Playoff Live Thread: Cavs vs. Pacers, Game 4 (#BroomsOut)
2017-04-23
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]
Thunder are in ‘wait around for Westbrook to do something’ mode…got to get others involved…
Ugly quarter by both OKC and HOU…
Roberson is so freaking bad this game on offense. Completely cancels him out.
Harden can’t buy a shot in this game…
Cavs have yet to bust out the black unis… wonder if they’re saving them for the Finals?
Roberson almost airballed that free throw…
He’s done it before…almost unbelievable that a professional player can’t get a better shot than his…even if he was a better FT shooter, hard to imagine him shooting better than 60% with that rainbow toss…
I love Westy. Dude just balls out
OKC hasn’t scored in 4 minutes… 14 point lead dwindled to two… and Russ is on the floor
Blake out. Gobert out. Nurkic out. Do the frauds ever play a healthy team in the playoffs?
Kind of insane…
https://twitter.com/noamschiller/status/856230329903874048
Yet people will find reasons to doubt him every year.
I can’t believe NeNe can still contribute… amazing
Westy needs to play the entire game. His team is so bad when he is in the chairs
Taj Gibson has finally showed up these past two games it seems.
Russ has triple double… in the first half…
Can he get to 20/20/20???
If anyone can… Russ can…
After JR turnover, he came extremely close to clipping PG on the three point shot. Crazy, the palpitations.
651 career points against Indiana…my god. That’s like 10% of his playoff output!
He has played them a lot… mostly in the Heat years…
Coolest stat of the day…
https://twitter.com/NikkiGoelCavs/status/856247525262667778
If Mike Brown winds up coaching the Dubs because Kerr can’t, they are doomed…
I got the sense Kerr was just regular sick; is he actually sick enough to miss more games?
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19226092/golden-state-warriors-coach-steve-kerr-suffering-head-neck-pain-walking
This is very serious. It is a strong chance that Brown coaches them from here on out. WOW. I guess he had complications from his back surgery when spinal fluid leaked in his body. He commented today he regretted getting the surgery. He’s in terrific pain. I truly feel for him.
Even Brown can’t torpedo that team…
If PG13 wants to win now….Celtics would be best bet….believe they have good enough core to do so….Lakers are too young and the West is stacked….Im also curious w/o knowing about contracts if he goes to team like Grizzlies who seem like a player away (small forward) from really being contenders
Portland is another team with a lot of first round picks… having PG with that backcourt and a healthy Nurkic could be really interesting…
I was almost about to write them, but not sure what to make of Lilliard and McCollum, since I believe one of them is leaving and if thats the case, not sure if team would be better even with George
Bet he ends up the Clips somehow…
He’ll probably somehow magically going to the warriors. Uggh.
LOL
What about Milwaukee?
LBJ has been noticeably less dressy this post season in post game pressers… white t-shirt the other day, hoodie today…
he’s pulling a Delly dress code
Dude won Cleveland a championship. I think he’s free and easy now.
It’s just an odd contrast to previous years where he’s been kind of a fashion forward guy…
Going back to his roots… just a kid from Akron!
I could still see the Celtics making a run at PG13 in the summer…
No way Ainge is giving up Rozier or Crowder for him…those guys are STUDS….
saw stat where Cavs where outscored every 4th quarter this series yet still won games….very weird….this team is hard to get, but they find ways to win in strangest ways
Weren’t outscored in Game 3.
Figure Bucks would preferred matchup since they are younger and inexperienced….that Raptors win yesterday showed in the slow it down and make it ugly game that Bucks have some work to do…if Cavs can fix up defense they can make another short series regardless of who they play
Yep. either one will be an easy victory.
Work to do…
https://twitter.com/ESPNSteinLine/status/856242411026104320
People complaining after a sweep. SMH
Doesn’t seem like complaining, just pointing out it will be tougher against tougher competition if they continue to have these defensive struggles…
Having a backup PG that can contribute in the playoffs is huge. We missed this last year so much when the competition got better and Delly disappeared.
He was good until the finals. Excellent in the conference finals. We will see how d will fares if we make it to the finals.
Um, they lost two games last year before the Finals… your obsession with Delly continues…
If bucks win first round I’m gonna have a hard time picking who to root for.
https://twitter.com/DanFeldmanNBA/status/856230228259221504
Similar to last year except for Game 2 against the Pistons…
People just cannot enjoy a sweep.
Sure they can… but the Pacers were a .500 team and the sweep is fairly expected…
Haha I wouldn’t say I expected a sweep after the end of season we had
PG’s team showed up today… PG did not… 5-21, 3-9 from three…
“Ballgame”
Checked out mentally after that devastating loss.
Big story from the last two games is that Deron Williams can contribute. Aside from no injuries that’s my fav news from this series.
WHAT IS HE PREFERENCE ON WHO WE PLAY—–RAPTORS OR THE BUCKS ( HOPE THAT SERIES GOES 7 GAMES AND THEY CONTINUE TO BEAT EACH OTHER UP )—–LOOKS LIKE R.J. IS SEEING LESS TIME ON THE FLOOR—-MAYBE WITH THE WEEK REST THAT WILL HELP HIM ALSO
Raptors
Definitely raptors
It doesn’t matter. 4 or 5 game series either way.
OKC sucks whenWesty sits.
HAS BEEN A ROUGH SERIES FOR ME ( AS FAR AS VIEWING ) GRANDSON’S 5TH BIRTHDAY TODAY ( SO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS ) –SO WITH THE RESTED TIME DO WE SEE POSSIBLY MORE DEFENSIVE SCHEMES –A POSSIBLE ” BIG EDY ” FEW MINUTES SIGHTING —-BEING THE 1ST ONE TO GET PAST ROUND ONE IS ALWAYS A BLESSING / LEBRON IS WELL AWARE OF THIS—-CONGRATS TO THE CAVS AND ALL MY CTB BROTHERS —-NOW BACK TO CAKE AND BEER !!!———” DEFEND THE LAND “……. WE ARE ON OUR WAY !!!
Though they made it interesting… Cavs still the only team to sweep the first round so far, and Dubs the only team that can join them in that…
Yep. Should be celebrating this! Cavs are always awesome in the playoffs.
DWill was awesome today
Yep. He’s been great all series. Remember when nate said he’s sucked? Good times.
I think Nate said he was out of shape… and he was… He’s looked much better since the last week of the season…
He did suck. He’s better now. He did stink at beginning of fourth.
This is great timing rest wise for Cavs. Early 1 pm game, get back to Cleveland early while its still day time. Rest tomorrow, then weak off to heal, practice, prepare. First team into the second round, will be more rested than anyone.
Cavs shot 5-20 in the fourth quarter, “led” by Irving at 1-7.
Most were good shots too.
The game can be easy, or hard. Just because Kyrie can score buckets in traffic going 1 on 3 doesn’t mean it’s the easiest way to score or most effective. Love and Korver did miss a couple wide open threes that they normally knock down. Not sure why LeBron stopped playing downhill, possibly fatigue. George choked as well.
No. Kyrie jacked a lot of early clock hope shots.
Lue’s attempt to show faith in Kyrie almost backfired. Glad they took care of business though.
Kyrie is awesome in the playoffs. Just needs to get his three ball going.
Dude was fantastic defense today.
He had some good plays, but just as many blowbys for Teague…
He was missing from everywhere in the 4th quarter today…
He played hero ball and hijacked the offense. Cavs are much more effective running high pick and rolls with LeBron and Deron right now
Had three fast break breakups. He also had a key steal late. He also was the focal point of Indiana’s offense till late: get Kyrie in pick and roll or isolation and score. He helped indy immensely.
Bulls play on TNT today… Celtics could be in a 3-1 hole…
Here is hoping Raptors bucks goes 7 and the Raptors close out the bucks.
Yea that’s crazy isn’t it? Rooting for Toronto
Will sweep or win in five verse either team.
As much as I love your optimism, the facts are that the Cavs must clean up their fourth quarters and box out for us to have any dominance going forward. Instead of blithely stating they will crush the world, let’s hope they fix their defensive issues and come up with a few more play calls for late game offense. Perhaps then the optimism you have will be well founded. As it is winning the East will get them swept out West.
They just swept the first round. They don’t have to clean up anything.
Didn’t realize the Pacers were the best team in the NBA. Let’s celebrate our championship now!
Boy am I glad we got to shove that in Teague’s face. Sorry, ya got swept. As much as I hate when I have to go without Cavs basketball for any period of time, but we need the week off and the practice.
Yeah, Teague is a punk… now 0-12 vs Cavs in last three playoffs…
Amen. Especially that last part. I seem to remember Kyrie having a zero assist game earlier & Bron having a talk with him & both of them saying it would never happen again. It happened again.
4 down… 12 to go…
Phew………….. week off to laugh that off
Well, a sweep & no injuries. Though we still have issues, can’t ask for more. Raps in a slugfest to boot.
Cavs played well that fourth. Missed a lot of open looks. Shot the three like crap and still won.
They did not box out well… or take high percentage shots… but yes, they won and that’s all that matters…
Are you a troll?
LeBron only scored two points in the fourth until the final minute… hits huge three to close it out…
Man JR. What a unique personality to even be thinking that
Lovely. On to round 2. Week of rest :)
I can’t wait for Cedi to get here so JR can sit late game. That was beyond boneheaded.
Worried about a potential series with the Bucks. You can get 4 quarters out of a Buck.
They will sweep them most likely.
I think the bucks are a bigger threat matchup wise than the Raptors, and I doubt we sweep the Raptors.
Neither team is a threat
They could take us to 6 or 7 games. The raptors did last year.
Only because we got bored.
If bucks get shooting this offseason they have finals potential. A good free agent and Giannis improving there is going to make them deadly.
Well that was an adventure.
believe Jeff Teague has been swept out of playoffs by Cavs 3 yrs in a row….if true….wow
https://twitter.com/espn_macmahon/status/856229773546323968
not only stupidly risky, it was also not even close to being successful
Second dumbest
That was dumb, but I am forever grateful for Curry’s OB behind-the-back pass last year.
Really, we can all think of one dumber from just last June.
That is EXACTLY what I was thinking.
So true
Cavs rule. Please remember this
PG came up small in the must win…
Game. Set. Series.
Did JR just try a behind the back pass to finish the game off or did he lose the ball?
Yes and yes.
Holy shit JR
Was that JR with a stupid TO there? Yeesh, we play stooooopid a LOT.
JR goes Steph with the unnecessary behind-the-back pass…
JR nearly blew it hahaha…Lebron ready to ice it
JR almost Curried the game away right there…
What the actual eff, JR?
https://twitter.com/SInow/status/856229526216597508
Korv2r!
No threes
Irving did get a big board at the end as James settled for a 3. We could easily be down 3-1 instead of on the verge of a sweep.
What??!!
Anyone notice Monta played himself out of the rotation? He usually kills the Cavs.
He’s pretty much washed up…
Thank God KK is like a 90% FT shooter…
For us, he was 93%.
Kyrie with a huge offensive rebound
Lance fouls out…
HUGE rebound from Kyrie!!