LeBron James had never lost the first game of the playoffs and hadn’t lost a game in the first round since 2012 when he was with the Heat, but on Sunday afternoon, the Pacers rolled into Cleveland and dominated the Cavs from start to finish in a 98-80 win to take a 1-0 series lead.
Victor Oladipo led the way with 32 points in a virtuoso performance in his first playoff series as a leading man (he struggled in OKC’s playoff action a year ago) and proved he and these Pacers were going to be a legitimate problem moving forward. It was equally impressive from the Pacers and disappointing from the Cavs, as Cleveland never really responded to the early Indiana onslaught, making a run to get within seven in the third quarter but never closer.
After the game, LeBron, who had a triple-double in the loss and passed Michael Jordan for second in all-time career playoff field goals made, refused to be concerned about himself or the team moving forward, citing his 3-1 comeback against the Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals.
"I mean, I'm down 0-1 in the first round. I was down 3-1 in the Finals." pic.twitter.com/7EBwmi0H61
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) April 15, 2018
James clearly isn’t stressing over this Cavs performance, at least outwardly, which is probably the right approach. Cleveland certainly has things they need to fix on both ends of the floor, but they missed an awful lot of shots that were good looks, especially from three-point range. Sometimes, that’s the difference.
That’s not to discredit the Pacers, who had a great game plan to force players who have not been especially efficient shooters this season to take those open jumpers — such as J.R. Smith and Jeff Green — while closing out harder on the likes of Kevin Love. Cleveland will have to adjust, and Indiana will win this series if they don’t, but LeBron refuses to freak out over a bad start to a series when his guys clearly need his confidence.
