Recap: Cavs 93, Pacers 103 (or, OutPaced)

The Cavs played on the road against the 5-6 Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night. After a rough first quarter, the Cavs were able to hang around most of the game only to fall short of catching those rascally Pacers, who have recently seemed to find success against Cleveland in the regular season. Cleveland found itself shorthanded on the second night of a back-to-back (the second of the season) as LeBron James was rested in order to preserve his body for the long haul. Also missing for the Cavs was J.R. Smith, who sat out a third straight game with an ankle injury. The Wine & Gold was able to put up a good fight despite some missing pieces, but ultimately, everything they threw at the Pacers — three-point barrages, slam dunks, nifty passes, Acme-licensed exploding basketballs — seemed to be just not quite enough. Still, Wednesday night’s exhibition was an intriguing chance to see the depths of the Cavs’ roster in action against a strong team with playoff aspirations. Let’s see how it went down.

First & Second Quarters

Cleveland rolled out a starting lineup of Kyrie Irving, Iman Shumpert, Richard Jefferson, Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson. After trading the first few baskets and Love getting on an early roll, the Cavs allowed the home team to quickly jump out to a sizeable lead. In general, the Cavs looked sluggish and out of sync, and failed to stop the Pacers from scoring from all over the court. On the offensive end, Cleveland could get very little going and would finish the opening frame shooting 0-for-6 from downtown and a measly 34% overall, while six turnovers in the period allowed Indiana to rack up easy transition buckets. Indiana would end up shooting over 50% in a quarter that ended with the Pacers on top, 31-19.

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In the second quarter, the Cavs slowly chipped away at the Pacers’ lead as Kyrie started to find an offensive rhythm. TT made an impact as well, as he challenged shots, earned a couple free throws off of a slick pass from Irving, and threw down this bench-evacuating monster jam:

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The Trist-JAM brought Cleveland to within five of Indiana, and the next offensive possession found Love waiting in the corner to hit a huge three before the Pacers defense was set. 33-35, Pacers. Both teams continued to trade baskets throughout the remainder of the second quarter.

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The Cavs started moving the ball well and consistently threatened to tie, but the Pacers utilized timely defensive stops and Cavalier gaffes to stave off the road team. Cleveland continued to shoot itself in the collective foot by committing nine total turnovers in the first half, and these errors frequently led to Indiana makes. One Cavs possession saw the ball bounce off of Kevin Love‘s back out of bounds, to which TV play-by-play announcer Fred McLeod offered, “we’re gonna back our way into a timeout here.” A broadcasting highlight, to be sure. Indiana’s Myles Turner also made a big impact of his own, compiling three blocks and even more shots deterred by the game’s halfway mark. Despite the awful first quarter, Cleveland went into halftime with plenty to build on.

Cavs 45, Pacers 50

Third Quarter

Paul George scored 12 of his 21 points in the 3rd quarter

The Cavs called a quick timeout early in the second half after a bad dribble led to a steal and lay-in by the Pacers’ Paul George. While the Cavs were able to muster some stops on defense, they rarely capitalized on the other end, keeping them always two steps behind the home team. Focus seemed to wane possession-by-possession as the offense began to stagnate and become overly reliant on kickouts to Love and Frye for threes. When Cleveland wasn’t scoring against an unsettled defense early in the shot clock or getting the ball to their stretch bigs, Irving’s one-on-one escapades in the half court were the only actions resembling an offense. Myles Turner collected his fourth block of the game against Kyrie, and was a major deterrent around the rim as he kept the Cavs from getting too comfortable in the paint. The Pacers were effectively forcing the Cavs into bad possessions and then running to keep Cleveland’s defense on its heels.

With just over six minutes left in the quarter, Love made his fourth three-pointer of the night to cut the deficit to 55-63, and a subsequent travel on the Pacers’ end led to a nice pass by Ky to Frye for a layup (57-63). Timeout, Pacers. PG13 came out of the timeout to immediately hit a three — continuing the punch-for-punch trend of the game. He would end up with 12 points in the quarter, adding onto the nine he scored in the first half.

Kyrie continued to probe the paint looking for his guys, eventually finding an open man for the weakside corner-three on consecutive possessions, the second of which was rattled in by Pacers Rim #2 off a Richard Jefferson assist. After trading blows with Indiana throughout the quarter, the Cavs went cold with the subs in late. The Pacers conversely started to heat up from behind the arc and began pulling away toward the end of the frame.

Cavs 68, Pacers 80

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Fourth Quarter

Cleveland’s mob squad started the final period with Kay Felder manning the point guard position, and Jordan McRae, DeAndre Liggins, Channing Frye and Tristan Thompson in tow. Felder drew first blood by grabbing a rebound and going coast-to-coast for a two-point jumper. A couple possessions later, Thompson snagged an offensive rebound and hurled the ball outside to a waiting Channing who Quick-Frye’d a three the instant the ball touched his fingertips — trimming the lead back to single digits. Cleveland’s reserves hung in tough despite looking outmatched at times, and were twice able to pull within six off the back of free throws earned by Felder.

Less than five minutes into the quarter, Kyrie re-entered the game for Felder. Uncle Drew promptly got himself a bucket (as he is wont to do), and after Jeff Teague answered with a basket of his own, the Good Uncle “drew” a three-point shooting foul against the youngblood (never mind that Teague has four years on the younger Kyrie). Two-out-of-three free throws later and the Cavs had pulled back to within four at the 6:35 mark.

The Cavs could have used the services of this Clark Kent on the sidelines

Alas, the momentum was not to be sustained, as the 84-88 score would be the closest margin Cleveland would enjoy for the remainder of the game. The Cavs simply couldn’t keep up with the Pacers, who had an answer for everything Cleveland threw at them. Scoring became very belabored for the Wine & Gold, who were forced to rely more and more on prayer three-pointers as the game slipped farther away. Once Tristan Thompson was subbed out for Love with six minutes to go, Indiana was able to take full advantage of a tired Cavs defense and score at will. The Pacers had been getting inside the paint with increasing ease the second half, and by the end of the game this began translating into good looks from deep. A late barrage from Indiana was too much to overcome.

The Cavs fought valiantly in not allowing the game to get away worse than it did, but eventually they were forced into do-or-die mode as they pressed shots that weren’t falling. And thus, you have the recipe for a classic, grind-it-out 10-point loss on the road.

Final: Cavs 93, Pacers 103

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Some Thoughts

When Tyronn Lue became the Cavs head coach less than a year ago, one of the first things he preached was that his team would run: in transition, and in pushing the game’s pace. Well, last night the pacing was done by — you guessed it — the Pacers, who ran hard and fast against the Cavs to great success. Indiana capitalized on a night Cleveland couldn’t stop turning the ball over and it led to a lot of easy baskets for the home team. The Cavs often couldn’t get their defense set and thus had trouble generating quick and easy baskets of their own.

Kevin Love had himself a nice game

Wednesday night was a showcase game for all the pieces the Cavs have who aren’t named LeBron James. The Big Three’s “other two thirds” in Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving lived up to their billing on a night their team needed them most. Love scored a season-high 27 points and tied a season-high 16 rebounds. He was confident and assertive in his role on offense, and he was Cleveland’s featured player most of the night. Love did damage on post ups, using nifty up-and-under moves to create shots around a tough and imposing Indiana front line, and leaked out beyond the arc to catch the defense napping. His rebounding, passing and screening filled out the rest of a strong night where Love looked like the best player on the court. Kyrie was solid as well, scoring 24 points on 10-for-20 shooting. He also amassed seven assists, but this total belies the development of a theme many Cavs have harped on for years — Kyrie was actively looking to make the pass rather than force the matter when shots were tough to come by. Irving made some unsuccessful forays into the paint during the first half as the Pacers’ bigs made their presence felt; in the second half he did a better job of probing the defense once he got past his man to find open shooters along the perimeter. Many of those shots were what kept Cleveland in the game as long as they were. When LeBron James is on your team, it can be easy to take talents like Love and Irving for granted. Nights such as last remind that, even in defeat, these guys are friggin’ studs.

Kay Felder played the most minutes (13) of his young NBA career. Physically, Felder certainly looks like he can play in this league. He has the quickness and short-range burst that is requisite of a 5’9″ player, and does not concede too much strength to larger players when defending. Felder stayed energetic and tenacious on the defensive end, using his small frame to slither around screens without losing speed. However, he is very much a rookie, as he lost the ball several times, making off-target passes and bobbling some of the passes that came to him. Felder plays fast but frenetically, and is occasionally off cue with his teammates. Still, these are things that should improve with experience. Once the game starts slowing down for the rook, the Cavs could have a nice backup point guard in Felder.

As for the other Cavs…

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We’ve come to expect the timely three-point shooting that Frye brings to the table, but on a night where Mike Dunleavy was a healthy scratch, the rest of the crew was unable to step up in the absence of some key members. Most jarring was how out of place guys like Jordan McRae, DeAndre Liggins, and even beloved Richard Jefferson appeared at times late in the game. When Cleveland was in the middle of its comeback in the late third/early fourth, the Cavs bench squad looked thoroughly outmatched, even when it was finding success. It’s not that opportunities

Watch out for this guy

weren’t presenting themselves to the Cavs, rather that McRae, Liggins, Jefferson and even Felder had difficulty completing plays as they appeared slower, smaller, and less skilled than their counterparts from Indiana. Cavs fans may have talked themselves into some of these end-of-bench options during the offseason, but games like last night indicate that this roster may not yet be a finished product.

If Cavs fans hadn’t taken notice of Myles Turner after a breakout playoff series this past spring, then they better have by now. He was a force on the defensive end and tallied four blocks in the game. He deterred shots all night and made the paint an undesirable destination for Cavs players much of the game. He was the biggest and baddest dude on the floor last night, and Cavs fans should know very well what can happen when the other team has the biggest and baddest dude (see Howard, Dwight circa 2009 & 11/8/16). Thou hath been warned-eth.

Anyway, in the end, the Cavs played a good game despite the loss. After an awful first quarter, they went punch-for-punch with a playoff contender until they ran out of gas in the fourth. The Pacers are a very good team in their own respect, with size and athleticism all over the floor, and a top 10-15 superstar in Paul George. Jeff Teague, who had the second most points (20) for Indiana, looks like he is fitting right in. Last night’s game could have easily been mailed in — it was the second night of a back-to-back, on the road after playing in Cleveland the night before, against a good team, and all without LeBron or JR. It’s encouraging to see the Cavs fight to the end in one of these types of games. Yet even though this loss is easy to explain away, it still hurts to lose for only the second time in the season.

Guess Cleveland will just have to settle for 80-2.

Stats R Fun

-The Cavs fell to 4-16 on nights when LeBron James doesn’t play since the King made his return in 2014.

-The Cavs scoring at halftime looked like so: Love – game-high 17, Irving – 14, McRae – 4, everyone else – 2 or 0.

-At the end of three quarters, Cleveland had amassed a whopping 2 fastbreak points against Indiana’s 20.