ECQF: P2 | (2) Cleveland Cavaliers vs Indiana Pacers (7) | CLE 4-0

[Aventador]

Indiana is closer than a lot of people think. They lost all four games to the heavy EC favorite by a combined 16 points.

I believe this is the NBA Playoffs, not the NBA Moral Victory Contest.

[xfactor]

Cleveland can rest now. I´m sure we´ll see the real Cavs in the next round.

Lebron is incredible, man.

They really don't have to flip the switch until the Finals.

[xfactor]

That might work in the Raptors/Bucks favor.

4-0 Cavs.

Raptors and bucks got much defense than pacers. I can see them win a game or 2

It's not gonna happen. 4-0 is right.

[RaptorsLife]

4-0 Cavs.

Raptors and bucks got much defense than pacers. I can see them win a game or 2

It's not gonna happen. 4-0 is right.

Ok we'll I don't care about winning 1 or 2 games against the cavs that's losers mentality not an accomplishmemt lol Lose or win the series. Sweep don't matter to me. Bucks would be happy with 1 or 2 games because there young Just would love to get a chance to play the Cavs. That's what I been waiting for since last year

[Dupp]

Read on Twitter

I'm not saying the Cavs defense is fixed but I think you have to look at playoff PG and his stat line before you just say the Cavs suck at defense. Great players put up numbers. That's why they're great.

More concerned about our stagnant offense in fourth quarters than the defense tbh.
Kyrie was bad but Lebron needed to get on him or stop letting him start the sets on every possession.

Lebron also set the tone for a bad quarter. I think it was at the 10 minute mark of the last he was intentionally milking the clock and then ended up in a rushed frye shot. You could tell from then the quarter was gonna be bad when he was already slowing the offense right down.

[bwgood77]

Closer to what?

Being that close to winning games just comes down a lot to lucky bounces at the end. Of course some players are more clutch than others and LeBron is of course one of the best players of all time.

I just don't think Indy markedly worse than anyone outside of Cleveland, and even with them, at home and on the road, they played them right down to the wire in each game. I guess if your argument is NO team is close outside of Cleveland, your response makes more sense.

I think Washington is as close to beating Cleveland in the Playoffs out of any team in the East. I would love to see a Cleveland vs. Washington Series in the ECF. I think Washington could maybe pull it off.

That's who I think has the best chance as well. I could see them maybe beating them. It will be interesting to see how they play against Atlanta next though as I wasn't expecting the last game to be that big of a blowout.

[Bizness2520]

Being that close to winning games just comes down a lot to lucky bounces at the end. Of course some players are more clutch than others and LeBron is of course one of the best players of all time.

I just don't think Indy markedly worse than anyone outside of Cleveland, and even with them, at home and on the road, they played them right down to the wire in each game. I guess if your argument is NO team is close outside of Cleveland, your response makes more sense.

I think Washington is as close to beating Cleveland in the Playoffs out of any team in the East. I would love to see a Cleveland vs. Washington Series in the ECF. I think Washington could maybe pull it off.

That's who I think has the best chance as well. I could see them maybe beating them. It will be interesting to see how they play against Atlanta next though as I wasn't expecting the last game to be that big of a blowout.

Atlanta is a pretty good team man. I wouldn't be surprised if Atlanta pushes them to 6 or even 7 games. But I think Washington will outlast Atlanta in the end. Atlanta is not a bad team at all. This is the same team that beat Cleveland back to back times at the end of the regular season. Don't be surprised to see Atlanta even the series up 2-2.

[baller16]

So, how many series has a team got swept but had a chance to win three or all four games?

That was as competitive of a four-game-sweep series as you're ever going to see.

Their first round series vs Detroit was basically the same thing.

This year the Cavs won all four games by six or fewer points. One game was a one point Cleveland win and one Cavs win took a historic 26-point comeback. The Pacers scored at least 102 points all four games.

Last year the Cavs beat the Pistons by 17 in game two and by 10 in game three while holding Detroit to under 100 points in three of the four games.

Their pace this year was 97.62 while last years pace was 88.9 against Detroit, huge factor your missing. Their overall DTRG last year was slightly better than this years, but they were playing a worse offensive team. But all in all their DRTG is terrible against mediocre teams in the first round. The good thing is their offense hasn't taken a step back, in fact they're roughly the same.

Last year, their defense got progressively better round after round so I find it a bit to early too judge their defense imo

[bwgood77]

Indiana is closer than a lot of people think. They lost all four games to the heavy EC favorite by a combined 16 points.

I believe this is the NBA Playoffs, not the NBA Moral Victory Contest.

That's not what I meant, which I thought might be obvious, though I guess not. I meant that being swept doesn't tell the whole story of how competitive they are.

If George wasn't likely to bolt for LA, I wouldn't consider trading him to "blow it up" or anything considering the Cavs and LeBron are aging and may not be on top too much longer. Considering all the circumstances makes it tougher. It might be worth trading him if the package is really good, but teams will likely be hesitant to give up the right value for him since they may fear he will leave to go to LA.

But the point was that they played the Cavs potentially as close (especially overall according to pt differential in series) as any team in the EC will.

[NaturalThunder]

Their first round series vs Detroit was basically the same thing.

This year the Cavs won all four games by six or fewer points. One game was a one point Cleveland win and one Cavs win took a historic 26-point comeback. The Pacers scored at least 102 points all four games.

Last year the Cavs beat the Pistons by 17 in game two and by 10 in game three while holding Detroit to under 100 points in three of the four games.

Their pace this year was 97.62 while last years pace was 88.9 against Detroit, huge factor your missing. Their overall DTRG last year was slightly better than this years, but they were playing a worse offensive team. But all in all their DRTG is terrible against mediocre teams in the first round. The good thing is their offense hasn't taken a step back, in fact they're roughly the same.

Last year, their defense got progressively better round after round so I find it a bit to early too judge their defense imo

Fair enough. I should've taken that into account. Regardless, the Detroit series last year wasn't as competitive as the Pacers series this year.

[jswede]

This year the Cavs won all four games by six or fewer points. One game was a one point Cleveland win and one Cavs win took a historic 26-point comeback. The Pacers scored at least 102 points all four games.

Last year the Cavs beat the Pistons by 17 in game two and by 10 in game three while holding Detroit to under 100 points in three of the four games.

Their pace this year was 97.62 while last years pace was 88.9 against Detroit, huge factor your missing. Their overall DTRG last year was slightly better than this years, but they were playing a worse offensive team. But all in all their DRTG is terrible against mediocre teams in the first round. The good thing is their offense hasn't taken a step back, in fact they're roughly the same.

Last year, their defense got progressively better round after round so I find it a bit to early too judge their defense imo

Fair enough. I should've taken that into account. Regardless, the Detroit series last year wasn't as competitive as the Pacers series this year.

How does one find out how many minutes a team was ahead/behind in a series?

[NaturalThunder]

Their pace this year was 97.62 while last years pace was 88.9 against Detroit, huge factor your missing. Their overall DTRG last year was slightly better than this years, but they were playing a worse offensive team. But all in all their DRTG is terrible against mediocre teams in the first round. The good thing is their offense hasn't taken a step back, in fact they're roughly the same.

Last year, their defense got progressively better round after round so I find it a bit to early too judge their defense imo

Fair enough. I should've taken that into account. Regardless, the Detroit series last year wasn't as competitive as the Pacers series this year.

How does one find out how many minutes a team was ahead/behind in a series?

I'm not sure. If that stat does show that Detroit led more in their series last year than the Indiana led this series, then I'll admit I was wrong.

I just remember last year's Detroit series having a game or two that really wasn't all that competitive at the end, while this year against the Pacers, the Cavs realistically had a chance to lose in the final minute or two of the game in all four games.

[DowJones]

Cleveland is going to get a ton of rest. LeBron has only played 4 games in the last 2 weeks and the team will likely get a full week off before the start of round 2. This will be the most rest the team has had all year. Not bad.

[baller16]

Their pace this year was 97.62 while last years pace was 88.9 against Detroit, huge factor your missing. Their overall DTRG last year was slightly better than this years, but they were playing a worse offensive team. But all in all their DRTG is terrible against mediocre teams in the first round. The good thing is their offense hasn't taken a step back, in fact they're roughly the same.

Last year, their defense got progressively better round after round so I find it a bit to early too judge their defense imo

Fair enough. I should've taken that into account. Regardless, the Detroit series last year wasn't as competitive as the Pacers series this year.

How does one find out how many minutes a team was ahead/behind in a series?

Right here:

http://stats.nba.com/team/#!/1610612765/scoring/?Season=2015-16&SeasonType=Playoffs&Split=ingame

[DowJones]

I think this series is closer than it appears. Could have very well been 2-2 tied going back to Cleveland, with Pacers taking the series lead twice.

Agreed. I actually think its kinda worrisome for the Cavs that LeBron had to play at such a high level to win these games. It wasn't like the team as a whole crushed the Pacers.

It was a sweep though. I think at this point we are looking for problems with the Cavaliers. They swept their round 1 opponent and they will get a ton of time off.

[baller16]

Fair enough. I should've taken that into account. Regardless, the Detroit series last year wasn't as competitive as the Pacers series this year.

How does one find out how many minutes a team was ahead/behind in a series?

I'm not sure. If that stat does show that Detroit led more in their series last year than the Indiana led this series, then I'll admit I was wrong.

I just remember last year's Detroit series having a game or two that really wasn't all that competitive at the end, while this year against the Pacers, the Cavs realistically had a chance to lose in the final minute or two of the game in all four games.

I checked through it, Detroit had the lead for 69.2 minutes and Indiana had the lead for 35.4. So Detroit lead the series more by roughly 33.8 minutes

http://stats.nba.com/team/#!/1610612765/scoring/?Season=2015-16&SeasonType=Playoffs&Split=ingame

http://stats.nba.com/team/#!/1610612754/scoring/?Season=2016-17&SeasonType=Playoffs&Split=ingame

[jswede]

How does one find out how many minutes a team was ahead/behind in a series?

I'm not sure. If that stat does show that Detroit led more in their series last year than the Indiana led this series, then I'll admit I was wrong.

I just remember last year's Detroit series having a game or two that really wasn't all that competitive at the end, while this year against the Pacers, the Cavs realistically had a chance to lose in the final minute or two of the game in all four games.

I checked through it, Detroit had the lead for 69.2 minutes and Indiana had the lead for 35.4. So Detroit lead the series more by roughly 33.8 minutes

http://stats.nba.com/team/#!/1610612765/scoring/?Season=2015-16&SeasonType=Playoffs&Split=ingame

http://stats.nba.com/team/#!/1610612754/scoring/?Season=2016-17&SeasonType=Playoffs&Split=ingame

Thank you for the work.

[Warchant]

So tired of the same old break down of the Cavs....their coasting, their opponents made great shots, Indiana is a very good team etc....Indiana wuld get destroyed vs Portland or Memphis as the 7 n 8 seeds in the West.....the Cavs never coasted in any game since LB had to play hard for almost 45 mins game....Indiana has no inside presence so they were very easy to guard on the perimeter and still scored at will....yes it was a sweep but lets be real this team wuldnt have a chance vs GS, Wash, SA, Utah playing LB and a bunch of role players...if PG played like he did in games 1-3 this game is an easy win for Indiana...he was WAY off when they needed him most...finally, McMillan will be the worst coach of any opponents the Cavs have to face so that can make a difference as well

[jbk1234]

I'm not saying the Cavs defense is fixed but I think you have to look at playoff PG and his stat line before you just say the Cavs suck at defense. Great players put up numbers. That's why they're great.

The concern should be that Teague shot close to 50% without problem and he's worse than IT, Lowry, and Wall. Granted there's no way you guys have to play all those teams (or any of them possibly), but the PG defense should be a major point going forward.

Teague's always scored on Kyrie. Always.

[jbk1234]

So tired of the same old break down of the Cavs....their coasting, their opponents made great shots, Indiana is a very good team etc....Indiana wuld get destroyed vs Portland or Memphis as the 7 n 8 seeds in the West.....the Cavs never coasted in any game since LB had to play hard for almost 45 mins game....Indiana has no inside presence so they were very easy to guard on the perimeter and still scored at will....yes it was a sweep but lets be real this team wuldnt have a chance vs GS, Wash, SA, Utah playing LB and a bunch of role players...if PG played like he did in games 1-3 this game is an easy win for Indiana...he was WAY off when they needed him most...finally, McMillan will be the worst coach of any opponents the Cavs have to face so that can make a difference as well

Memphis won 43 games. Blazers won 41 games. Pacers won 42 games.