Playoff Live Thread: Cavs @ Pacers, Game 3
2018-04-20
Well, we didn’t expect to be here, did we? The Cavaliers head to Indiana to face a Pacers squad that had shocked many by splitting the first two games of this playoff series. Now, as the series moves to Bankers Life Fieldhouse, a place where the Cavaliers have seemingly always struggled, the question is whether or not LeBron James‘s supporting class can step up and give The King some help. Things don’t look great, but if there’s one thing we know about the Cleveland Cavaliers, it’s to expect the unexpected.
Cavs may still win this series, but it’s beyond obvious there will no parade down Euclid.
And perhaps no Cavs past the second round. No one around LeBron provides any consistency support. James won’t show it, but I imagine he is demoralized
I think he knew what they were. He wanted it to work but he knew before the kyrie trade. At least he’s going to have a lot of time to decide where to play next year.
I know people are bummed but let’s always bear in mind that if they had kept Kyrie or kept Isaiah they’d be even worse off than they are now. There’s no alternate universe where we’re really better off.
On one occassion, doesn’t get back on D, watching made 3 ptr by pacers from other end and just walks to bench.
Lucky Giannis is young and has the energy to try to carry this team…cuz he has to…
What I dream to wake up to…
Me too ✌️✌️✌️
Nice ;(
Exhausting James again and not playing Cedi/Zizic (while playing Green 16 more mins) is the height of stupidity
Too bad TT has regressed this year – we need players who play 100% the entire time they’re on the floor. TT used to be that guy and his offense boards just devastated the other team. Did a bunch of little things to help us win.
We have another guy like that too that our coach refuses to play.
Ugh.
http://i.imgur.com/XLDOdxp.jpg
The coaching staff needs to let the officials know about the Pacers’ constant grabbing and hacking. The Cavs are often forced to push with the off hand that was being grabbed all the time. And it resulted in some offensive fouls.. its also wearing down the Cavs especially Lebron.
brining back Lue end of season warped this team….thats my conspiracy hahaha
JR and TT was an afterthought! Who would’ve thought that after June 2016?!?!!
I miss Delly
+ Kyrie, Moz, Channing, RJ and Champ.
Amen… he could stop Oladipo all by himself.
hilarious…if they don’t get out of this he will be canned ASAP…if they don’t make Finals he may get canned
Did Indy change their d scheme in the second half? Why did the cavs torch them in the first?
I don’t know what if anything Pacers changed, but the Cavs missed a boatload of decent shots in the third quarter…if they hit a few of those, they probably win, and maybe win pretty easily…
Hmm. Well not sure what they can do if they are getting open and not hitting threes. Obviously, you would try to get it inside, but if Indy was still laying off certain shooters, that is likely not possible with the cavs style of offense.
They got more physical, specially Bogdanovic on LeBron. It definitely took LeBron off his game. Add the fact nobody else could hit a shot and it became easier on the Pacers.
What Lue should had done was to add Zz for his simple but effective scoring, instead of Green, and Cedi to go against Bogdanovic to hopefully slow him down. He did neither and we are down 1-2 against Oladipo and a bunch of G-League All Stars.
Ball pressure. That’s it. Wore LBJ down nobody else knew what to do.
Bucks off to a hot start…maybe the Celtic scrubs won’t shoot threes at a 60% clip tonight.
not sure what Pacers changed in second half other than getting aggressive and somewhat getting away with it…felt the early TOs by Love hurt the team, especially when game was super close….just looks like guys are afraid to shoot or drive against this Pacers team and thats bizarre…there’s no one to fear on them….initially thought this was 5 game but now may be 6 or 7
Oh please, somebody cast a voodoo spell on Lue and Green so that the Cavs can tie the series heading back home.
The only positive I can take from this game is that Gilbert is paying 190 million for this roster, but only 30 cents for his coach and GM. Which is kind of hilarious.
Well Lue has one game to figure things out. Couldn’t watch much so I don’t know how much was on him versus the players. However, clearly he and the staff have to figure something out, otherwise this Lebron era will go out with a quieter whisper than the Boston 2010 end. Suffice to say I don’t have much confidence this team will be playing in the second round and have even less that LBJ will be in a cavs uniform next fall. Hope the cavs once again get stupidly lucky in the draft or it could be a long long… Read more »
I am still optimistic. We were down 1-2 against Chicago two seasons ago, and they were a solid team. We won 4-2 eventually. Hoping for a miracle – we need Ante to be given some solid minutes. Atleast he will get some points as he is 75% shooter this season.
Zizic won’t get off the bench. That seems pretty clear
That was three years ago. And we played good defense and had a legit number 2 scorer. This team plays crappy defense and no one outside lebron can score.
Hopefully after 3 games the Cavs young guns understand magnitude of playoff basketball…still looks like Clarkson nance and at times Hood really don’t do much…Love has to step up any which way, if not then play someone else like Zicic…i mean what else do they have to lose…game plan next game is trap Dipo but also trap Bogdan….felt they left him open too many times
Lue absolutely sucks at in-games corrections. You can clearly see the Bogdanovic is killing you and destroying JR and you DO NOTHING about it. WTF????
Again… Lue did absolutely NOTHING in the 2nd half. No Cedi, didn’t bring in Nance until 3 minutes left in the 3 quarter while CLE was bricking everything. Didn’t try Calderon to get some energy on offense. Literally just did the same thing as the 1st half and hoped it that it would work itself out.
Lue figured it would all be fixed by LeBron. Unfortunately LeBron got tired and couldn’t carry the team once again.
Like wtf Lue? You already got a pass on the last game where LeBron saved your job, how about you actually do some freaking coaching and make the necessary adjustments?
Why is Kyle Korver all of a sudden not really even a threat to make a shot? Is he working that hard on D? i think i just answered my own question
I think the offense is so predictable right now – essentially LeBron drive and kick – that he shots are more contested. They only know how to run one play for him which Indy sniffs out easily. There’s no movement in our offense.
I gotta say, this train wreck is a direct line back to Gilbert being too arrogant to extend Griffin before the offseason. Everything that followed has been trying to cover up the previous mistake. The political capital Gilbert acquired after the 2016 chip has been squandered away in fashion reminiscent of GW Bush after 9/11.
I’m not saying this team can’t win the series, but if you look at this organization’s health compared to 2016, it is less desirable in every single way. Roster, management, salary cap, assets, coaching – every single way this organization has imploded.
Agree.
David Griffin is still the most underrated yet one of the best thing to happen in Cleveland sports.
Agree. And Gilbert’s arrogance happened at the worst time given the Irving situation
Have to commend Lue playing Hood and Clarkson down the stretch, and not Hill…only excuse for that is if Hill was hurt…Hood and Clarkson both brought nothing…Love also sucked in second half, but at least he has the potential…
So…we can probably still get out of the the series if we slow the games way down and let Zizic go to work in the half court. Try to win like 79-75 like the old detroit series.
Ug wtf. Just wtf. We ran prevent offense the entire second half. Wtf
So why was Cedi not in to cover Bog?
Oh and also why no Calderón?
I can actually understand that, but not playing Hill is inexcusable…unless he was injured…
Exactly
Love choked in second half big time….that late 3 nearly saved him, but he has to step up and stop be a wuss, i mean he has to….Lue coaching for his job and possibly coaching career next game….that was embarrassing
Embarrassing. So embarrassing.
So are they gonna leave with the same suits they wore pre-game? Lol they gonna be laughed at when they leave.
Again Kevin Love and others just not giving enough.
Well…time to watch the wizards blow a lead late
Oh, btw…Green mostly sucked. Again.
This hurts.
This feels like the game where we cant secure the rebound off a missed free throw
And Green easily lost Darren Collins on a crucial play. Smh!
Those two seconds turned out to be big…
Put this one on Lue. Jeff is easily creamed in picks and misdirection plays yet he’s fielded back in for that crucial defensive play.
One of the more pathetic playoff games I’ve ever seen. Like, 2010 Boston pathetic.
Just stupid, up 17 and you miss about 30 pretty open shots in the second half…
Please don’t go to overtime. I don’t want Lebron to die.
Jeff Green is in. So, yeah, it’s over
Nearly blew fouling on the out of bounds play.
A new start, with a new coach (who can actually coach) , with a focus on team basketball with defense and ball-movement built with on young, fresh talent would be an absolute joy to follow
David Fizdale.
He has better options…
Fizdale should’ve been coaching this team two months ago.
He’s not going to join a team whose future is in the air when he has plenty of other options…
Well he’s a Lebron guy so..
LeBron would have to leave and the Cavs would need to tank for a few years to get some top draft talent. Then you bring in Byron Scott to coach.
EG just has to say the game is over and the Cavs get a pulse
Can Lue please get fired after this one?
Incredibly, Cavs still have a chance, but it’s a long shot…
It was over 2 minutes ago. This is just the shoutin’
Stop it. Stop making it close.
LeBron looks exhausted. Against the freaking Pacers.
Considering he’s the only one playing it makes sense.
Well, he did play the entire second half… great coaching!
Had a chance to make this a series…nearly 20 point halftime lead…
If only Lue let’s Kev work in the post, and hold Lebron accountable qhen he doesn’t play off-ball in it, it would make a world of difference.
Did George Hill give Lue a wedgie? Maybe he poured sugar in his gas tank?
I agree that Love has to step up. We need a 2nd option and he hasn’t made his mark in any of these three games.
Kyrie Irving.
Ship is long sailed. Kevin has the talent in him, just gotta show up
He has the talent with a true point a la Rubioand the right system a la Rick Adelman.
Yeah, Adelman’s system worked for him. (Adelman is a great offensive coach btw)
He isn’t as efficient as right now but he affected the games because teams gameplan for him.
I’ll never hope that kind of KLove comes back tho, not with Lue.
Those early 2000s Sacramento teams were so fun to watch with their passing and cutting. They probably could have won in 2002 if they didn’t get shafted by the league in the worst most blatantly fixed series of all time against the Lakers.
He won’t be. We need another guy that’s either better than Love at scoring or at least equally at it.
Absolutely pathetic. To not have Cedi on Bog is madness. Why would you not give it a try to see if it slows him down????
It seems Cavs always lose whenever Jeff Green is given extended minutes. And it seems only Lue does not know it.
God, just end it already. I want Lebron to just tell us where he’s playing next year in the postgame interview.
Exact sentiments from me too
kevin love is my biggest culprit here. came out weak to start the 3rd and never showed up. bad on lue not to bench his lame azz
I bet Zz would had done better.
It’s hard to single him out. The Pacers were far more aggressive than the whole Cavs team in the second half.
At some point, you have to make a shot…bricking shot after shot won’t cut it…
LeBron has scored 12 of the Cavs 18 points this quarter…
The Wiz WISH they had this Bog last year…
Gotta be kidding me…how many wide open threes can we miss??
They quit.
This team literally can’t win without Lebron scoring 46 points and playing 48 minutes. So glad we traded Kyrie for the 9th pick in the draft. Totally worth it.
Too three happy. Sorry as hell.
27 second half points.
We are going out in 5.
It feel like the Cavs have scored 10 points in the 2nd half…
James getting no help from anyone. Pathetic
Kev has been awful on D this quarter…
Still don’t believe he was ever good on defense
There have been some horrible losses in the last four years, but given the situation, this one is the worst, right?
It is right up,there
I seriously can’t understand how a team with a coach with championship experience, the best player in the world, struggle mightily against LITERALLY a bunch of role players.
I just can’t.
Well, get a stop, get a bucket, then start fouling.
Is Love scoreless this half?
Friggin free throws!
Game over… for real this time…
And now LeBron can’t either…
They called a foul on young! I cant believe it!
Bog has absolutely destroyed them
No Cav but LBJ hitting threes…