Quick Recap: Pacers 104, Cavs 98 (Or, of dashed hopes and Lester Hudson)
2012-04-11
MVP: Danny Granger. Granger did his thing from all over the court on Wednesday night, taking the ball to the post for some easy baskets while hitting his jumpers whenever he got a look at them. He finished with a game-high 23 points, and his contributions in overtime sealed the game for the Pacers.
LVP: Anthony Parker is just returning from an injury, and playing 37 minutes on the latter half of a back-to-back clearly didn’t agree with him — after a great game on Tuesday, Parker managed just 7 points on 2-8 shooting from the field.
X Factor: The Cavaliers had absolutely zero success keeping the Pacers off the free throw line. David West, Tyler Hansborough, and Danny Granger are all great foul-drawers, and they got the Cavs to fall for their tricks time and time again, leading to the Pacers getting 9 more points from the free throw line than the Cavs did.
Turning point: With the Pacers up two and just over two minutes remaining in overtime, Danny Granger nailed a 3-pointer to put Indiana up by 5, then hit an 18-footer less than a minute later to seal the game for Indiana. The Cavaliers gave the Pacers much more of a fight than they must have been expecting, but the Pacers’ execution on both ends of the floor was simply too much for the Cavs in overtime.
That was…sad: Lester Hudson made a game-tying 3 at the end of regulation against the Nets on Sunday. only to watch his team lose in overtime. On Wednesday, Hudson hit a game-tying floater at the end of regulation, only to watch the Cavs lose in overtime yet again. Hopefully Hudson’s next clutch shot will actually lead to a Cavalier victory.
Spots –
It’s true moral victories are good, but unfortunately almost no one playing on this current team will be around next season.
On the bright side, we’re almost at the finish line!!
Also, Ben, totally agree. Casspi has looked substantially better the last few games. He can even drain open threes! Who’d a thought!
Aren’t these the types of games that we should love to see? The cavs showed the will to compete, and took the third seed in the eastern conference into overtime. The pacers are a well-balanced and deep team. And we still got the L, which helps our draft stock. The Wikipedia page for Moral Victory should be updated to reference this game.
Do people around the league notice how great our crowd is even when we are awful and our best players are hurt. I watch so many other games with good teams that have tons of empty seats. It’s impressive how our attendance and enthusiasm have remained relatively very high. Of all the things that I have been pleased about over the last week or so, Casspi’s competent play is probably the best thing. Hudson, Parker, and Jamison have been winning the games, but they will likely not be here next season. It’s good to see Casspi get his confidence back… Read more »
the cavs should have gone for the win at the end of regulation instead of the tie. what did they have to lose when in OT the more talented team always wins.