Eastern Conference Semifinals Live Thread: Game 1, Pacers @ Cavs
2025-05-04Good evening CtB!
The Cavs welcome Central Division rival Indiana Pacers to the banks of the Cuyahoga River for what is the most underrated playoff series of the Conference Semifinal round. Both of these teams are young, exciting, and have had a lot of recent success but looking to take the next step of becoming an actual championship contender. Some have casted this series as “Pacers vs. better version of the Pacers” in the sense of both teams being driven by their prolific offenses, and struggle against physical defending teams. Which team can junk up the game with physical defense and win ugly? It’ll probably be the team that takes the series.
Tip off is scheduled for 6:00PM Eastern time and will be broadcasted live nationally on the TNT family of networks, Go Cavs!
Cmon Knicks…. (Can’t believe I’m saying that)
Would take a tiny bit of sting out of the Cavs current woes to see the Celtics biff game 1.
Feel like I’m jinxing it though
CLONE BUCKAROO —— ALL IN 👍👍
wow.. sad.. but it is amazing, even to me, how omniscient my nose is.. the authorities should clone me.. probably useful in the national security apparatus.. saw the score.. looked at the box score and heard the voice say “it’s over”
AGREED SWEETCHIE —- INJURIES ARE PART OF ANY SPORT——- BUT DAMN —- KA / CAVS TOOK ALL THE PRECAUTIONS TO STAY HEALTHY— DID A GREAT JOB—-AND NOW THE CLEVELAND JINX SADLY LIVES ON 🤬
Cleveland has a ring. Buffalo wears the jinx crown
Frustrated to see Mobley and Hunter as questionable for Tomorow…
We need big games from Ty, JA, Sam.. Max.. everybody… we need to rally around and make a statement..
These damn injuries have come at the worse time after we’ve been healthy for most of the year… so frustrating.. reminding me of last playoffs.
DIDNT HEAR THAT ABOUT DRE ——— SHEEET 💩!!——WHERE IS NYQUIL ????
BW —- JUST HEARD THAT ABOUT MOBES 🤬—— WTF ————— SEE YOU NEXT YEAR——- ……..” MORE BEER 🍺 PLEASE “ !!!
Sounds like Mobley is questionable for game 2 :(
Hunter too apparently. Bleh.
The Cavs desperately need a goon.
TT
They look weak,griping about no calls.Send in the goon squad.
If both those guys are out, then this series is likely over.
AGREE RAOUL ON TODAYS KJG ——DONT AGREE WHEN HE CAME OUT LAST WEEK ABOUT DG
KJG —- MIGHT WANT TO RETRACT THEIR ARTICLE—- DO THE CAVS NEED DG ??
Josh C at KJG was on the money today about why the sky has not actually fallen — good for him. yesterday he wanted to trade DG of Giannis, following up his long term goal of trading JA for any over-the-hill, over-paid chucker a random team is stuck with.
“IN THE LAND “ ——WE HAVE “ THE DRIIVE —- THE FUMBLE—-NOW THE “ TOE “ —————NOT TO MENTION KYRIE/ KLOVE OUT VS THE DUBS 🤬🤬
You absolutely can’t start Merrill in a second round playoff game. We need offensive production and creativity from that position. Also, despite his good defense, Wade is terrible on offense. Unless we have a big lead, there is no reason to have either on the floor. Okoro falls into that category, too. None of them can create even a simple offensive move.
Strus didn’t have a great game either offensively. But he’s got more of a resume of showing up in playoff games. Wade/Okoro continue to deal with lights being too bright.
I mean, if one of them could stop bleeding at one end, that would have a big impact on the +-
pretty sure the only reason Merrill is in the majors is that he is good shooter.
Merrill wasn’t the problem at all, and blaming role players at this time of year is so funny to me.
Mitchell and Mobley got dominated by their matchups, simple as. Our core 4 needs to act like it.
The Cavs are too slow to close out on Indiana’s three-point attempts with two bigs on the floor together. Hunter needs to play more 4, not less. Pacers’ three-point shooting in Game 1: 36% (4 of 11) with Hunter at power forward and Mobley or Allen at center; 57% (8 of 14) with Hunter at small forward alongside Wade+Mobley or Mobley+Allen; 64% (7 of 11) with Hunter off the floor; Or if you prefer “The Diff” for Game 1: +12 Cavs outscored Pacers 41-29 with Hunter at power forward and Mobley or Allen at center; – 5 Pacers outscored Cavs… Read more »
This may be one of those series where Hunter works at the 4. Good information.
BW —- IF DG REST ANOTHER WEEK—- CAVS WILL BE “ PACKING THEIR BAGS —-GETTING GOLF BAGS READY “
Yeah, feels right. Terrible time to get injured – even if he gets cleared, his fitness will have taken a hit. I guess we’ll see…
He’s our most important player when things get tight. Donovan gets tunnel vision and the bigs need him to get them the ball. He makes all five guys a threat.
I love Donovan as a closer when he is right but easier to guard one guy than 5.
ALL I AM GOING TO SAY IS —— “ GET BETTER EFFFING QUICK DG “ ——— WILL SEE HOW CAVS COACHES / PLAYERS RESPOND—-PACERS NOW HAVE THE ADVANTAGE/ MOJO —— CAVS NEED TO REGAIN THAT——GO CAVS !!!
If DG is out the next game, I’d consider moving Strus to the #2, and insert Hunter at the #3.
100%, and never play Hunter at the 4. Put fucking Tyson or Green to play the small ball 4.
Hunter… he ran into his own teammates at least 3 times. Like, what was going on? Better over the course of the game. But, it definitely looked like Indy was taking away what the cavs wanted to do to start the game and they hit every shot they dared Indy to take.
yeah, any lack of continuity gets exposed in the playoffs. But mostly it’s just about Cavs coming out not respecting their opponent enough… I expect adjustments and improvement over the course of the series.
Indy is no joke, I think they may be tougher than the Knicks or injured Celtics to play.
Must have seen haliburton score 12 out of iso matchups with Allen at the top of the key. I mean, you live with it if you take away everyone else. That wasn’t the case tonight
Yeah they’re targeting Allen. May need to take Allen off the court when Haliburton is in, more often.
might want to zone it up for allen, or run drop and funnel him into the paint.
Good point, but with the way they were draining 3s, it would be hard switching to zone.
Pacers were definitely pushing the pace to prevent the zone looks, but their half court sets weren’t effective, if I had to guess. Would say the majority of points were on some sort of step back or jab step 3s with a small smattering of paint points.
not to ruin the mood, but uncle buck’s nose is smelling some very nasty stink.. prepare your psyches if they are fragile.. “the trade” was a failure.. hunter with 11 pts in 30m is a disaster.. didn’t watch, happily.. won’t watch (too traumatic for this born in CLE late 60s almost 70 wreck).. plus.. i can see the future, so there is that.. good luck dudes, take care of yourselves.. you’ve been warned.. it is the 216 after all.. cavs going to be done in by a f*cking toe ??
Hunter was fine. Wade and Okoro provided little to no production for 31 minutes of play. It is the playoffs, where they typically disappear.
hello arch bro.. frankly, i think this game is going to show that the cavs have a glass jaw.. if they want to prove otherwise, game 2 would be the time, but i am not holding my breath.. the streaks were fun.. the regular season record was nice.. the humiliation of MIA was entertaining.. BUT.. this is where the rubber needed to hit the road, and as usual, you see the result.. i hope i am wrong, but my nose, which seldom leads me astray says otherwise..
But if there was one they’d lose it’s this one. Like they got worked – but Indiana hit an unconscious amount of 3’s – and Cavs will likely regress to the mean in that regards- which alone would tip the balance-Garland coming back should be big too- obviously things could go wrong but it’s not time to doom!
Exactly.
Need Garland back. Can’t have 6 points from his position.
Mobley needs to rebound better.
Can they buy out Okoro before the next game?
it’s getting ridiculous, can’t respect KA going that well over Javonte or Tyson shit I’d Tristan Thompson before i ever put in Okoro.
Well, if DG can go, he’s got to go.
No bueno. Pacers played a great game.
And a dirty one.
And that’ll do it
Mobley needs to rebound.
Kenny screwed this game up. He needed to put Thompson in for a flagrant to get em to tighten up the officiating.
Especially after that Mathurin crap!
Absolutely
Strus gotta see the double there.
Game over.
Now or never.
Whelp.
Okoro/Wade: 2 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists.
31 minutes.
Okoro is +3. Tom is right. He could have been better,
This 15-4 run the last 4 minutes is the game.
Mitchell was -19. I guess we should sit him and play Okoro in his place?
Okoros minutes didn’t lose the game. Pacers are shooting great and they have a better plan for tonight. Why we didn’t have anything planned to take the ball out of haliburton hands early ima possession, I don’t know
Hope people see the value of DG now.
Welp, first adversity of the playoffs, see how the Cavs respond hope they learn something
Indy runs better offense more often than we do.
Not great
Nembhard 5/6 from deep. He was 28.9% on the year.
Okoro needs to be glued to the bench until October.
Can’t get stops
Giving up 19 made 3’s and making 8 is not going to win much games in the NBA.
Lots of wide open misses by the home team.
Let em get way too comfortable early.
Exactly.. started this game down from the beginning and really never had control of It.. had 2-4 pt leads but Indy would always respond with a made shot/run out of a timeout to kill the momentum.
I’m out of the loop, when is DG due back?
Ideally he’d rest for another week is what someone else mentioned hearing. Might be able to come back early if it’s urgent.
Get Okoro off the floor!
7 left. I don’t think you take Mitchell and strips off the floor. Think we start blitzing Haliburton next game.
Get Okoro out of there!
Everyone needs to match max’s intensity.
Would love some Max bombs right now
I’m so angry
They didn’t call a foul?
He obviously hit him in the chest.
Unbelievable
Someone needs to go and shove Mathurin for standing over Hunter like that.
Where’s nut punching JR when we need him
Mobley gets called for his pinky brushing a Pacer in the air and the commentators go on about how big a deal that is when a player is in there air. Hunter gets destroyed and it’s a good clean block, barely any contact. Smdh.
Announcer: “there was a little bit of contact.” Ah, yeah.
He hits him in the chest while in the air. That is a foul. And a dangerous play.
Two fucking fouls and no call.
Ben Mathurin is a d-bag.
Tristan??? For the leg sweep
At the arena. No foul on that call initially??
Clear foul. FFS refs.
Great hustle by Strus leads to a Mobley triple.
Started the run
That isn’t a basketball play there.
Again
Wade missed a wide open Jerome at the top of the key. Need to cede those minutes to Hunter
KA agrees. Hunter in.
Don’t like the jack from Jerome. Wade hurting us on O.
Strus!
Heads up play by Strus!
Dean Wade doing nothing offensively. He may play himself out of this series.
Brilliant rebound by Strus.
And again!
Pacers regain the lead after we were briefly up 4.
Spida attacking the rack takes a ton of energy. The heat check 3 was partially to save some gas.
IN DONOVAN WE TRUST, HE WILL NOT BE DENIED
We’ve won the last two quarters. Just win the final one.
Damn. Nice pass out there from Siakam. Bah.
Nice shot Turner.
Rat farts!
Big shot from Mathurin. Wade in his face. Damn.
DONOVAN MITCHELL MVP
SPIDA!!!!