Niyo: Energetic Pistons hold off Cavaliers' late charge in Game 1

Detroit — They’d had the lead almost all night. And for much of Tuesday’s playoff series opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Pistons looked like the team we’d seen throughout the regular season. Forceful and energetic, confident and comfortable.

But then their opponent started to as well, and before you knew it, a double-digit lead had vanished the way they often do in the NBA postseason. An 11-0 fourth-quarter run from the Cavaliers tied the score at 93-93, a rollicking home crowd fell into an awkward silence, and just like that, a night’s good work was in danger of going bad. Yet it didn’t, and it was Jalen Duren who made sure of that in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, as the Pistons held on for a 111-101 victory Tuesday at Little Caesars Arena.

Detroit’s All-Star center, who’d shouldered much of the blame — too much, frankly — as the Pistons stumbled to the brink of elimination against Orlando in the first round stood, played an outsized role in pushing back the Cavaliers late charge Tuesday. It started with Duren’s fingertip block on a James Harden floater with 5:01 left in a tie game. Then at the other end of the floor, Cade Cunningham found him with a driving feed in the lane for a dunk to regain the lead.

Duren grabbed another rebound on Cleveland’s next possession, then was on the receiving of another Cunningham assist, hammering home another emphatic dunk to force Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson to call a timeout. The next possession? Same result.