Playoff Live Thread: Cavs vs Pacers, Game 6
2018-04-27
Well, it hasn’t been the easiest five games of LeBron’s playoff career, but tonight he has a chance to close out the Pacers in 6 games and take some much needed R and R. I say “he” rather than “they” because to this point, the King has largely ruled entirely on his own, bending the Pacers to his will and their knees and receiving little to no help along the way. Thus far, James has averaged 34.8 points, 11.4 rebounds, and 8 assists for the first round. He’d have more assists but his teammates are missing a lot of shots. Despite LeBron’s ridiculous numbers, the Pacers have been playing some tough D, holding the Cavs to under 100 in three of the five games. That’s about as much as you can ask when going up against James.
Oddly enough, the Cavs have been much better on the defensive end than during the regular season despite the two (and possibly three) games played without the defensive force of George Hill. The point guard is still listed as questionable and could very well not play as the Cavs have another game to fall back on if necessary. In his absence, Jose Calderon has stepped into the starting role and done his best to plug the gap. If the Cavs can get ANY sort of contribution from Love on the offensive end, Indiana will have a difficult time stopping Cleveland. Unfortunately, I think this game is destined to be another close one. Hopefully, James and his Island of Misfit Toys will prevail and close out the series. Go Cavs!
4 point game, 3 minutes left…Thunder need Playoff P to show up…
If you took only ‘good’ Russ, he might be the best player in the NBA…unfortunately, you also have to take bad Russ…
Ingles to Gobert!!!! Nice play!
Fantastic 2nd effort by Mitchell.
WOW WHAT A STUPID PLAY BY CROWDER.
Too much rookie?
Big play by Russ, potential and one…
5 point game, 43 for Russ…
Heck of a game…but it’s just Russ for the Thunder…I can imagine Ben Werth watching this…
Utah pressure winning out…
Wow, 5th on Mitchell!
The team is lifting him up… haven’t given up any ground.
Pretty impressive Utah performance so far with Rubio sitting most of the game.
I remember when I got roasted for pumping up Mitchell during Summer League LMAO… Summer League matters!!! LOL
He looks like a more team oriented Kyrie, honestly…
And a far better defender…. but yeah, good comparison on the offensive side. The question about him was shooting, but he hasn’t stopped being hot since the summer.
Yeah, he’s stronger and more engaged on D…he’s a freaking rookie, too…he could easily be better than Kyrie…
WOW MITCHELL!!!
Crowder giving up an offensive board.
Crowder wide open 3 and brick.
Those Russ off the dribble somewhat contested threes are just brutal…
Then he hits two in a row, but it’s always trick or treat…
Fascinating contest. Russ vs everyone else.
PG13 is 2-9 for 5 pts in that Utah game. He has had 1 great game, 1 OK game & 4 stinkers.
Playoff Pee
Mitchell is so skilled at those scoops in the paint…
Amazing finishes tonight.
If we lose Sunday, Gilbert should fire Lue within 24 hours.
I’m sure it’d happen pretty quickly…
If it does happen, I wonder if Dan will ask LBJ who he’d like as coach if he stays. Fizdale could get a call…
Wecshould start Perkins next game and have him throw Dipo into the stands on the first play.
The other frustrating part about all of this is that if James leaves due to the cavs not making the finals, K Love and Lue will have done the equivalent taking a machete and hacking up Love’s trade value into tiny little bloody bits of viscera. I don’t think Love can succeed in Lue’s system and I don’t think the rest of the league will offer much of anything if the cavs decide to blow it up if LBJ leaves. And they should blow it up. Keep Nance, Cedi, Zizic, and obviously the expiring contracts on the book. Ship everyone… Read more »
You think anyone wants George Hill at 20 mil, TT at 17, or JR at 13? Or Clarkson at 13?
Wow….. thats awful.
Eventually a team looking to strike in free agency may want those deals when they become expiring at which point we may be able to get draft picks. Stockpiling assets a la Philly and Boston is the game.
Mitchell is so good…
#12 pick, I believe. The stars are out there. We just need to find one.
As for game 7, it does not matter. We are not anything close to a contender. Whether Indy, Toronto, or Philly put us out of our misery.
I would trade Ingles for Love right now. What’s sad is that before the freaking thumb injury, Love’s shot was ridiculously wet.
It was, and his inside game was looking good too. I can’t see him improving without some significant rest. He’s not gonna get any though.
We are gonna need Hill Sunday.
Not optimistic at all.
Crowder tosses up some of the most violent bricks in the history of the game…yeah, I know he was unconscious for part of game 5…
I hope the Cavs don’t overpay for Hood this summer.
Hill needs to play Sunday, but if he doesn’t, and Lue starts Calderon again, Lue needs to be escorted from the building, at bayonet point if necessary. I’d even start Cedi and have Lebron at PG. Calderon was a huge zero tonight, and he can’t defend Pacer guards.
“I really have no idea what happened,” says Ty Lue on how the beginning of third qtr got away from them. For the sake of your job and this franchises future, please tell me you have an idea and are just being withdrawn.
Pacers are a bad matchup, but that may not explain why the Cavs look so bad offensively.
I think Love hurting his hand is affecting him. There’s lots of other things too.
Not sure how the Cavs can deal with 30 ppg monster Marco Belinelli in the ECF anyway, but they still might grind out a win on Sunday.
Having the same system without a guy like Kyrie in addition to LBJ appears to be a massive vulnerability that the Pacers have found and exploited defensively. It’s not like the Pacers have changed a ton of things defensively this series. Certainly less than the cavs have. So for 6 games we have not been able to counter that scheme with any real offensive efficiency. Even the wins have not been very efficient. So they really have no reason to change their scheme. It is working, has worked the whole series, and likely will work Sunday. You can’t install a… Read more »
whole lot more than Belinelli there in philly
Okay, I’ve been fairly patient with Lue – but I’ve had it. “What happened at the start ofthe 3rd quarter, Coach?” – “Oh…I really don’t remember”. You can’t answer that question?? There’s the door, pal.
He shouldn’t have come back. He isnt healthy enough to argue with the refs. He cant afford to get overexcited. It doesn’t make sense
Hubie Brown calling the Thunder- Jazz game to torture a weary world…
haha
Seems like this cavs era is going out with a whisper.
Not ready to write the obituary yet, but when ready it should begin with “…..Dan Gilbert refused to extend David Griffin’s contract….”
Correct.
Even if they pull out a miraculous win on Sunday against a team that got its confidence back and figured out the cavs main defensive scheme that was working, I honestly cannot see them beating Philly. Maybe Toronto, in another crazy hard fought series, but definitely not philly. I expect if Lebron drags this coach and team out of this series and drags them through Toronto, they might get one game against Philly, or possibly even get swept. Maybe that is slightly more than a whisper, but not much more. If they can’t shut down Dipo, then Indy runs away… Read more »
For whatever reason they don’t match up well with the pacers. Haven’t all season or in past years. In contrast we match up quite well with the raptors. Get past this and who knows what happens… the Sixers haven’t beat the Celtics yet….
It’s sad, but it wasn’t going to last forever.
goodness, gracious. That was brutal. I don”t know if I could take another round of this
So just got back to the game. Wow. Just shameful. Cavs get blown out twice this series and barely squeak by in the rest of their wins. It seems very very very unlikely they win game 7. At a certain point you have to look at the objective evidence in front of you and admit the pacers are probably just better than the cavs for any number of reasons including coaching and personnel. You can’t be rationally confident in the cavs chances after this. All you can have is pure, blind, and almost dogmatically religious faith that Lebron will somehow… Read more »
In fairness LeBron has rewarded that blind faith more often than not but I agree I really can’t recall a situation where he got so little help from his teammates or coaches. The scary thing is that the Pacers don’t really have any frontline talent other than Oladipo who has been inconsistent and McMillan is a merely serviceable coach and the Cavs are still struggling. It’s not like this is the Big Three Celtics or Peak Dwight Magic. The Pacers hustle but most of the time they are just some team. Collinson, Stephenson, Thad Young, Bogdanovic, these guys were all… Read more »
2007 Spurs series and most of the Detroit series.
Also 2015 against GS. Korver has had close to 20 points a few times which equals out Delly.
Those Spurs and Pistons were simply much better teams, and against GS in 2015 Love and Kyrie were injured. I don’t really consider being outgunned on talent to be the same thing as teammates and coaches costing LeBron a series against an opponent they should beat, as is the case here.
Fair. Just pointing out other series where Cavs players other than James produced very little regardless of the other team’s talent or Cavs specific injury situation.
It doesn’t really matter but we’re about to lose by 40 in a close out game
Cedi with more effort on that goaltend than we’ve seen most of the night.
Again if the Cavs win game 7 it would be if LeBron goes for another 40+ performance next Sunday.
Coach Lue will cost the Cavs not only getting beat in the first round but losing LeBron in free agency.
I just hope he gets fired right after the Cavs get eliminated. The very next day.
Not all that surprised we are struggling against the Pacers. They were smoking hot coming into the playoffs and are a matchup nightmare for us because they can completely cancel love with young. Without hill this felt like a loss coming in. The no cedi is absolutely maddening considering some of our best basketball this season was when he started
Everything regresses to the mean… Pacers can’t miss a shot, tonight. That will change.
LBJ gets bloodied, no call.
Love gets knocked silly, no call
Olidipo still in the game up 27 with 7 minutes. Enjoy Pacers.
Game 7 is Lebron’s jungle.
How many elbows and hard fouls and no -calls did we take tonight??? I can’t believe that Lue didn’t send out tt earlier and some of the other guys with explicit instructions to match their physicality and force the refs to get this under control. From minute one with the non call on the flagrant they man handled us and the refs let it happen.
Agree. Lue just doesn’t protect his players. He even said he likes Stephenson since he is “old school.”
We should have run some hard screens and picks to run their tight ball coverage into a shoulder or two.
Been saying for the longest time, get Perkins or even TT to clobber Oladipo and Stephenson. The Pacers have been emboldened by the Cavs refusal to push back. Turner, Young and Sabonis have completely taken out Kevin Love.
If George Hill can walk he better play Sunday
+ effing 1.
And still no Cedi or Zz (except Cedi’s first-half cameo).
Maybe we can get someone on the Pacers ejected and suspended for game 7. Only reason to keep watching.
Wow… Cavs absolutely crapped the bed.
Down 30 and Love is playing? WTF Lue
How is Love playing right now when he’s so beat up? Could Lue possibly be more dumb?
Can’t believe Love is back in the game after the blow to the head, especially given the margin.
night guys, this team blows and is improperly coached
Punked, punked, punked..
And now Lebron loses his cool.
Dude, we are not a good team. This series, this season, it’s all been rough
Goodnight. I have literally been watching the entire 3rd with my hands over my eyes during every Cavs defensive possession. I just can’t watch. I would just listen and wait for the crowd eruption. Now my ears can no longer take it.
The scary thing is this is only partially effort. We somehow just can’t score. At. All.
I am done fooling myself that the Cavs can make the Finals again. Clarkson Nance Hood not ready for prime time, and Hill can’t stay on the floor. So much for the trade saving the season
Exactly, to me there is no point in advancing to the second round when it is obvious that this team is just not good enough to make it past the second round.
The Cavs destroy the raptors… they match up well. Love doesn’t have 3 long defensive guys hounding him. Not worried about the raptors…
The Cavs look so old and slow tonight. Just sit LeBron already.
Welp I think given the Cavs performances this year, we were due for a letdown at some point in the playoffs. Thought we might hit that in May though.
This would have been the game to give Zizic and Cedi meaningful run. Now we can’t next game in must win.
See you guys Sunday. I’m out.
“12 minutes away from a possible game seven”….I did LOL.
Could we please, for the love of god, see some Zz against Sabonis?
Lue is waiting for a bigger deficit apparently
Honestly don’t know why LBJ falls for Lance’s crap every time???
But for every time LeBron reacts, there are 20 or 30 other provocations from Lance.
Down goes Stephenson! That was almost a 10-count.
Somehow all of the editors knew to avoid this one
James is done driving for the night unless by some miracle things are tight in the end.
Oh yeah. He just wants to shoot and probably miss so Pacers get a run out and wrap it up. LeBron should sit the 4th. No reason to play anymore.
No tech there for dissent?
Yeah, I’m out…
Feels like a February Tuesday night game…
Doesn’t it though? The type of game you watch with one eye in case the Cavs actually turn up to play.
Exactly…. feels like a rope a dope strategy.
Way to let Dipo take it right to the rim…
The annoying thing is were three dumb turnovers from being in this
Oladipo is heading toward a 30-point triple double
How is it that LeBron can hit shots on command?
GOAT
I hope Green signs with Boston this summer and takes minutes away from Brown…
Hahahaha