Playoff Live Thread: Cavs vs. Pacers, Game 4 (#BroomsOut)

The Indiana Pacers has never been swept in four games in a best-of-seven series in NBA franchise history. The Cleveland Cavaliers have gone on to sweep an opponent all seven times they’ve lead 3-0 in a playoff series. Something’s gotta give.

Following the biggest second half comeback in NBA playoff history that the Cavs hung on the Pacers Thursday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, it would be understandable if Indy was too demoralized to put up much of a fight in Game 4. However, if Jeff Teague has anything to say about it, the Pacers will refuse to go quietly. And, while it would also be understandable if the Cavs took their foot off of the gas, and the Pacers’ collective necks, especially given their propensity for not finishing off opponents in the regular season… they could make things easy on themselves with a clean sweep. After all, the early round sweeps last year seemed to really benefit the wine & gold by affording them more energy in the tank to pull of their epic Finals comeback.

Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love should be plenty well rested for this one after sitting out the fourth quarter of Game 3. We’ll see if that development winds up being an outlier or a trend today.

Cavs probable starting lineup: Kevin Love, LeBron James, J.R. Smith, Tristan Thompson, Kyrie Irving. Pacers probable starting lineup: Paul George, Jeff Teague, Myles Turner, Thaddeus Young, C.J. Miles.

Prediction: It isn’t easy, but the Cavs sweep their way into the second round 122-118, and get a full week to prepare for whoever survives the Raps and Bucks series.

Catch all the action starting at 1pm (EST) on ABC, and don’t forget to chime in here…

[Editor’s note: The InstaCap for today’s game will be posted later this evening]