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Coming off a huge road win over the Knicks despite being short-handed the Cavs head to Indianapolis for a rematch of their Oct. 28 home loss to the Pacers where the Cavs were playing on the second night of a back-to-back while the Pacers had two days off. The Pacers were fully healthy while the Cavs were missing Mitchell, Garland, and Allen. Nevertheless, the Cavs were still within two points with four minutes to go when the Pacers’ star point guard Tyrese Haliburton hit three consecutive 3’s to finish them off.
Since then the Pacers lost to the Bulls 112-105 and then got blown out by the Celtics 155-104 with Haliburton out with an ankle injury. He is listed as day-to-day along with backup center Jalen Smith.
Donovan Mitchell is back for the Cavs and we’ll see about Garland and Allen, who are listed as game time decisions. If they can play we should see the Cavaliers’ normal starting lineup for the first time this season.
Evan Mobley and Caris LeVert scored 33 and 31 points against the Pacers in Cleveland last week in the absence of Mitchell, Garland, and Allen.
So a lot of this game might depend on which team’s stars will be available, but the fact that the Cavs were right there with four minutes to go despite missing three starters tells me the Cavs are the better team when everybody is healthy.
To summarize the season previews of the Pacers, they play a very uptempo pace (leading the NBA in shots per game) and thrive in transition, but struggle in the half-court offense. They had the fifth worst defense last year (and allowed 113 to the Cavs last week despite no Garland or Mitchell). Haliburton was an All-Star last year and is averaging 20.0 points and 12.3 assists in three games.
After four games the Pacers have eight players averaging double figures in scoring; seven of them are between 10.0 and 14.8 points per game. This is an unselfish group that leads the NBA with 31.5 assists per game, up from 27.0 last year. The guy that hurt the Cavs the most last week was Aaron Nesmith, who came off the bench to score 26 points in 30 minutes with 9 rebounds.
However, they are 29th in scoring defense, although playing Boston on the road definitely contributed to that.
I’m sure JBB will be looking at the film of that Boston game to see how the Celtics scored 155 against Indy. The Celtics were up by 38 points after three quarters and kept pouring it on. It was a humiliation for the Pacers. I won’t be surprised if they come out with their hair on fire tonight after that bitch slapping, especially playing at home.
I hate to play teams after they get embarrassed, especially when they are in front of their home fans and are eager to get back some respect. This should be a very competitive game, but if the Cavs can play team defense the way they did against the Knicks while taking advantage of the Pacers’ defensive vulnerabilities they have a good chance of coming out with a W. If Haliburton is out it would be huge since he is their leading scorer and assister by a large margin and tied for second in rebounds.
This is the first game of the in-season tournament, by the way. Don’t ask me how it works, but this game counts as a regular season game. I really don’t care if the Cavs get to the playoffs in this tournament. There’s some extra money involved for the players on the teams that advance, but who cares, really?
Since then the Pacers lost to the Bulls 112-105 and then got blown out by the Celtics 155-104 with Haliburton out with an ankle injury. He is listed as day-to-day along with backup center Jalen Smith.
Donovan Mitchell is back for the Cavs and we’ll see about Garland and Allen, who are listed as game time decisions. If they can play we should see the Cavaliers’ normal starting lineup for the first time this season.
Evan Mobley and Caris LeVert scored 33 and 31 points against the Pacers in Cleveland last week in the absence of Mitchell, Garland, and Allen.
So a lot of this game might depend on which team’s stars will be available, but the fact that the Cavs were right there with four minutes to go despite missing three starters tells me the Cavs are the better team when everybody is healthy.
To summarize the season previews of the Pacers, they play a very uptempo pace (leading the NBA in shots per game) and thrive in transition, but struggle in the half-court offense. They had the fifth worst defense last year (and allowed 113 to the Cavs last week despite no Garland or Mitchell). Haliburton was an All-Star last year and is averaging 20.0 points and 12.3 assists in three games.
After four games the Pacers have eight players averaging double figures in scoring; seven of them are between 10.0 and 14.8 points per game. This is an unselfish group that leads the NBA with 31.5 assists per game, up from 27.0 last year. The guy that hurt the Cavs the most last week was Aaron Nesmith, who came off the bench to score 26 points in 30 minutes with 9 rebounds.
However, they are 29th in scoring defense, although playing Boston on the road definitely contributed to that.
I’m sure JBB will be looking at the film of that Boston game to see how the Celtics scored 155 against Indy. The Celtics were up by 38 points after three quarters and kept pouring it on. It was a humiliation for the Pacers. I won’t be surprised if they come out with their hair on fire tonight after that bitch slapping, especially playing at home.
I hate to play teams after they get embarrassed, especially when they are in front of their home fans and are eager to get back some respect. This should be a very competitive game, but if the Cavs can play team defense the way they did against the Knicks while taking advantage of the Pacers’ defensive vulnerabilities they have a good chance of coming out with a W. If Haliburton is out it would be huge since he is their leading scorer and assister by a large margin and tied for second in rebounds.
This is the first game of the in-season tournament, by the way. Don’t ask me how it works, but this game counts as a regular season game. I really don’t care if the Cavs get to the playoffs in this tournament. There’s some extra money involved for the players on the teams that advance, but who cares, really?
