The Indiana Pacers came away with their second win of the season on Saturday night, taking down the Cleveland Cavaliers by a score of 125-113.
Following a dominant season opener where they crushed the Washington Wizards 142-120, Tyrese Haliburton and company packed their bags and headed to Cleveland to visit the Cavaliers in their first road game of the season.
This proved to be a less difficult task than usual, as the Cavaliers team they faced was without three of their star players: Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, and Jarrett Allen.
Despite the short-handedness of this Cavaliers team, they still gave the Indiana Pacers quite the scare. Caris LeVert, in particular, was the star of the first quarter, scoring 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting and 4-of-5 from beyond the arc as the Cavs led by as much as 15 in the first quarter.
Following this first-quarter barrage, however, Indiana tightened up their defense a bit and started hitting their shots more on offense. They won the second quarter 29-12 en route to a victory following some clutch plays.
Despite this fantastic play following the first quarter, the Pacers still had a few negative things that stood out that should be addressed immediately. Plenty of issues are still prevalent, including a few that remain from the first Wizards game on Wednesday.
Let’s take a look at two positives and two negatives from the Pacers’ win over Cleveland.