RCF Playoff Recap: Cavs gift Pacers, 119-120

Smooth · May 7, 2025

Pain. Shock. Awe. Disbelieve. Disappointed. Saddened. Horrified.
Any adjective will do, and it would be correct. There are the seven stages of grief that Cleveland fans are all too accustomed to. It’s possible an eight stage may have been created after the game.
Not this team. Not this season. Not like this. To see the Cavs season slip away on a Tyrese Haliburton step-back three after an offensive rebound in which the Cavs didn’t score in the final minute after going up 119-112 in a game, they needed was like watching your own funeral.
Losing any playoff game hurts. But losing a game you had to have, and did have, within the context of the situation and with the uphill battle that is now facing the Cavs is even more painful. It’s a shame this season may be reduced to this moment in time that will be referred to for eons of Cavalier fandom.
Let’s get the elephant out of the room first: The Cavs missed their key players and could have used them. But they also had a winnable game in front of them without them and did not close it out. Breaking the press (to which they did not cross half court for the final minute), inbounding the ball, and boxing out on the boards (Seven Pacer points in the final minute came off offensive rebounds) are plays taught in middle school. The Cavs simply did not execute, and it cost them.
Kenny Atkinson said down the stretch the Cavs simply ran out of gas – it’s not exactly what you want to hear out of your head coach when it’s the playoffs and just about every team is playing their starters heavy minutes.
In Donovan Mitchell’s case it’s understood to an extent: He was dealing with a calf strain that limited him for most of the game, yet he hung 48 points, 9 assists, 5 rebounds, a block on 50% shooting and 21 free-throw attempts, and should be a performance worth celebrating after a win. Instead, it seems like a wasted effort.
But let’s be clear: If the Cavaliers who didn’t play were able to play, they would have been out there. De’Andre Hunter had a dislocated thumb on his shooting hand that happened a mere 48 hours ago – how is one supposed to shoot, dribble or grip a basketball? Evan Mobley was unable to put weight on his ankle and was seen walking with a noticeable limp before the game – how is one supposed to move viably on the floor with that? Darius Garland has been out for FOUR GAMES now over the span of two weeks – normally they said this would be a several week injury. What has Garland done to not deserve some benefit of the doubt in this situation?
The logic that these players, on this team, for this season, willingly decided to sit out because they didn’t want to play bad enough is just hard to comprehend. It’s how people jump to conclusions like Jarrett Allen last year only come to find out he could barely lift his arms, couldn’t sleep and had a piece of bone floating around in his body – but it was only his “ribs”.

Alas… What did, or didn’t happen, on the floor is more important than who the Cavs did or didn’t have. But it just needed to be said. There’s going to be a lot of judgment casted on players and a lot of criticism will be had but to judge a situation from where most people sit or generalize all injuries as the same severity and therefore same application is just a position fans have become all too comfortable doing.
What happened on the court? We wish to forget it.
It’s been a battle to 120 points in these playoffs, and so far, the four Cavalier wins came when reaching 120 points and the two loses came giving up 120 points and not reaching that threshold. All the Cavs had to do is score one more bucket late and they couldn’t.
There were missed calls, primarily the Aaron Nesmith tip jam off a free-throw where he clearly entered the arc before the shot was released, where points that were on the board that shouldn’t have been.
But at the same time: The Cavs lost the game because of their play not because of the refs. The refs weren’t the ones incapable of handling pressure, incapable of rebounding or incapable of inbounding the basketball.
The Cavs had been a terrific late game team all year. Having a clutch player, and ball-handler, like Garland reared its ugly head but it was the simple plays they simply could not make.
If the Cavs received any semblance of a normal Ty Jerome game this game is likely a double-digit win. But his complete disappearance created a pretty significant discount for which he will be retained at this summer. The Pacers pressure has caused Jerome issues all series and created a shell of a player that looked to be the presumptive 6th Man of the Year. The Pacers have ushered in a player too focused on scoring and without his deft touch inside – he was 1-for-7 inside the paint, 0-for-4 on three-pointers and had just four assists.
It felt like Kenny has done Ty any favors in the aspect of they were asking him to beat the Pacers in the very same way Mitchell was with high pick-and-roll and creating out of pressure and instead the adjustment should have been getting him in more action with him moving and getting downhill, or off the ball, instead of a straight away creation against a team that does so well to stay in front. But he’s also the point guard of this team and without Garland, they don’t have many other ball-handlers to navigate the pressure.
Craig Porter Jr has not really ever been a regular part of the rotation this year, but Jerome was so bad, and another ball-handler was so needed, it’s a bit odd they didn’t try to at least see if there wasn’t more of a spark there then Kenny did. He had zero second half minutes while Jerome was a -10 in the 4Q.
There’s several what-if’s – like the Cavs spending all their timeouts late on not being able to inbound the ball which led to not being able to challenge some questionable calls late. But they’re all a part of what they should have done better, and the Cavs simply did not execute well enough to win.
Which is a shame because the game started out looking like it really might be the Cavs night. After the Pacers scored their first three baskets with ease, the Cavs responded with a quick 9-2 run with a team that looked like they were going to gut through a victory. Mitchell was active in getting into the paint (as he was all night) and Max Strus and Sam Merrill hitting spot-up threes was a welcomed sight after Game 1.
Between the 10:30 mark and 4:32 mark, the Cavs did not allow a Pacers field goal. The defense was the story of the 1Q and the story for the rest of the game. The Cavs dRTG was 60 in the 1Q and never fell below 130 the rest of the way.
The Pacers just missed some shots they were making an inexplicable clip previously (which was bound to happen). But the Cavs attentiveness and communication on defense was much improved. To the point where they created 9 turnovers and scored 11 points off those said turnovers.
A big difference in the 1Q was how the role players shot – Strus and Merill combined to go 4-for-5 from deep while Aaron Nesmith and Andrew Nembhard combined to go 1-for-5. That is a significant swing and a large reason why the Cavs doubled up the Pacers after the 1Q.
Somehow the Cavs were a +5 without Mitchell in the 1Q, which is a stat that would not carry over the rest of the game. They were a -19 (!) the rest of the way.
Mitchell was really their only sort of offense for the game – he and Jarrett Allen bludgeoned the Pacers to death with a high pick-and-roll where Mitchell was so good at getting past the first line and into the paint which either created a finishing opportunity or kickout. And when Mitchell hit Allen on the roll, he was finishing or finding players on the short roll that lead to other opportunities.
With Jerome on the floor, neither were really there. Perhaps he would be able to get past pressure at times but when he did, he was too focused on his shot that wasn’t there and not on the impact he could have set up others.

For most of this series Jerome looked like he was playing too much for contact and not just how he normally would play. Sometimes when you look for the contact you adjust your shot to account for it and when it doesn’t come it throws you off. His float game is usually his strength, and it was noticeably absent.
Luckily being down one big the Cavs played surprisingly well in the non-Allen minutes. It wasn’t Tristan Thompson who got the first burn but Javonte Green. The Cavs were a +10 without Allen and going with a Dean Wade + Green front line. Unfortunately, that also would not carry over the rest of the game as that pairing was a -6 in about 7 minutes the rest of the way.
The one place it looked to deal with better was the pick-and-roll that the Cavs were so easily conceding. Tyrese Haliburton has fried the Cavs on the 1-5 pick-and-roll all series in dragging Jarrett Allen out to the perimeter. In 19.1 possessions, Haliburton has 23 points (10-for-17) and 5 assists when guarded by Allen. Green and Wade at least provided a better, more switchable player in those circumstances.
The other part of that the Pacers took more advantage of in this game is the inverse mismatch with the Cavs guard on Myles Turner. It led to either easy baskets or advantageous rebounding position which led the Cavs to a poor position.
In thinking about, that’s part of the problem. The Cavs did a better job of fighting for space in this game but those are examples of what they lacked. You can end in a switch but make it a difficult, painful way to get to the switch. It’s where the Pacers wore the Cavs down is making every possession a grind and challenging every dribble off the bounce. That came and went for the Cavs defensively and is something they’re going to have to answer too as it’s plagued them going back to the New York series three seasons ago.
Sans Mitchell, the other problem is the Cavs got away from too much of what made them so great for most of the year. Beating the Pacers with the dribble is not the way to win, beating them with the pass is. The offense devolved into too much individual creation and not enough movement with both player and ball. The quickest way to relieve pressure and make a defense work is movement – they can’t move as fast as a pass.
Credit to Max Strus: He really stepped up this game and gave a terrific performance. His shot making was much needed – knocked in three three-pointers in 2Q where Mitchell and Allen were looking for others to carry the load. His role player performance on the evening was top notch – 22 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and good defense is about as much as one can ask for.
Dean Wade also turned in a really solid night despite not contributing much offensively. He was old reliable on defense, collected 10 rebounds, and was a +5 on the night. He played 29 minutes but felt like he should have been out there even more because of the consistency he brought on both ends.
The Pacers stared to get going offensive in the 2Q – they shot 61% and knocked in 4 three-pointers. Yet, the Cavs shot 41% from the field and only managed to be a -6 for the quarter. Considering how well the Pacers shot it and how poorly the Cavs did, going into halftime up 11 points felt like a victory at that point in time.
If it’s not broke, don’t fix it – right? The Allen-Mitchell pick-and-roll continued to deliver results as they scored 16 of the first 18 points to begin the 3Q for the Cavs. They were not doing anything too complicated offensively – it’s just Mitchell kept finding his way into the defense and was elite in the paint all game.
But somehow that proved to be too difficult of a task for Jerome. The 3Q was when it started to become more obvious the Cavs needed someone other than Mitchell to be able to sustain offense if they were going to win the game. Jerome had 12 FGA but only 4 assists through 3Q – just not a sustainable or productive ratio.
And this was the problem in Game 1: Jerome looked to score instead of look to pass. He’s been great in the in-between spaces all year and has led the second units to some incredible Cavalanches. But it looked like he was pressing too much to make up for the absence of Garland and it led to some questionable decision making.
Allen was the other source of offense in the 3Q – he had 10 points and along with Merrill and Strus provided some ancillary scoring to try and offset the Pacers finding their rhythm offensively.
Alas: Merrill was 1-for-6 from deep after the 1Q, and Strus would go 1-for-5 after halftime. The two players who were really the only semblance of shotmaking outside of Allen and Mitchell, weren’t able to sustain their quick starts and it left a lot riding on the shoulders of Wade and Okoro to produce offensively (8 points on 6 shots) especially with Jerome not contributing.
The 3Q proved there is no love lost between Benedict Mathurin and Mitchell. The two got into a few dustups throughout the quarter and is not the first time the two became tangled up in this series. You could see the two exchanging words on several occasions.
But Mathurin really was the X-factor for the Pacers in the 3Q. He led the way with 10 points for the Pacers and provided a lift with Haliburton on the bench nursing a wrist injury. He’s one of the few other Pacers that can create consistently off the dribble, and showed why he was the third leading scorer on the Pacers this year.
After the 1Q, the Cavs gave up 105 points on 56% shooting. For a team already struggling to provide enough offensive output with three of their top scorers on the bench, the defense didn’t do enough to manage the lead. There were semblances of that in the 2Q and it just snowballed into the second half with the capstone being a game high 36 points in the 4Q which wiped out a 37-point Cavalier 3Q.
The Pacers went on a 6-0 run to start the 4Q and it took the Cavs almost four minutes to score a point. The cracks in the foundation started to show and it felt like the game was starting to slip away from their grips. Kenny could only afford to sit Mitchel for about two-ish minutes as the non-Mitchell minutes continue to be an issue and provide the Cavs without any breathing room.
The 4Q Pacer shot chart is something else. They made 15 shots but 13 of them were within the restricted area with one of them being the game-winning Haliburton three. The Pacers had 21 FGM in the restricted area all game with 13 of them coming in the 4Q alone.
The Pacer offense was just too easy – they got where they wanted and had high quality looks which ended up being killer for the Cavs in the end. The Cavs had to work so hard for every bucket only to allow such easy opportunities possession after possession.
Flip that to the other side, and the Cavs offense was anything but easy. They went 3-for-16 on three-point attempts in the second half and if it wasn’t in the restricted area, off a Mitchell created look, then it wasn’t happening. It was a credit to Michell for doing the heavy lifting, but the weight of the Cavalier world was what he was lifting.

It was just under 5 minutes for the quarter, but he quickly made it a -10 in those minutes. Kenny had Jerome in on two separate occasions to share the ball-handling duty with Mitchell and it was an abject failure both times. Kenny finally gave in and inserted Dean Wade back into the game for defense and rebounding despite the lack of shot creation on the floor around Mitchell.
To which, it felt like Kenny should have made went to sooner. The Wade minutes with his defense and rebounding is what they felt to be missing for much of the 4Q. 6 of the 11 Indiana offensive rebounds came in the quarter, and just as the Cavs went to their star player-center pick-and-roll, so did the Pacers.
To that point though, even though he’s been close to a zero on offense, Isaac Okoro did his fair share of work on Haliburton in that second half. In 30.5 possessions in this series, Okoro has limited Haliburton to 1 FGA and 2 assists. Okoro played 15 second half minutes and while it was largely devoid of offensive production, his defensive presence was enough to keep Haliburton largely in check. It just wasn’t enough, and Haliburton got the matches he wanted late in the game (sans Okoro).
The Cavs managed 21 points in the 4Q with Mitchell creating 17 of those. Strus had a huge three-pointer late off a Mitchell feed that looked like it was just enough to secure a victory, but the last minute happened.
There’s no sense in rehashing the final stretch. Inbounding the basketball became a struggle – what happened to actively working towards the ball or getting open? The timeouts used down the stretch because they couldn’t inbound therefore couldn’t be used for potential challenges.
Rebounding the basketball became a struggle – SEVEN of the final eight points came off three offensive rebounds.
The lack of a ball-handler next to Mitchell devolved into possessions that couldn’t make it to the forecourt – Mitchell got an offensive foul attempting to, and any other pressure release simply wasn’t there.
For a team that has looked well put together and in sync all year, giving up a 20-point lead with the historic odds in their favor is a tough way to end a game and possibly a season.
Where do the Cavs turn? Without Mobley, Hunter or Garland it’s hard seeing how this becomes any more of a series. They need any and all of those to be playing for this to have a chance going 6 or 7 games.
Otherwise, the shotmaking still isn’t there. After a hot start, they still. Only shot 11-for-39 on three-pointers for the game and now have made just 20 over the last two games. The Pacers made just 11 three-pointers, and they still have up 120 points.
The Cavs once again created more than enough opportunities for themselves throughout the game – they were a +5 in FGA, +3 in offensive rebounds and were a +5 in turnover differential. But when it came down to it, the Pacers shotmaking was simply better than the Cavs.
All season long the Cavs had been the number one offensive halfcourt team. And now two games in a playoff series the Cavs have been outproduced in the half court. The Cavs were 68th percentile in the halfcourt, while the Pacers were 77th. Despite the Pacers pace and transition, games are won and lost in the halfcourt and the Cavs have been losing that battle.
The Cavs had two plus lineups the entire night, and both contained Mitchell and Wade. Allen, Strus and Merrill were also in a bulk of the lineups that were at least not negative.
In a playoff game when it mattered most, the Cavs were forced to play Wade, Okoro and Merrill 25+ minutes. Some of those produced to a certain extent but in a season when so clearly depth was built up it also seemed to be torn down in one game.
Going to Indiana twice is a tall task with Tyrese Haliburton playing like he is, and the Pacers playing like they are. But there’s also the Cavs going down 0-2 in the Finals and giving up homecourt advantage so it can be done… right?
Up next: Friday in Indiana at 7:30PM (EST).

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