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There were seven seconds still ticking off the clock, but LeBron James didn’t care. He made his way down the tunnel and back to the locker room in the final moments of Game 1 of the first-round matchup between the Indiana Pacers and Cleveland Cavaliers. As 7.5-point favorites with home-court advantage, the three-seeded Cavs weren’t projected to fall in Game 1, the first opening-game playoff loss of James’ career.
Despite LeBron’s 24 points, 12 assists, and 10 rebounds (en route to yet another playoff triple-double), the Cavaliers suffered a 98-80 loss at the hands of Victor Oladipo and a surging Pacers team. In addition to Oladipo’s 32 points, the Pacers had three players in double figures, including 12 off the bench from LeBron James’ favorite shooting guard, Lance Stephenson. Bojan Bogdanovic led the Pacers in minutes with 39, contributing 15 points of his own and 6 boards, and Myles Turner pulled down 8 rebounds to go along with 16 points.
On Cleveland’s side of things, Jeff Green was atrocious (0/7 from the field), Kevin Love was quiet (9 points), and J.R. Smith had a solid game off the pine (15 points). But the Cleveland offense only managed to put up 80 points, something that hasn’t been a problem for most of the year. The Cavs ranked 5th in the NBA with 110.9 PPG, and the major issues were on the defensive side of the ball, where they surrendered a 26th-best 109.9 PPG along with a 111.9 defensive rating, good for second-worst in the NBA.
I’m gonna come right out and tell you now that I think there’s little to no chance of the Pacers advancing past the Cavaliers. Sure, LeBron lost his first Game 1 of a first-round series, but it had to happen at some point. Maybe Cleveland isn’t Finals-bound, but the Pacers aren’t gonna be the ones to knock them off. Think about all that went right in this game for the Pacers: Victor Oladipo went off and scored 32, Kevin Love didn’t hit double-digits despite averaging nearly 18 PPG all season, the Cavaliers shot 38.5% from the field, and Bogdanovic, Turner, and Stephenson combined for 43 points, 7 more than their season average.
If LeBron’s fellow starters continue to shoot at a sub-30% clip, then the Cavs may be in trouble, but we have no reason to believe that that will be the case. This season, Rodney Hood shot 42.9% from the field, Kevin Love shot 45.8%, George Hill shot 46.0%, and Jeff Green shot 47.7%. Excuse me for not overreacting to one horrid shooting performance by the Cleveland starters (LeBron aside), but I think the offense will be just fine.
Before I go, let me give you a quote from our favorites over at the Worldwide Leader, where NBA analyst Tim Legler offered the prediction that the Cavs “might get swept.” I mean, c’mon now. I think LeBron can be insufferable, but even renowned LeBron-hater Scott Crosby wouldn’t go so far as to predict a possible sweep of King James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. This series could go six or even seven games, but let’s remember that we’re talking about the NBA Playoffs here. When’s the last time a significant upset occurred in the first round? The results are almost always chalk, so why would we deviate from the norm by picking against the best player on the planet?
It doesn’t make sense, so let’s not let our anti-LeBron bias (looking at you Scott) cloud our judgment of reality. Rest easy Prospect Jake; the Cleveland Cavaliers will be in round two of the 2018 NBA Playoffs.
(Stats via Basketball Reference and ESPN)
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