The Cleveland Cavaliers won game two against the Indiana Pacers to balance the series. The Cavs finally won 100:97 (BOXSCORE) and could especially thank LeBron James, who scored 46 points.
This didn’t go well for the Pacers. LeBron James hit his first three throws in 80 seconds, Victor Oladipo had already picked up two fouls. Pacers coach Nate McMillan had to take his first break early, but without any consequences. James scored the first 16 points (7/8 FG) of the Cavs, which took Pacers to mid-section before Myles Turner scored the first field goal for the guests. As a result, however, the Pacers were able to catch up a little, even though the offense suffered visibly without Oladipo. With an 18:33 gap the guests were still quite well served.
While James took his break, Oladipo returned and Indiana made up some ground because Cleveland could no longer score, Lance Stephenson shortened the drive to just four points (35:39). Shortly thereafter, however, Oladipo took his third foul after Kevin Love made clever contact in the threesome. McMillan took no chances again and took out his star. The Cavs took advantage of this and after more Dunks from James the hosts went into the cabin with a 58:46 lead.
But Cleveland continued to miss closing the bag early, the defense was too weak for that. The Pacers came too easily near the ring, where no shotblocker was waiting with Love, with a 13:2 run the guests were back in the game. Indiana now prevented the penetration of James better and only allowed 16 points in the quarter (74:67 Cavs).
Cleveland survived the phase without LeBron and kept the lead, because Love could finally score a little. The Pacers were still in range, Thaddeus Young shortened to 4 points a few minutes before the end. Love hurt herself in this action and had to get out, it was once again the thumb of her left hand.
But now the Cavs defense was on point. First J.R. Smith managed the steal against Oladipo, later Kyle Korver held against Turner in the post. An incredible Darren Collison threesome brought the Pacers back to three points 50 seconds from time (92-95), in return he pulled the offensive foul against George Hill. So the Pacers had a chance to equal the score and Oladipo had an open-ended threesome after a misunderstanding with the Cavs, but the Shooting Guard missed. LeBron, on the other hand, showed nerves of steel and turned his four free throws into victory.
James finished the game with 46 points (17/24 FG, 10/13 FT), 12 rebounds and 5 assists. In addition, Love (15, 8 rebounds) and Korver (12, 4/8 three-digit) scort in two digits. Oladipo was Indiana’s best scorer in just 28 minutes with 22 points, but he also lost 6 balls. Turner scored 18, Collison 16 points and 6 dimes.
Cleveland Cavaliers v Indiana Pacers 100:97, Series 1:1 (BOXSCORE)
LeBron James (Cavs) about his strong start: “Coach Lue made the first play for me and it worked. So we tried again. I just had a good rhythm and wanted to see how long I could hit my litters.”
Victor Oladipo (Pacers) on his forgiven threesome as compensation: “I was completely free and simply didn’t hit. I’d take that shot over and over again when I got it.”
LeBron James. Drive, Jumper, Fadeaway, Threesome. After James didn’t get a throw in game one in the first ten minutes, he started this time as aggressively as not for a long time. He had collected 20 points after a quarter. He then took some time off, but in crunchtime he was back again. 11 points in the final quarter, plus four converted free throws closed the sack for the Cavs.
Lance Stephenson. As always, it was with Born Ready, who had some bright moments, but also bad dropouts. Especially his 4 ball losses were incredibly painful and mostly came in phases when the Pacers knocked on the door again. Also held the ball too long when Oladipo was on the field with him. This ended in a very bad choice of litters, even if his odds looked very reasonable.
Cavs coach Ty Lue relied fully on offense, as the new Starting Five showed. Smith and Korver replaced Jeff Green and Rodney Hood, which meant LeBron and four shooters on the field. The Pacers could hardly send any help against James and the star of the Cavs took advantage of this (especially in the first half) mercilessly. However, it was not Cleveland who were the main beneficiaries of Oladipo’s foul problems. The Pacers’ shooting guard has only fouled once in his career, but Pacers coach McMillan avoided any risk. Maybe this was the wrong decision, Oladipo finished the game with three fouls.