Cavs sweep Pistons

The Pistons proved to be true fighters. In the end, however, the Cavaliers’ experience and overall talent was the deciding factor in the best-of-7 first-round series. After defeating the Pistons on 100-98 Sunday for a clean sweep, Cleveland will now have plenty of rest as it awaits the winner of the series between the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks, which is all tied up at two games apiece.

The Pistons faced an uphill battle all series. They were the No. 8 seed and had the insurmountable task of getting four wins against last year’s Eastern Conference champions and the East’s No. 1 overall seed this season. Yet this didn’t seem to concern the Pistons.

Detroit kept throwing figurative punches all series. Whether it was Stanley Johnson saying he was in LeBron James’ head, Stan Van Gundy calling out officials for how the series was being called or Marcus Morris saying they were going to rough up Kevin Love, the Pistons weren’t going to go down without a fight. The only problem was the Cavs absorbed every blow the Pistons gave them and countered with haymakers.

A perfect example is Kyrie Irving’s 3 in which he buried right in the eye of Reggie Jackson with 42 seconds left in Game 4. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had just hit a big 3 one play before to pull Detroit within one, but Irving quickly delivered another dagger, just like he did in Game 3.

Hitting big 3s and stepping up to the challenges Detroit threw at Cleveland, Irving was masterful in Game 4. For the second time in the series, Irving scored a team-high 31 points (20 in the second half), shooting 12-of-25 from the field, including 4-for-11 from beyond the arc. Irving also …

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