2025 NBA PLAYOFFS East Semifinals: #1 Cleveland Cavaliers vs #4 Indiana Pacers (IND leads 1-0)

[GiannisAnte34]

The ball business happened after an earlier game and not after game 5.

I never said that it did? This was over a year ago. Stating it like oh Giannis just lost his mind is really disingenuous to both sides being petty in that situation

We don't disagree. I wasn't correcting you. I just wanted to clarify the record for readers who don't watch many Pacer games.

Fair enough. It’s a rivalry so I also wanted to clarify the record that the Pacers have done their share of pettiness and instigation. Particularly in the game ball fiasco

[Hoop Hunter]

You don't watch the Pacers, is the point lol

Pacers fan here. Based on cgf's post history, I feel fairly confident in saying that he does watch the Pacers a fair amount more than your average non-Pacer fan.

I thought cgf was a Pacer fan for most of the season. He seems to know us pretty well. Better than some Pacer fans.

[xBulletproof]

Something didn’t sit right with me with all the showboating and yapping the Pacers did against the clearly undermanned Bucks. I hope Cleveland humbles them in 4.

Including Giannis losing his mind over a game ball that he thought the Pacers took in his career high game

Presenting what happened like this implies that the Pacers were completely innocent. There is leaked audio and footage proving that the Pacers were instigating that situation. Whether it was the game ball or the reserve ball is another thing. My understanding is that there are technically 3 game balls, and nothing about the game ball vs reserve balls matters.

Malik Beasley did an interview saying he watched the Bucks staff get the ball and walk away. He also said Giannis realized it later. I could find it pretty easily. Giannis wanted the game ball, which the Bucks already had.

You have to interpret the Pacers behavior through the lens of Giannis being wrong. When someone comes at ppl sideways AND they're wrong, yes most people will not comply. Many will be annoying to get back at that person. None of that changes that it started with Giannis being wrong, and overly angry.

[rolling_91]

Cavs in 5.

This is going to be a shootout. Cavs found something last series with their big defensive lineup similar to the Rockets finding success vs Curry with a pure matchup zone. I think it’s something we’ll see a lot of going forward.

Pacers are really good on offense with their push and spread. And they’re good at chasing teams off the 3 point line. And Carlyle is a great coach so the adjustments this series should be interesting.

[ArksNetsSince99]

Cavs in 5 , Indiana is good enough to steal one game , if Cavs is rusty maybe two games

[ArksNetsSince99]

You don't watch the Pacers, is the point lol

Pacers fan here. Based on cgf's post history, I feel fairly confident in saying that he does watch the Pacers a fair amount more than your average non-Pacer fan.

I thought cgf was a Pacer fan for most of the season. He seems to know us pretty well. Better than some Pacer fans.

He knows Indiana better than his own Knicks

He vastly overestimate Knicks , biased a lot , I don’t take his takes seriously

[ArksNetsSince99]

Pacers were really tough vs my Celtics last playoffs. One of the most competitive sweeps I've seen and the games came down to execution in crunchtime. Indy seems to have learned and improved since then, not freaking out so much at the end of games, so I think they will take the Cavs to 6 or 7. But I do favor Cleveland to win.

Is there a term competitive sweep ?

I guess it is if all 4 games goes to the wire , but sounds funny

[GiannisAnte34]

Including Giannis losing his mind over a game ball that he thought the Pacers took in his career high game

Presenting what happened like this implies that the Pacers were completely innocent. There is leaked audio and footage proving that the Pacers were instigating that situation. Whether it was the game ball or the reserve ball is another thing. My understanding is that there are technically 3 game balls, and nothing about the game ball vs reserve balls matters.

Malik Beasley did an interview saying he watched the Bucks staff get the ball and walk away. He also said Giannis realized it later. I could find it pretty easily. Giannis wanted the game ball, which the Bucks already had.

You have to interpret the Pacers behavior through the lens of Giannis being wrong. When someone comes at ppl sideways AND they're wrong, yes most people will not comply. Many will be annoying to get back at that person. None of that changes that it started with Giannis being wrong, and overly angry.

Even with all that being said, the Pacers had several people instigating it from the beginning. Stop trying to paint the picture that Giannis is this angry guy out of nowhere. If people egged you on and you overreacted, you’d probably want some understanding too.

[mcfly1204]

Pacers were really tough vs my Celtics last playoffs. One of the most competitive sweeps I've seen and the games came down to execution in crunchtime. Indy seems to have learned and improved since then, not freaking out so much at the end of games, so I think they will take the Cavs to 6 or 7. But I do favor Cleveland to win.

Is there a term competitive sweep ?

I guess it is if all 4 games goes to the wire , but sounds funny

What's funny is that Cleveland actually logged a win against Boston in the Playoffs last year, and could have potentially tied up the series in game 4 had Mitchell not gone down with injury.

[Nuntius]

You don't watch the Pacers, is the point lol

Pacers fan here. Based on cgf's post history, I feel fairly confident in saying that he does watch the Pacers a fair amount more than your average non-Pacer fan.

I thought cgf was a Pacer fan for most of the season. He seems to know us pretty well. Better than some Pacer fans.

Oh, definitely better than some Pacer fans. Cgf isn't a Pacer fan so he has no agenda. He just says what he sees and his basketball takes tend to be good and informed so, you know. He's a good poster is what I'm saying

[basketballRob]

Neither team will be able to stop the other one. It should be fun. The first team to 120 wins.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM mobile app

[The4thHorseman]

I hope we don't have to hear Reggie behind the mic. It's bad enough having to hear him regardless who's is playing but I know he won't be able to hold back his massive bias for Indy.

[Nuntius]

Presenting what happened like this implies that the Pacers were completely innocent. There is leaked audio and footage proving that the Pacers were instigating that situation. Whether it was the game ball or the reserve ball is another thing. My understanding is that there are technically 3 game balls, and nothing about the game ball vs reserve balls matters.

Malik Beasley did an interview saying he watched the Bucks staff get the ball and walk away. He also said Giannis realized it later. I could find it pretty easily. Giannis wanted the game ball, which the Bucks already had.

You have to interpret the Pacers behavior through the lens of Giannis being wrong. When someone comes at ppl sideways AND they're wrong, yes most people will not comply. Many will be annoying to get back at that person. None of that changes that it started with Giannis being wrong, and overly angry.

Even with all that being said, the Pacers had several people instigating it from the beginning. Stop trying to paint the picture that Giannis is this angry guy out of nowhere. If people egged you on and you overreacted, you’d probably want some understanding too.

Giannis isn't an angry guy but the Pacers weren't instigating either. The Pacers wanted the game ball for Oscar Tshiebwe, a young undrafted rookie that we had on a two-way contract and just scored his first official NBA points in that game. Giannis wanted the game ball to celebrate his career high. Both teams wanted the game ball and both teams did get the game ball because there's more than one game balls around (I think there's 3).

The whole issue was created due to poor communication. Giannis thought that we stole the Bucks' game ball but we never did. The Bucks did have the game ball that Giannis wanted but it just wasn't properly communicated to him. So, when he stormed over and demanded Oscar's game ball, we refused. It's only natural since we knew that they already had a game ball.

It was a breakdown in communication that caused this whole misunderstanding. No side has to be the bad guy here.

[JonFromVA]

Garland's toe injury concerns me if for some reason Jerome can't keep playing like an All-Star; but something I thought worth bringing up is the difference in road records between the Pacers and the Cavs. At just 21-20 the Pacers do not project out to be a serious playoff contender.

[JujitsuFlip]

Garland ruled out for game 1.

https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/sports/pro/cavs/2025/05/04/darius-garland-playing-today-injury-news/83445873007/

[KGDirkTD_Fan]

Garland's toe injury concerns me if for some reason Jerome can't keep playing like an All-Star; but something I thought worth bringing up is the difference in road records between the Pacers and the Cavs. At just 21-20 the Pacers do not project out to be a serious playoff contender.

Think this is a Tatum-like rest game? I was wondering how bad it could be that would keep him from playing, maybe changing directions on the dribble hurts a ton.

[Tracymcgoaty]

Anybody played AC shadows?

My god what a horrible waste of time that game was.

anyways go Cleveland. We want a Cleveland-boston ECF

[KGDirkTD_Fan]

Anybody played AC shadows?

My god what a horrible waste of time that game was.

anyways go Cleveland. We want a Cleveland-boston ECF

Releases from American studios in the past year have been garbage. I wouldn't play that game for free.

[Wizop]

Neither team will be able to stop the other one. It should be fun. The first team to 120 wins.

Add the two halftime scores and reduce total to next lower multiple of ten and that's the first two number for the game.

[Chuck Everett]

Garland still not playing huh? Hmm...