The Cleveland Cavaliers came into this one down 0-3 in the season series against the Pacers. Hot shooting from a struggling starter, a triple-double for the King, and a lot of second half turnovers was too much for the Pacers to overcome.
One thing was clear from the get go tonight, the Cleveland Cavaliers were on a mission. They did not want to get swept by the Indiana Pacers. After dropping 10 of the last 15 games, it seemed the team considered to be the Eastern Conference NBA Finals representative were fed up of losing.
Indiana struggled mightily throughout most of this one on the defensive side of the floor. Even with shooting a nice 47% from the field, allowing the Cavaliers to shoot 56% from the field, giving up a triple-double to LeBron and a whopping seven threes to JR Smith was the nail in the coffin for the Pacers.
Even after turning the ball over 9 times in the third quarter (a season high for a quarter) the Pacers were able to put together a strong fourth quarter, as they stormed back from 10+ down and brought it back within two possessions with less than two minutes to play. However, LeBron James was too much for the Pacers and the Cavs were able to pull out the big victory.
Kevin Love is also fed up of the Cavaliers BS and let Jeff Green know about it.
More from 8 Points, 9 Seconds
- 2 Studs, 1 dud from gut-wrenching Indiana Pacers loss to Charlotte Hornets
- Handing out early-season grades for Pacers’ Bruce Brown, Obi Toppin
- 3 positives, 2 negatives in Pacers In-Season Tournament win vs. Cavaliers
- 2 positives, 3 negatives from first week of Indiana Pacers basketball
- Should Isaiah Jackson’s days with Indiana Pacers be numbered?
The Good: Pacers shoot a much improved 42% from the field after really struggling from three over the last five games. They are not as bad of a three point shooting team as the naked eye may show, so seeing them shoot the ball well from deep was very encouraging.
The Bad: Defense & turnovers. Pacers only turned the ball over 3 times in the first half, but after a 9 turnover third quarter, they finished with 16 turnovers which resulted in 14 points for the Cavaliers. The defense was also measly. Indiana allowed 42 points in the paint, while allowing a struggling JR Smith to hit 7 threes from deep. That was enough for the Cavs to pull off the victory,
MVP: Victor Oladipo
LVP: Bojan Bogdanovic.. When is enough enough? Bojan hasn’t shot the ball well in several months (besides maybe a game every once in a while) and that’s what he’s there to do. Tonight he was 4-13, 1-6 from three, scoring 10 points. Ugh.
X-Factor: JR Smith. The always shooting, never making (at least in 2017-18) guard was en fuego for the Cavaliers tonight. Smith’s 7 three’s and season high 23 points was the difference tonight for the Cavs.
Next: Physicality is a state of mind for Domantas Sabonis
Next up for Indiana is a stretch of four games against teams with sub .500 records, meaning there’s a great chance to head into the all-star break with a lot of positive momentum.