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Having convincingly swept the Heat the Cavs move on to a tougher challenge against the Indiana Pacers, who finished with a 50-32 record; 29-12 at home and 21-20 on the road. The Cavs were 34-7 at home so they have a decided advantage in the first two games. The Pacers started the season 16-18 but were 34-14 the rest of the way, winning 13 of their last 16 and 17 of 21 counting the Bucks series. They are on a roll. The Pacers were 20-18 against teams over .500 while the Cavs were 28-11. The Pacers finished 9th in offensive rating and 14th in defensive rating while the Cavs were 1st in offense and 8th in defense. The Pacers beat the Bucks 4-1 in the first round, outscoring the Bucks by 5.6 points per game. The Bucks won 48 games but...

Business is business, and now there's another round of business to be taken care of. After what was thought to be a potentially challenging first round opponent, the Cavs might actually be in for a challenge. The Cavs were 2-1 against the Heat in the regular season, and ended up sweeping them. The Cavs were 1-3 against the Pacers in the regular season with an average deficit of 8 points. The Pacers enter having easily dispatched the Milwaukee Bucks with a gentleman's sweep. Only Game 5 was a one possession game otherwise the average game was decided by 17 points. The series could have gone longer had Dame Lillard not went down with a torn Achilles but similar to the Miami Heat, the Bucks may be on the wrong side of the hill and have...

The Cavs went to South Beach and instead of the flu they ended up taking part in a barbecue. Fresh off the largest loss in Miami Heat playoff history, the Cavs did it to them again but only worse. Try 55 points this time. The Cavs went to Miami in back-to-back games in the playoffs and held them under 90 points and scored 120+ points. If you hear that, that’s the sound of the most lopsided margin of victory in any playoff series sweep ever. They tried to tell us this season was different, and maybe it’s time to start listening. In his halftime interview, when asked about the large lead, Donovan Mitchell said they’re doing what they’re supposed to be, and they didn’t want to give Miami any life. The Heat were already on life support, and...

The Cavs go for the sweep Monday and with no team ever having come back from a 3-0 deficit it’s just a question of whether the series will end here or in Cleveland. The fact that the Heat is the #10 seed only makes a miracle comeback even more impossible. This isn’t a 4th versus 5th seed matchup. In Game 3 the Cavs’ bench outscored Miami’s bench 52-18. The Cavs are just too deep. And they shifted their defensive approach in Game 3 with excellent results, holding the Heat to 79 points with 5:25 to go when Spo threw in the towel. They were packing the paint. Something they haven’t really been doing all series so they kind’ve changed their scheme up. Kind’ve caught us off guard, couldn’t score, kind’ve rattled. - Davion Mitchell The...

This team is different. Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise they don’t know ball. Coming off two tighter games at home, traveling to South Beach where they’re 4-13 in the post-LeBron era, dealing with the external noise of postgame jabs, and being down their All-Star point guard, the Cavs were a +45 after spotting the Heat an early 8-point lead in the 1Q. If you would have included all that along with their best player going 4-for-14 for just 13 points, most would have predicted a Cavs loss on the other end. Or the fact the Cavs were outshot from the three-point line. Yet, the Cavs dusted off a performance that allowed Jaylon Tyson to get his first playoff career points. It seemed like it might be one of those games to start – the...

The series shifts to Miami with the Cavs up 2-0 and once again both teams will have two days to make adjustments. Miami already took Alec Burks out of the starting lineup and replaced him with Davion Mitchell. Burks didn’t sniff the court in Game 2 while Nikola Jovic played 25 minutes after not playing in Game 1. I think this is the rotation they will continue to run with; Herro, Mitchell, Adebayo, Wiggins, and Ware starting with Highsmith and Jovic off the bench. The Heat are averaging just 106 points per game despite shooting 50.3% from the field and 38.2% on 3’s - both excellent numbers. Part of the reason is they are averaging 13.5 turnovers and they play slow. In the first two games they have a total of 20 fast break points. They...

A win is a win even though sometimes wins don’t feel like wins. In the playoffs, wins are harder to come by but every one counts and is a step closer to the ultimate goal. Even though the Cavs were up 19 at one point and looked like they would cruise a victory, the game got to a one-possession game under 4-minutes to go in the 4Q. And it ended up being it’s better to have the Jimmy’s and the Joe’s than the X’s and O’s. Huh? Kenny Atkinson after the game said Donovan Mitchell had one of those superstar-like performances to end the game, and he’s right. Without Mitchell down the stretch, this may have been a different outcome. Mitchell reeled off 8 straight points at a time when the Heat were pushing, and the Cavs were struggling to find...

Game 1 was close until about halfway through the 4th quarter. The Heat were down by only 8 points with 7:04 to go when Ty Jerome basically took over the game. The Cavs outscored them 23-10 the rest of the way. The Heat hung with the Cavs for 41 minutes. They should not be underestimated based on one game, especially with two days of rest this time. Both teams have had two days to review the first game, have a couple of practices, and think about changes. I expect Miami may change their starting lineup. Wiggins, Herro, and Bam each played 37-39 minutes in Game 1. Spo can’t take these guys off the floor except for a couple of minutes at a time. Highsmith and Davion Mitchell played 31 and 34 minutes off the bench. Starters Ware and Burks...

Thank goodness for Ty Jerome. With Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland doing most of the heavy lifting throughout the game, Jerome came in as the closer in the fourth quarter to put the game away. 16 of 28 came in the 4Q where had two separate streaks of 7 straight points. His offense came at a time where the Cavs were looking for something outside of Garland and Mobley. With the way things ended, only 3 total FGs were made outside of Garland, Mitchell and Jerome in the second half – just three which went for 9 of the 59 total points the Cavs scored in the second half. The core four has been the talk of the season but for the night the Cavs had their big three (who shot 75% on 24 FGA in the second half). Jerome has been fantastic this...