NBA Playoffs: Pacers' 2-0 hole dictated more by their foibles than Cavs' greatness
The Pacers' plan and execution has been flawed, despite chances to steal one vs. the champs
At some point, the Cavaliers are going to face a team that isn't constantly running into the door it's trying to pass through, and it's going to be a problem.
The Cavaliers gave up a 112 defensive rating, but still won 117-111 in Game 2 to take a 2-0 series lead on the Indiana Pacers in their best-of-7 series Monday night. The Cavaliers' Big 3 also set a new postseason high with 25-plus points from LeBron James (25), Kevin Love (27) and Kyrie Irving (37). It should have been a rout -- the kind you'd expect of the 2-seed over the 7-seed -- especially since Indiana came so close in Game 1.
And yet ... at home, the Cavaliers were still in a five-point game in the final two minutes. The Pacers still covered. The Cavs' defense, outside of a third quarter where the Pacers shot 7-of-18 from the field, was still putrid. The Cavs do not look like they've flipped a switch, or ready to defend their title, the land, or anything, really.
Here's the thing, though. The Pacers knew they would have to take advantage of their chances, and yet they have messed up in every way imaginable. Their switches have been a disaster. Here's one from Game 1:
That's Kyrie Irving and LeBron James, guarded by Jeff Teague and Paul George. Natural matchups, no cross-matchups. You know you're facing that going in. And yet it happened several times in Games 1 and 2. Including this, the dagger in Game 2:
This is on top of the final play of Game 1, where the Pacers were wholly unprepared for the Cavs to double Paul George early, and then, wholly unprepared when the Cavaliers did it again. Then you have the lineups. Monta Ellis and Jeff Teague have played 44 minutes together across Games 1 and 2, and have a minus-9.8 net rating in those minutes. With George and Ellis on the floor, it's a minus-23.8.
The Teague-Ellis combination gives the Pacers disastrous combinations when they switch, and yet the Pacers continue to play it together, and switch.
All of this adds up to a very bad series for Pacers coach Nate McMillan. And this is before you have the conversation about how Paul George is calling out teammates or the team spirit every other game.
There's an end game here that seems to have been written slowly over months, where George eventually asks out and is traded to some coastal team or another; his frustration is palpable. But let's not go down the road of acting like this is where George has always been. Those Pacers teams that challenged LeBron's Heat were legit. They were serious threats, and not just because of talent. They did the little things to put themselves in a position to win and entered every battle with Miami, from 2012 on, with the very real intention of beating the Heat.
This Pacers team has had chances, and has played well enough to hang, but seem content with it. The mental focus to avoid the mistakes that ruin you are absent.
The Cavs are not playing great. The Pacers are just playing worse. This has bad ramifications for the Pacers and their future, and should be cause for alarm for the Cavs as well. Look at all that has gone wrong for the Pacers ... and they've had chances to win.
The Cavs have done what they've had to in order to beat the Pacers. But any conversation about whether the Cavs are "fine" or no has to start with this fact.
The Pacers have done everything to beat themselves as well.
















