Playoff Live Thread: Cavs vs. Pacers, Game 2 (#Whatever…)
2018-04-18Well, Game 1 is in the rear view… and the hope is for Game 2 that the Cavaliers aren’t too complacent to read past the first word of this year’s team playoff slogan. It certainly seemed like it in their sleepy, sloppy dud of an opener to the post-season. Actually, I have no room to talk, since I missed the game entirely due to some work and family commitments… but the high low lights were painful enough to glance through. If you want a salient and informative breakdown of some of the finer points, make sure you check out David’s Woodshop article if you haven’t yet.
LeBron has been on the record many times about how playoff seeding isn’t important to him, and now the Cavs find themselves essentially in the five seed after losing home court advantage in the series to the Pacers. Whatever you feel like blaming the loss on… be it LeBron’s early passivity, his newer teammates inexperience or inability to gel under the bright lights of the playoffs, Kevin Love either not getting enough shots or not demanding the ball in the post more, poor defensive rotations, awful coaching, general make or miss league variance or even Victor Oladipo’s revenge for Dan Gilbert taking veiled shots at him over the summer… it’s one game, and it’s over. That said, there’s probably never been a second game of the first round more important to win than tonight’s game.
Ty Lue has been teasing changes to his starting lineup since about five minutes after he walked off the court on Sunday… but still no definitive word yet (and now it’s official).
#Cavs starting LeBron, Love, Hill, Smith and Korver.#Pacers
— Tom Withers (@twithersAP) April 18, 2018
We do know that George Hill is a bit banged up after that hard screen, and that Rodney Hood was excused from practice earlier in the day… here’s why…
Looks like Rodney Hood welcomed twins into the world this morning. https://t.co/VgX2Y3oPsq
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) April 18, 2018
All that really matters though is that LeBron comes out aggressively, Kevin Love demands the ball in the post, the Cavaliers’ sharpshooters actually make some shots, and the Cavs play with more intensity and physicality on defense… y’know, like a team that actually does whatever it takes to win… rather than just whatever.
My predictions haven’t been great lately, so I’m just going to say the Cavs should and will win this game, although it won’t be easy, and it will take a better triple double from LeBron than Sunday’s triple double.
Catch all the action starting at 7pm EST on TNT… and as always, chime in here with your thoughts along the way.
GO CAVS!
What’s the deal with Love’s hand?
They were still looking at it… but the thumb sure looked like it got displaced on that attempted steal…
Shooting hand?
left hand
Left I believe
Something I don’t miss about competitive basketball is the stubbed/ dislocated fingers and the basketballs to the face…
It looked real nasty. Dislocated for sure.
Bron wincing about his own back now… yikes
Dumb shot by Dipo…
Our much maligned D is giving up 95 ppg.
Andxwe are barely 1-1.
And might now be without Love…
Obviously Cedi would be useless in a game like this…
Especially on defense right now…
Anybody else feel like Lebron is just toying with our emotions?
no…i feel like he’s getting very little help.
^ so much this scotch.
If Indy isn’t awful from 3 tonight, we get beat.
Still, I will take it.
And likely if dipo doesn’t get in foul trouble, and Lebron shoots his j as well as he has all year.
They were “awful” cause the defense was much better.
Truly is a make or miss league. What were we doing there
Bron hits some clutch throws…
This game has aged me 5 years.
Think we could have used some Cedi this half
Why are they taking Korver out for D?
Lue doesn’t understand his own players’ capabilities and limitations, apparently.
Whew! Bullet dodged there.
LBJ, you need one point here.
Collison pushed his luck…
Well…this game is much closer than need be.
Let’s hope we completely demoralize them in Indiana, a la Atlanta Hawks style
how the hell will that happen? We barely beat them there last year, and now we’re likely to have an unhealthy Love and no passable guards…
We demonstrated in this game that we can completely dominate them when we play end to end basketball. We just need to do that for a whole game.
Last year the games were close. We still soundly beat them.
I don’t think this team is capable of that anymore. Without Kyrie, we don’t have anyone who can pour it on.
Not sure. They defend really well and we really don’t run an offense that gets anyone open without LBJ breaking or bending the defense. We would have lost this game if not for a superhuman effort by LBJ, especially in the first qtr.
Also don’t forget Olidipo was out for long stretches with foul trouble.
great acting by collison but hey it worked
And Hill fouls out. Terrible last 30 seconds.
Hell, they can go 2 for 1.
This team is still d*****g around
And hill turns it over instead of passing to LeBron.
And fouls out in the process…
Stupid decision by Hill to challenge for a steal in the back court and then push off on O
TERRIBLE decision to go for a steal by hill led to collison three
God I hate that shot from Bron
To be fair, he’s been hitting a lot of Js tonight. But yeah, unnecessary.
These officials are pretty selective with their offensive foul calls.
Ugh, Hill…
No more bailout threes please. Drive
Uughh.
I want to punch myself in the face.
Terrible shot by James
If it went, it was the dagger… now it’s a three point game…
It is a dumb shot no matter if it goes or not.
Don’t disagree… just stating the obvious…
Eh part of prevent offense
Lebron what the efff
He thought it was over already.
Eff these refs!!
Nice D from Korver.
Collison with the YOLO three… jeez
Korver has been so huge tonight on both ends
Nance is earning some PT tonight
Now Korver with the big defensive play
LOL you can tell Nance Sr laid into his son before the playoffs began. He’s definitely bringing it through sheer willpower. The others can learn a lot from that.
Only one from the “playoff rookies” to show up.
well…this sucks. but maybe ante becomes a factor? maybe we run a smallball lineup and a big ball lineup with lbj?
Lol, with cLue, there’s no way Ante becomes a factor.
Bless you, KK…
STEALZUS!!!!!!
Korver with the strip!
Nice play Lue!
So smart by Nance!
There is Lue’s one saving grace, nice out of bounds set plays for easy buckets.
GREAT play out of the time out!
Great play oot!
At some point this team will put together a solid 3 minutes….at some point
Since LBJ scored 13 straight to start the game, we’ve been dominated.
Our defense relatively solid
what was Lue doing riding Green and Clarkson so long???
JR DOING IT ALL!!!!!!!!
Winning basketball from JR
Terrible call on Korver.
JR HUGE!
HOW IS THAT NOT A CHARGE????????? HE WAS SET!!!
Nance being held ALL DAY LONG!
Can we just appreciate how smart Korver is as a player?
When you least expect it: Swish with the steal and score.
Huge steal by jr
JR STEALLLLL!!!!
Wow JR!!!
Swish!
LOL JR!!!
So I guess allowing yourself to get shoved down is a foul on you?
Foul on Korver? For real?
How is that not a charge?
Six missed free throws in this quarter.
Geez… can we make a freaking FT?
Oh man… I hope he didn’t tear any ligaments.
Love might be able to gut it through a dislocated thumb if it can be popped back in and no soft tissue damage….right?
Yup, matter of pain control and swelling (although probably wont swell too much until after the game)
Possible. Left thumb better than the right.
I would love to see Delly against Oladipo
Shump-zess
Hopefully not dislocated