Cleveland Cavaliers – Detroit Pistons · NBA

Win probability changed during the game. · 5 February 2025

CLE118–115DET

Is it worth watching?

Highly recommended

It was more exciting than 89% of NBA games since 2017

It measures how much the win probability moved during the game —without looking at who won or at the score— and compares it with the 10,950 NBA games with a curve since 2017. “Highly recommended” is the most intense 20%, “recommended” runs from 50% to 80%, and “skippable” is the rest. Source: ESPN.

↑ DET winsCLE wins ↓

Home team's win probability across the game (source: ESPN). The band rises when DET leads and falls when CLE does.

This is how the game was decided.

Evan Mobley decided it, the Cleveland Cavaliers player with the most points (30, with 9 rebounds and 7 assists; +5 with him on the floor); the winner's best plus-minus was Ty Jerome's (+12). The criterion: the winner's points in the box score; plus-minus says who was on the floor when the game opened up.

The game-winner in Detroit Pistons 115-118 Cleveland Cavaliers (February 5, 2025) was hit by Darius Garland: a three-pointer with 0.0 s left in the fourth quarter, putting the Cleveland Cavaliers up 118-115. They never trailed again.

The biggest run of Detroit Pistons 115-118 Cleveland Cavaliers (February 5, 2025) was a 12-0 run by the Cleveland Cavaliers between the third quarter and the fourth quarter, from 83-83 to 95-83. The Detroit Pistons' best was a 9-0 run in the fourth quarter (from 8:25 to 7:05), from 83-95 to 92-95.

▸See where these figures come from

Play: Darius Garland makes 31-foot three pointer.

I count as the game-winner the basket that puts the winning team ahead for good. Source: the official NBA play-by-play (since 2002-03) and each team's official box scores.

A run here is consecutive points by one team without the opponent scoring. Source: the official NBA play-by-play (since 2002-03) and each team's official box scores.

Source: the game's official box score and play-by-play.

Darius Garland decided this game: his points put his team ahead at the buzzer of the fourth quarter, and the opponent never led again.

It is one of the 2 games he has decided this way in the NBA since the 2002-03 season.

His profile shows the games Garland decided

▸See where these figures come from

A game is decided by the last basket that puts a team ahead in the final ten seconds of the fourth quarter or of an overtime, if that team wins.

5 February 2025 · The source is the ESPN play-by-play, play espn:401705284:767; the date is the one on the NBA box score.

Rotations · who was on the floor

Closing lineup · CLE

Mobley · Garland · Strus · Merrill · Niang

Closing lineup · DET

Cunningham · Thompson · Duren · Beasley · Sasser

Q1Q2Q3Q4

CLE

Evan Mobley

35′ · +5

Jarrett Allen

32′ · -1

Darius Garland

31′ · -6

Max Strus

28′ · -1

Caris LeVert

21′ · -5

Sam Merrill

27′ · +8

Georges Niang

23′ · +2

Ty Jerome

19′ · +12

Jaylon Tyson

9′ · 0

Craig Porter Jr.

16′ · +1

DET

Cade Cunningham

38′ · +2

Tim Hardaway Jr.

35′ · +7

Ausar Thompson

27′ · -2

Tobias Harris

25′ · +6

Jalen Duren

22′ · +4

Isaiah Stewart

18′ · 0

Malik Beasley

25′ · -2

Ronald Holland II

19′ · -10

Simone Fontecchio

11′ · -11

Marcus Sasser

11′ · -2

Paul Reed

8′ · -7

Each bar is a stint on the floor (source: NBA). The number is minutes played and the team's +/− with him on the court. CLE and DET.

These lineups played the most minutes together.

Cleveland Cavaliers

LeVert, Allen, Strus, Garland, and Mobley played 14.5 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 4 points.
Niang, Jerome, Merrill, Mobley, and Porter played 6.0 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 5 points.
Niang, Jerome, Merrill, Mobley, and Tyson played 5.6 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 3 points.

Detroit Pistons

Cunningham, Duren, Thompson, Harris, and Hardaway played 10.1 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 6 points.
Stewart, Cunningham, Thompson, Harris, and Hardaway played 7.3 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 8 points.
Beasley, Reed, Sasser, Fontecchio, and Holland played 6.3 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 7 points.

▸See every lineup of the game

Cleveland Cavaliers

Niang, Allen, Strus, Garland, and Merrill played 3.9 minutes together.
Their team tied that stretch.
Allen, Strus, Garland, Merrill, and Mobley played 3.7 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 5 points.
LeVert, Allen, Strus, Garland, and Porter played 3.5 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 3 points.
LeVert, Niang, Jerome, Mobley, and Porter played 2.2 minutes together.
Their team tied that stretch.
Niang, Allen, Garland, Jerome, and Merrill played 2.1 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 3 points.
Allen, Garland, Merrill, Porter, and Tyson played 1.8 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 4 points.
Niang, Allen, Strus, Jerome, and Merrill played 1.4 minutes together.
Their team tied that stretch.
Jerome, Merrill, Mobley, Porter, and Tyson played 1.3 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 1 point.

Detroit Pistons

Beasley, Cunningham, Duren, Thompson, and Hardaway played 5.0 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 4 points.
Beasley, Stewart, Cunningham, Harris, and Hardaway played 4.3 minutes together.
Their team tied that stretch.
Beasley, Stewart, Cunningham, Fontecchio, and Holland played 2.8 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 1 point.
Cunningham, Duren, Thompson, Holland, and Hardaway played 2.6 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 1 point.
Cunningham, Duren, Sasser, Holland, and Hardaway played 2.2 minutes together.
Their team tied that stretch.
Beasley, Stewart, Cunningham, Holland, and Hardaway played 1.3 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 2 points.
Beasley, Reed, Cunningham, Fontecchio, and Holland played 1.2 minutes together.
Their team tied that stretch.
Beasley, Duren, Sasser, Holland, and Harris played 1.1 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 7 points.
Beasley, Stewart, Thompson, Harris, and Hardaway played 1.1 minutes together.
Their team tied that stretch.

▸See where these figures come from

The lineups come from the NBA's official rotation: who was on the floor and when. Each lineup's plus-minus is worked out from every player's stints and is only shown when they all add up with each other and with the final score.

Cade Cunningham covered 4.75 km, more than anyone in the game.

Cade Cunningham touched the ball 105 times, a game high.
Cade Cunningham made 66 passes, a game high.
Jarrett Allen defended 10 shots at the rim, a game high, and opponents made 4.
Jarrett Allen had 23 rebound chances, a game high.

▸See what was measured for each player

Cleveland Cavaliers

Player	km	km/h	Touches	Passes
Evan Mobley	4.02	6.5	83	60
Darius Garland	3.86	6.8	75	47
Max Strus	3.83	7.5	46	32
Jarrett Allen	3.80	6.7	50	38
Sam Merrill	3.25	6.6	27	20
Georges Niang	2.86	6.8	31	22
Caris LeVert	2.65	7.1	29	19
Ty Jerome	2.25	6.7	46	33
Craig Porter Jr.	2.04	7.1	18	9
Jaylon Tyson	1.16	7.6	8	5

Detroit Pistons

Player	km	km/h	Touches	Passes
Cade Cunningham	4.75	7.0	105	66
Tim Hardaway Jr.	4.15	6.6	43	28
Ausar Thompson	3.41	6.9	34	21
Tobias Harris	3.06	6.8	30	19
Malik Beasley	3.04	6.6	32

The figures come from the NBA's optical tracking (NBA.com) for this game; speed is each player's average while on the floor.

Who stood out on defense during the season

These figures cover the whole 2024-25 regular season, not this game.

Cleveland Cavaliers

Evan Mobley contested 10.5 shots per game over his 71 games.
He ranks 5 of 388 in the league.
Jarrett Allen contested 9.5 shots per game over his 81 games.
He ranks 12 of 388 in the league.
Sam Merrill drew 0.13 charges per game over his 71 games.
He ranks 26 of 388 in the league.

Detroit Pistons

Tim Hardaway Jr. drew 0.24 charges per game over his 76 games.
He ranks 6 of 388 in the league.
Ausar Thompson deflected 3.6 passes per game over his 59 games.
He ranks 7 of 388 in the league.
Isaiah Stewart contested 8.7 shots per game over his 72 games.
He ranks 18 of 388 in the league.

Hustle figures come from the hustle stats the NBA publishes (NBA.com) and rim defense comes from its tracking; both cover the regular season. For each player in this game we show the figure that ranks him highest in the league, and for each team, the three best ranked. Ranks count players with at least 30 games and, at the rim, at least 4 defended shots per game.

The Detroit Pistons have won 144 of their 273 games against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

144-129record of the Detroit Pistons · NBA 1970-71 – 2025-26, regular season and playoffs

2-2in 2025-26

See the full head-to-head in the Analyst

See where it comes from

Official NBA box scores, regular season and playoffs, 1970-71 – 2025-26. It counts every game between the two teams that the house holds, this one included.

SportiveWorld knows much more about this game

Game context

Attendance

18.734

92.1% of capacity

Little Caesars Arena · Detroit

Scoring

233

combined points

5.3 above the season average (227.7)

⚖️ The last two minutes

Official NBA L2M report: every call in the endgame, reviewed by the league.

14 calls reviewed2 errors admitted by the NBA

Turnover: Traveling · 00:35.5

Georges Niang → Pistons

Niang (CLE) switches his pivot foot.

Foul: Shooting · 01:24.1

Jarrett Allen → Jalen Duren

Allen (CLE) makes contact to Duren's (DET) arm, affecting his shot attempt near the rim.