The defending National Basketball Association champs hung on to beat the Indiana Pacers, 109-108, on April 15, because, of all things, they played tight, in-your-face defense when they had to.
For all of his heroics throughout the season, George was not only surprised the Cavs trapped him so early, but he was more surprised that he never saw the ball again in the game's final seconds.
On the next Pacers possession, IN called a timeout and somehow didn't anticipate that Cleveland might try the same tactic if George got the ball again.
Okay, okay, I needed to get that off my chest. George said he trusts Miles but would prefer to take the shot himself.
Star forward, Paul George led the Pacers with 29 points and 7 assists.
The Pacers had a 12-point turnaround to take a brief lead, before Kyrie Irving took matters into his own hands.
George's buckets all night were timely, but that was the case for the Pacers as a team.
The Cavs, who led 92-84 entering the fourth period, were shooting 63 percent and only up two in the third, but a 10-0 run gave them a 90-78 lead with 2:11 to go in the quarter. Teague wound up 3 of 10 from the field, although he did use his patented pick-and-flail to get to the free throw line for seven of his 15 points. Tristan Thompson, who missed all three of his freebies Saturday, called on Korver in January and the two worked on Thompson getting more arc on his shot.
After Frye hit a big 3-pointer, the spurt was capped by Irving twice scrapping on the floor to finally get a steal against IN big man Kevin Seraphin, then feeding James for a dunk that caused the crowd to go bonkers. The Pacers shot 55 percent compared to the Cavaliers 65 percent. This, combined with the lack of adjustments on the final possession, proved fatal for the Pacers.
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George paced IN with 29 points, seven assists and five rebounds, and Lance Stephenson totaled 16 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Kyrie Irving tossed in 23 points and handed out six assists, while Love added 17 and Channing Frye 11.
This year, the defense has been up and down, with more of the latter.
With the Cavs up 103-96, James and Irving missed layups on consecutive possessions, and the Pacers eventually made it 103-101 on a Myles Turner layup with 4:26 to go. Had he hit a couple more key free throws throughout the rest of the game, Love would've had 20. If the Cavs shrink this disparity, the entire narrative of this game changes.
But they were unable to deliver the knockout blow and as a result they came within inches of receiving one.
But, as usual, the Pacers couldn't contain James, who improved to 45-7 in the opening round and got the Cavs their first win - warts and all. Ibaka scored 10 points in the first and DeRozan had 10 in the second, going 6 for 6 from the free throw line. That's one number that will nearly assuredly rise for Cleveland, making poor defensive adjustments all the more unsafe moving forward.
Playing in his second career playoff series, Antetekounmpo made 13 of 18 shots, and added eight rebounds and three assists.
"We were just trying to keep them in front of us and I think that worked", McMillan said.
"I gave the ball up to try to soften them up and get the ball back", George said. Whether or not the Cavs will be able to stay at that level for 48 minutes will not matter as much in this series as it will in the next round, should they get there. Kyrie Irving scored 23 points to go with six assists but shot 11 of 27 from the field. "Now, common knowledge would dictate that after one, possibly two instances of the 6'2" Teague guarding James, a literal M1 Abrams tank, that IN would attempt to change their game plan slightly and bring help defense.
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