Pacers stun Cavaliers 121-112 to take a 1-0 series lead

BY TIM SHIRER

CAVS BEAT WRITER

(CLEVELAND, OH) -.The first round of the NBA playoffs was pretty easy for the Cleveland Cavaliers as they easily dispatched Tyler Herro and the Miami Heat. On Sunday night the Cavaliers played game one of the Eastern Conference semifinal matchup with the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers prevailed in their first round series against the Milwaukee Bucks 4-1.

The two clubs had faced off three previous times in the playoffs with the Cavs winning two series (2017, 2018) and the Pacers winning the first ever postseason matchup between the two in 1998. Sunday looked a lot more like 1998 than 2017 or 2018 as the Pacers stunned the Cavs in game one 121-112.

The Cavs were once again without all-star Darius Garland who missed his third straight game after missing games three & four in the first round. With 9:47 left in the first quarter the Pacers took a 6-5 lead when a horrendous call by official Gediminas Petraitis and Evan Mobley was charged with fouling Pascal Siakam, he made both free throws. With the Pacers up 9-8 Mobley was shoved by, and the ball was stolen, and no foul was called. The Pacers scored and took an 11-8 lead with 8:16 left. The Pacers lead increased to 13-10 with 7:48 left when Tyrese Haliburton hit a jumper. With 6:25 left the Pacers took a 19-14 lead when Haliburton hit a three. With 6:01 left the Cavs cut the Pacers lead to 19-7 when Sam Merrill drained a three. With 2:11 left in the opening quarter, the Pacers started to put some space between themselves and the Cavs when Andrew Nembhard hit a three, giving the Pacers a 31-25 lead. With :02.5 left in the half the Pacers took a 36-25 lead when the Cavs defense collapsed and Bennedict Mathurin hit a wide open three pointer. The space between Mathurin and the nearest Cavs rivaled the size of the Grand Canyon. Siakam led all scorers with ten first quarter points. The Cavs were led by Donovan Mitchell who had nine points. The Pacers also led the battle of the boards outrebounding the Cavs 10-7 in the opening 12 minutes. The Pacers were on fire shooting from the field 67% (14 of 21) while the Cavs shot 46% (11 of 24). The Pacers hit six three-point shots, while the Cavs managed only three in twelve tries.

The Cavs seemed to have no flow into the second period with 9:11 left the Pacers led 43-33. The lead then grew to 45-33 after the Cavs failed to score and Mathurin dropped in a put back layup at the other end. The Pacers were shooting out of their minds and the Cavs defense wasn’t playing well. With 6:21 left the Cavs managed to cut the Pacers lead to 47-42 when Ty Jerome scored in the paint and was fouled. The Pacers came right back with a three pointer by Aaron Nesmith and their lead was back at eight points with 5:57 left in the opening half. After a couple possession where the Pacers failed to score the sellout crowd awakened and got loud. The Cavs defense tightened, but their shooting from three-point range continued to struggle with 4:32 left they were shooting 4 of 18 from long range and 1 of 6 in the second quarter. With 4:02 left De’Andre Hunter hit a three, pulling the Cavs to within three, but the Cavs defense failed them again as Indiana came right back with a three and the Pacers lead was once again seven points at 55-48 with 3:337 left in the period. Then with 2:55 left the Pacers drained yet another three, their ninth of the half to give Indiana a 58-50 lead. The Cavs showed signs of life, scoring the next four points, cutting the Indiana lead to 58-54 with 2:06 left. Pacers future hall of fame coach Rick Carlisle called an immediate timeout to calm his troops. However, with 1:45 left the Pacers hit another three and their lead was 61-54. It was apparent that the Cavs were having problems stopping the Pacers fast paced offensive attack. With :43.5 left Merrill fouled Myles Turner. He hit both free throws and the Pacers led 64-56. Mitchell led all scorers with fifteen first half points but wasn’t getting much help from his Cavs teammates. Siakam led the Pacers with 13 points and Nembhard had 12 at the break. When time ran out in the first half the Cavs trailed 64-58. The Pacers shot 60% (24 of 40) in the first half and 60% (9 of15) from the long range in the opening half, including 3 of 3 in the second period. The Cavs meanwhile shot 49% (25 of 51) from the field and a pathetic 25% (5 of 20) from behind the three-point line. The Pacers also won the battle of the board pretty easy in the opening 24 minutes 18-13.

The third quarter and second half began like much of the first half with the Pacers draining their 13th three of the game to take a 67-58 lead with 10:56 left in the quarter. With 10:04 left Max Strus hit a three and the Cavs trailed by six points. Then with 9:27 left on the clock Strus hit Mobley in the paint to cut the Pacers lead to 67-63. Indiana took an immediate timeout. The timeout worked as the Pacers scored immediately after. The Cavs looked like having five days off between games was not befitting them as they looked out of sorts. The Cavs’ perimeter defense with 7:17 left in the third quarter was about as disgusting as it could as the Pacers continued to make one three point shot after another and their lead ballooned to 8-68. The Pacers were 4 of 6 in the first 4:43 of the second half and 14 of 22 in the game and the Cavs seemed to have no answer. The Cavs cut the Pacers lead to 84-79 when Mitchell was fouled with 4:446 left and hit both free throws. Then after a Pacers missed shot Nesmith picked up his fourth foul when he shoved Mitchell under the Cavs basket with 4:27 left, Mitchell hit both free throws to cut the Pacers lead to 84-81. The Pacers then turned the ball over and with 3:58 left Mitchell slammed the ball home, and the Pacers lead was 84-83. After a defensive with 3:17 left the Cavs had come all the way back and took the lead when Mobley scored on a layup giving the Cavs the 85-84 lead. After a Pacers timeout and another turnover Mitchel was fouled, he hit one of two and the Cavs were on a 18-4 run. The run continued when Mitchell gave the Cavs an 88-84 lead with 2:21 remaining in the quarter. With 1:15 left on the third quarter clock the Pacers regained the lead 89-88 when Haliburton scored on a layup. Mitchell gave the Cavs the lead back with :28.1 left when he scored in the paint. The Cavs defense was matador like in the final possession and the Pacers took advantage as Turner drained a three from the corner with no one within 20 feet of him giving the Pacers a 92-90 lead heading to the fourth quarter. Mitchell led all scorers with 27 points through three. Nesmith was pacing Indiana with 16 points, the Pacers had six players in double figures through three quarters. The Pacers were still outshooting the Cavs 56% to 51%. The Cavs also outrebounded the Pacers in the third quarter 10-5 and the battle of the boards was tied 23-23.

The first several minutes of the fourth quarter looked very similar to the first 30 minutes of the game as the Pacers were scoring easily and the Cavs looked out of sorts on offense without Mitchell on the floor as he was on the bench to start the fourth quarter. With 9:37 left Mobley hit a three and the Pacers lead was cut to 96-95. The Cavs then regained the lead 97-96 with 8:55 left when Hunter was fouled by Mathurin, his third. Hunter hit both free throws. With 8:30 left the Pacer regained the lead once again and then with 8:11 left the Cavs took the lead back 99-98 when Mobley scored in the paint. After Hunter was knocked to the floor by Mathurin the blind officiating crew did not call a foul and awarded the ball to the Pacers. The Cavs challenged the call. Meanwhile, Hunter exited immediately to the locker room holding his finger. After review by the crew in New York the call was not overturned (not surprised) and the Pacers retained possession. The Pacers immediately hit a three to take a 101-99 lead. The Cavs tied it up at the other end on a Mitchell basket with 7:17 left. The Cavs had a chance to take a two point lead after Strus was fouled, he hit one of two to give the Cavs a 102-101 lead. With 6:21 left Haliburton hit a three giving Indiana a 104-102 lead. With 5:45 left the Pacer lead increased to five at 107-102 when Nembhard hit a three from Westlake. After the Pacers lead grew to six points Jerome cut it to 110-106 with a jumper in the paint, but the Cavs defense once again was a no show and the Pacers scored at the other end and Cavs were once again down six point and time was running down with only 3:23 left in the final quarter. Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson took a timeout. Positive news was that Hunter had returned to the game. With 2:52 left after the Cavs had a terrible possession the Pacers took an eight point lead with 2:52 left. With 1:53 left the Pacers put the final nail in the Cavs game one coffin when Haliburton easily dribbled around Jarrett Allen to score and give the Pacers a 116-106 lead. When the dust settled on what was possibly the worst performance of the regular & postseason for the Cavs the Pacer prevailed 121-112.

Mitchell led all scorers with 33 points and became the first player in NBA history to score 30 points in game one of a playoff series in the loss. Mobley had a double double for Cleveland as he scored 20 and pulled down 10 boards. The Cavs were a combined -64 with the starting five on the floor in the game. The Pacers were led by Nembhard who had 23, Haliburton had 22 achieving a double double as he also had 13 assists.

The Pacers out shot the Cavs from the field 53% (44 of 83) to 46% (45 of 98). From long distance it was even more of an embarrassment for Cleveland as the Pacers shot 53% (19 of 36) and the Cavs were a pathetic 24% (9 of 38). The battle of the boards was even as both teams pulled down 43 each. The Cavs did not take advantage of opportunities as the Pacers turned the ball over 17 times (Cavs turned it over 8 times) but the Cavs managed to turn those into only 22 points.