume gets dropped on the table every single broadcast.
Detroit’s Problem
The Pistons have to figure out their bench rotation before Game 6 or they will lose this series. Detroit’s reserves got outscored badly in Game 5. Tobias Harris is providing nothing on either end. Tim Hardaway Jr. is a microwave who has been cold for three games straight.
And about Cade Cunningham. He is going to win a lot of MVPs eventually. He is not going to win this one. The Pistons are leaning on him for 40 minutes a night and he is starting to look gassed in the fourth quarter. That is a problem Detroit cannot solve from the bench alone.
The Cavs have momentum, home court, and a starting backcourt that just outplayed Detroit’s two best players in the same game. The team that punches first in Game 6 ends this series. Cleveland looks like the team built to do that.
Tip-off in Detroit is Friday night. Bet the Cavs.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
