2025 Playoffs ECSF: Cavs (1) / Pacers (4) (1-4)

[ijspeelman]

Not great

[ijspeelman]

I'm not typically one to turn off a basketball game, especially a playoff game, but uhhh that lead is not able to be broken in 24 minutes

Sorry this is the game you had to go to JujitsuFlip

[JujitsuFlip]

I'm not typically one to turn off a basketball game, especially a playoff game, but uhhh that lead is not able to be broken in 24 minutes

Sorry this is the game you had to go to JujitsuFlip

Hahaha i think i cursed em. But to be fair all the guys were bricking their shots in shoot around and warm up.

[ijspeelman]

I just want everyone to know I'm still watching for some reason

[JujitsuFlip]

No point to post all my pics but i had great seats for the massacre.

[JujitsuFlip]

I feel like Hunter and Mathurin are going to fight before this series is over.

You called that! lol

[jbk1234]

So there was very little to be encouraged about last night, but if you squint you can see a couple of things: The Pacers sold out to stop the Cavs offensive rebounding advantage. The Cavs can counter that. Carlisle had the Pacers running a full court press in the 3rd quarter and even brought Nemhard back in the game to keep Garland from getting going, and Garland kind of did.

I don't believe the Pacers could repeat their shooting performance from last night in an empty gym. That was insane. One thing that's clear however is that the Cavs will lose the series if they can't start making shots from the outside. The Pacers will shoot well enough to beat a team that can't make its 3s.

[JujitsuFlip]

So there was very little to be encouraged about last night, but if you squint you can see a couple of things: The Pacers sold out to stop the Cavs offensive rebounding advantage. The Cavs can counter that. Carlisle had the Pacers running a full court press in the 3rd quarter and even brought Nemhard back in the game to keep Garland from getting going, and Garland kind of did.

I don't believe the Pacers could repeat their shooting performance from last night in an empty gym. That was insane. One thing that's clear however is that the Cavs will lose the series if they can't start making shots from the outside. The Pacers will shoot well enough to beat a team that can't make its 3s.

Been so dang discouraging to watch our outside shot allude us at the worst possible time.

Injury luck and shooting luck are for sure not on our side.

[ijspeelman]

So there was very little to be encouraged about last night, but if you squint you can see a couple of things: The Pacers sold out to stop the Cavs offensive rebounding advantage. The Cavs can counter that. Carlisle had the Pacers running a full court press in the 3rd quarter and even brought Nemhard back in the game to keep Garland from getting going, and Garland kind of did.

I don't believe the Pacers could repeat their shooting performance from last night in an empty gym. That was insane. One thing that's clear however is that the Cavs will lose the series if they can't start making shots from the outside. The Pacers will shoot well enough to beat a team that can't make its 3s.

The biggest issue was we couldn't get an offense even running. There weren't opportunities for players to make open jumpers because open jumpers barely existed.

Its kinda been a thing every game, but this game it was turned to 100. I am very discouraged about our chances at this point (I mean we are down 3-1 so duh, but it feels worse than that).

[JujitsuFlip]

So there was very little to be encouraged about last night, but if you squint you can see a couple of things: The Pacers sold out to stop the Cavs offensive rebounding advantage. The Cavs can counter that. Carlisle had the Pacers running a full court press in the 3rd quarter and even brought Nemhard back in the game to keep Garland from getting going, and Garland kind of did.

I don't believe the Pacers could repeat their shooting performance from last night in an empty gym. That was insane. One thing that's clear however is that the Cavs will lose the series if they can't start making shots from the outside. The Pacers will shoot well enough to beat a team that can't make its 3s.

The biggest issue was we couldn't get an offense even running. There weren't opportunities for players to make open jumpers because open jumpers barely existed.

Its kinda been a thing every game, but this game it was turned to 100. I am very discouraged about our chances at this point (I mean we are down 3-1 so duh, but it feels worse than that).

A lot of the turnovers seemed unforced from my vantage point too.

[jbk1234]

So there was very little to be encouraged about last night, but if you squint you can see a couple of things: The Pacers sold out to stop the Cavs offensive rebounding advantage. The Cavs can counter that. Carlisle had the Pacers running a full court press in the 3rd quarter and even brought Nemhard back in the game to keep Garland from getting going, and Garland kind of did.

I don't believe the Pacers could repeat their shooting performance from last night in an empty gym. That was insane. One thing that's clear however is that the Cavs will lose the series if they can't start making shots from the outside. The Pacers will shoot well enough to beat a team that can't make its 3s.

The biggest issue was we couldn't get an offense even running. There weren't opportunities for players to make open jumpers because open jumpers barely existed.

Its kinda been a thing every game, but this game it was turned to 100. I am very discouraged about our chances at this point (I mean we are down 3-1 so duh, but it feels worse than that).

A lot of the turnovers seemed unforced from my vantage point too.

They were.

I'd note that when your opponent is hitting every shot they put up, and selling out to stop second chance points, it makes it difficult. There were open jumpers though, as well as opportunities for open jumpers if a timely pass was made out of a crowded paint, and nothing about how the Pacers are currently approaching the Cavs will change until those looks start going down.

[ijspeelman]

The biggest issue was we couldn't get an offense even running. There weren't opportunities for players to make open jumpers because open jumpers barely existed.

Its kinda been a thing every game, but this game it was turned to 100. I am very discouraged about our chances at this point (I mean we are down 3-1 so duh, but it feels worse than that).

A lot of the turnovers seemed unforced from my vantage point too.

They were.

I'd note that when your opponent is hitting every shot they put up, and selling out to stop second chance points, it makes it difficult. There were open jumpers though, as well as opportunities for open jumpers if a timely pass was made out of a crowded paint, and nothing about how the Pacers are currently approaching the Cavs will change until those looks start going down.

Last game was a set of compounding problems that made it spiral out of control. And some of it was out of the Cavs control so I don't expect to see anything like that again.

I just find it hard to see a path where we win three in a row without shooting luck on our side and near flawless execution of a gameplan that works for a majority of the 144 minutes+ needed to win.

The turnovers were unforced and sloppy, but they weren't indictive of our team on the whole.

Something I am a little shocked about is in the first half last night three point shot quality was on the Pacers side, but by a lot less than I thought

Pacers
9 Wide Open
8 Open
0 Tight
1 Very Tight

Cavs
5 Wide Open
10 Open
4 Tight
0 Very Tight

So 17 wide open/open to 15 wide open/open isn't that huge of a disparity. Obviously, ignore the efficiency because we missed all wide open shots in the first half and Pacers only missed 5 of their easy opportunities.

[JonFromVA]

One thing that concerned me is how often we had the wrong guy defending a Pacer and they exploited it. Maybe we need to stop switching so much when we don't have the personnel on the floor to get away with it?

We got away with a lot of stuff in the regular season because we simply outshot teams. They score an easy 2, we'd drop a 3.

So, while cleaning up the defense would be nice, maybe Kenny needs to focus on unleashing his offense? Alas easier said than done when Jerome is off his game, Hunter can't shoot straight, and Garland and Mitchell are hurt.

And damn, even our end of bench crowd couldn't muster much in the way of defensive pressure. Why can't we press other teams and force turnovers? What do we have to lose when down 40?

[jbk1234]

A lot of the turnovers seemed unforced from my vantage point too.

They were.

I'd note that when your opponent is hitting every shot they put up, and selling out to stop second chance points, it makes it difficult. There were open jumpers though, as well as opportunities for open jumpers if a timely pass was made out of a crowded paint, and nothing about how the Pacers are currently approaching the Cavs will change until those looks start going down.

Last game was a set of compounding problems that made it spiral out of control. And some of it was out of the Cavs control so I don't expect to see anything like that again.

I just find it hard to see a path where we win three in a row without shooting luck on our side and near flawless execution of a gameplan that works for a majority of the 144 minutes+ needed to win.

The turnovers were unforced and sloppy, but they weren't indictive of our team on the whole.

Something I am a little shocked about is in the first half last night three point shot quality was on the Pacers side, but by a lot less than I thought

Pacers
9 Wide Open
8 Open
0 Tight
1 Very Tight

Cavs
5 Wide Open
10 Open
4 Tight
0 Very Tight

So 17 wide open/open to 15 wide open/open isn't that huge of a disparity. Obviously, ignore the efficiency because we missed all wide open shots in the first half and Pacers only missed 5 of their easy opportunities.

One thing to keep in mind is the Pacers took a number of deep threes so it's not as simple as open or wide open. Also some of the guys draining those looks, like Toppin, Nembhard and Siakam, aren't great shooters from 3.

My one cause for concern is that Strus has shot really well this series and he's perfectly capable of having an off night.

As an aside, Greg Anthony's disdain for the Cavs is palpable. Listening to him pile on as your team got run out of the gym was a little much.

[JonFromVA]

They were.

I'd note that when your opponent is hitting every shot they put up, and selling out to stop second chance points, it makes it difficult. There were open jumpers though, as well as opportunities for open jumpers if a timely pass was made out of a crowded paint, and nothing about how the Pacers are currently approaching the Cavs will change until those looks start going down.

Last game was a set of compounding problems that made it spiral out of control. And some of it was out of the Cavs control so I don't expect to see anything like that again.

I just find it hard to see a path where we win three in a row without shooting luck on our side and near flawless execution of a gameplan that works for a majority of the 144 minutes+ needed to win.

The turnovers were unforced and sloppy, but they weren't indictive of our team on the whole.

Something I am a little shocked about is in the first half last night three point shot quality was on the Pacers side, but by a lot less than I thought

Pacers
9 Wide Open
8 Open
0 Tight
1 Very Tight

Cavs
5 Wide Open
10 Open
4 Tight
0 Very Tight

So 17 wide open/open to 15 wide open/open isn't that huge of a disparity. Obviously, ignore the efficiency because we missed all wide open shots in the first half and Pacers only missed 5 of their easy opportunities.

One thing to keep in mind is the Pacers took a number of deep threes so it's not as simple as open or wide open. Also some of the guys draining those looks, like Toppin, Nembhard and Siakam, aren't great shooters from 3.

My one cause for concern is that Strus has shot really well this series and he's perfectly capable of having an off night.

As an aside, Greg Anthony's disdain for the Cavs is palpable. Listening to him pile on as your team got run out of the gym was a little much.

Yeah, the whole TnT crew seemed to struggle to understand that Hunter was punched and they didn't have a great camera angle to really tell how hard of a punch it was. At halftime when Chuck said it was a despicable action, I bet I wasn't the only one who couldn't tell if he was talking about Hunter's push or Mathurin's punch.

Oh and when Hunter pointed to his own head, I don't think they understood what he was indicated was that he had to push Mathurin to make the refs review the play because they keep missing the initial actions.

[jbk1234]

Last game was a set of compounding problems that made it spiral out of control. And some of it was out of the Cavs control so I don't expect to see anything like that again.

I just find it hard to see a path where we win three in a row without shooting luck on our side and near flawless execution of a gameplan that works for a majority of the 144 minutes+ needed to win.

The turnovers were unforced and sloppy, but they weren't indictive of our team on the whole.

Something I am a little shocked about is in the first half last night three point shot quality was on the Pacers side, but by a lot less than I thought

Pacers
9 Wide Open
8 Open
0 Tight
1 Very Tight

Cavs
5 Wide Open
10 Open
4 Tight
0 Very Tight

So 17 wide open/open to 15 wide open/open isn't that huge of a disparity. Obviously, ignore the efficiency because we missed all wide open shots in the first half and Pacers only missed 5 of their easy opportunities.

One thing to keep in mind is the Pacers took a number of deep threes so it's not as simple as open or wide open. Also some of the guys draining those looks, like Toppin, Nembhard and Siakam, aren't great shooters from 3.

My one cause for concern is that Strus has shot really well this series and he's perfectly capable of having an off night.

As an aside, Greg Anthony's disdain for the Cavs is palpable. Listening to him pile on as your team got run out of the gym was a little much.

Yeah, the whole TnT crew seemed to struggle to understand that Hunter was punched and they didn't have a great camera angle to really tell how hard of a punch it was. At halftime when Chuck said it was a despicable action, I bet I wasn't the only one who couldn't tell if he was talking about Hunter's push or Mathurin's punch.

Oh and when Hunter pointed to his own head, I don't think they understood what he was indicated was that he had to push Mathurin to make the refs review the play because they keep missing the initial actions.

Given how well the rest of the Pacers shot, I don't think the Cavs really benefited. Also, Hunter had a really rough whistle for the rest of the game which makes me believe the officials were hamfistedly attempting to even things out.

[JujitsuFlip]

One thing that concerned me is how often we had the wrong guy defending a Pacer and they exploited it. Maybe we need to stop switching so much when we don't have the personnel on the floor to get away with it?

We got away with a lot of stuff in the regular season because we simply outshot teams. They score an easy 2, we'd drop a 3.

So, while cleaning up the defense would be nice, maybe Kenny needs to focus on unleashing his offense? Alas easier said than done when Jerome is off his game, Hunter can't shoot straight, and Garland and Mitchell are hurt.

And damn, even our end of bench crowd couldn't muster much in the way of defensive pressure. Why can't we press other teams and force turnovers? What do we have to lose when down 40?

Bro, i noticed that in person. Toppin off the weak side was attacking Garland and Strus and sometimes no defender. I just kept thinking like are we gonna stop this dude from diving and cutting?

[ijspeelman]

One thing that concerned me is how often we had the wrong guy defending a Pacer and they exploited it. Maybe we need to stop switching so much when we don't have the personnel on the floor to get away with it?

We got away with a lot of stuff in the regular season because we simply outshot teams. They score an easy 2, we'd drop a 3.

So, while cleaning up the defense would be nice, maybe Kenny needs to focus on unleashing his offense? Alas easier said than done when Jerome is off his game, Hunter can't shoot straight, and Garland and Mitchell are hurt.

And damn, even our end of bench crowd couldn't muster much in the way of defensive pressure. Why can't we press other teams and force turnovers? What do we have to lose when down 40?

Bro, i noticed that in person. Toppin off the weak side was attacking Garland and Strus and sometimes no defender. I just kept thinking like are we gonna stop this dude from diving and cutting?

They also gave up that Turner PNR switch too easily and Turner has been hitting every single shot he takes on smaller defenders

[JujitsuFlip]

One thing that concerned me is how often we had the wrong guy defending a Pacer and they exploited it. Maybe we need to stop switching so much when we don't have the personnel on the floor to get away with it?

We got away with a lot of stuff in the regular season because we simply outshot teams. They score an easy 2, we'd drop a 3.

So, while cleaning up the defense would be nice, maybe Kenny needs to focus on unleashing his offense? Alas easier said than done when Jerome is off his game, Hunter can't shoot straight, and Garland and Mitchell are hurt.

And damn, even our end of bench crowd couldn't muster much in the way of defensive pressure. Why can't we press other teams and force turnovers? What do we have to lose when down 40?

Bro, i noticed that in person. Toppin off the weak side was attacking Garland and Strus and sometimes no defender. I just kept thinking like are we gonna stop this dude from diving and cutting?

They also gave up that Turner PNR switch too easily and Turner has been hitting every single shot he takes on smaller defenders

When Turner hit that deep heat check 3 to go up like 40 or whatever it was, i wanted to leave lol

[ijspeelman]

Bro, i noticed that in person. Toppin off the weak side was attacking Garland and Strus and sometimes no defender. I just kept thinking like are we gonna stop this dude from diving and cutting?

They also gave up that Turner PNR switch too easily and Turner has been hitting every single shot he takes on smaller defenders

When Turner hit that deep heat check 3 to go up like 40 or whatever it was, i wanted to leave lol

That entire last 3 minutes of the first half was an incredible show of hot shooting... just had to be against the Cavs when we were in the middle of needing to get back into the game lol