They also have LeBron James, and James has never lost a first round series in his fantastic career.
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After two close losses to the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference playoffs, should the Pacers be more encouraged or discouraged?
“When you are down one with ball, you have to execute the play and hit the shot”.
The Pacers have continued to force Cleveland’s Big 3 to beat them, and the trio has obliged.
Game 2 is at Monday night at Quicken Loans Arena.
Game 3 of the Cavaliers vs. Pacers series is set on Thursday in IN, where the Pacers will try to avoid a 3-0 hole in the best-of-seven.
“I think we put Paul on Kyrie [Irving], and Lance went to Love”, McMillan said. From there, it looked like Cleveland was bound to finish the game off, but the Pacers would eventually make a late rally. Blowing fourth-quarter leads has been a problem now for weeks.
“We’re right there of what we know we can become, and we’ll figure it out”.
LeBron James played a much better overall game.
James also surpassed Bryant to take over fourth spot on the all-time playoff three point list.
The Cavs have areas of concern, however. Guard Jeff Teague added 23 points on Monday and was able to attack the Cavaliers, but 20 point games for Teague usually doesn’t happen consistently. The contest was back and forth for the next few minutes until their star forward, Kevin Love, led the Cavaliers on a 10-0 run, in which he scored all 10 points. He only had four boards in the entirety of Game 1, so that’s a welcome change for the Cavaliers.
“He’s got to learn to control himself”, George told reporters after the game. Even Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue praised Love for doing the little-big-things, saying that it could have gone either way, but Love doing the little things was the difference maker that favored Cleveland with the victory.
Cleveland had been pushed hard in the opening game of the series as a CJ Miles-led surge meant the champions only just emerged with a 109-108 win. But his shocking eight turnovers were, well, shocking.
The Cavs led by 12 late in the third quarter Saturday and by 10 with 9:06 to go.
Pacers coach Nate McMillan blamed Indiana’s team defense, not placing the blame on just Stephenson.
In the third quarter, Cleveland took advantage of a mismatch underneath and pounded the ball inside to Love, who scored 10 straight and drew a charging foul on Lance Stephenson in a span of two minutes as the Cavs opened an 89-70 lead.
“He’s gotta know at this point we need him to take it to the next level, and we’ll continue to work with him”, George said.
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LOS ANGELES – If anything, the Los Angeles Clippers have concluded over the last two days, they can’t let the Utah Jazz be the sole instigators of all the action in their first-round playoff series.
