Indiana Pacers 98-80 Cleveland Cavaliers: 5 Talking Points

IN won the game 98-80 to take a 1-0 series lead. Meanwhile, Oladipo is in the midst of a breakout in his fifth season, earning his first All-Star selection while averaging 23.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and a league-best 2.4 steals per game. They're going to shoot better than that on a given night, but the Pacers took away easy drives and charged the 3-point line to make the task more hard for Cleveland. But the Cavs' A game is still better than that of any team in the East, which will become obvious over the course of a seven-game series no matter which team they take on between now and June. That's no easy task, but it is easier than it was before Sunday's win. The Pacers are 4-18 wheb losing Game 1. 16 points and 8 rebounds were enough to all but split (46-44) the rebounding battle with Cleveland. So, today was definitely a good test for some of our younger guys and like I said, I think they'll be a lot better especially in Game 2."And not just them", James continued. "If we could bottle that third quarter up and part of the fourth, the way we played, with intensity, diving on the floor, we'll be good".

Cleveland began the second quarter on a 7-0 run, led by Kevin Love, who hit his second three-pointer of the evening during the quick run. The talking head shows Monday morning is going to have a field day with the outcome of Game 1 of the Cavs-Pacers series.

It's only round one, but it was a decisive victory for Indiana. The Pacers easily could have won the game by a bigger margin had they cashed in at the charity stripe and capitalized more on Cleveland's miscues. Guess this one got started early.

Al Horford scored 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for Boston and Terry Rozier, starting in place of injured Kyrie Irving, added 23 points.

The Cavaliers had their lowest-scoring first period of the season and only five baskets with six turnovers in the opening quarter, drawing boos as they walked off at half-time trailing 59-38.

Thankfully for IN, they had Oladipo and company to mop up the mess. "I was down 3-1 in the Finals", James said after the game.

LVP: Don't do stupid stuff, Lance. He gives IN needed flexibility IN their frontcourt. And there's no reason to believe that the Cavaliers aren't still the team to beat in the East. Middleton had 31 points, eight rebounds and six assists. He held his own on defense as well.

Oladipo wasn't about to take a step back Sunday and, same as during the first 82 games, neither were his teammates. This is the team's first playoff win since 2016. The Pacers were on national television once, and that was just for Paul George's return to Indianapolis. It's one of the biggest keys to IN winning the series. "Just running the floor more, playing with pace, rebound the basketball because he's playing the big, just playing with more energy".

The Cavs were 8-for-34 on 3-pointers.

In the first 7ﾽ minutes of the game the Cavs only scored four points. He picked up 3 fouls along the way, but that means the starters weren't having to worry about foul trouble. That's not going to change in Game 2.