Pacers Use Depth, Relentlessness To Stun Cavs In Game 1

How the hell do you like that, Cleveland?

The Pacers walked into the Rocket Arena on Sunday evening and took it to the Cavaliers, something few teams were able to do the entire regular season. A 121-112 Game 1 stunning victory has Cavs fans headed to the exits early as the Pacers relentless pace and shooting kept their beloved on their heels. Contributions came from all over the Indiana roster, with six players, including all five Pacers starters, scoring in double figures. The team shot over 52-percent from 3-point range and missed only one of their 15 free throw attempts.

Outside of a 33-point effort from Donovan Mitchell and a 20-point output by Evan Mobley, the Cavaliers struggled to find scoring anywhere else. Ty Jerome had 21 points off the bench but also shot the ball 20 times, connecting only eight times. The loss of Darius Garland was evident but how much his absence actually played in the result is anyone’s guess. The Pacers outhustled, outran, outshot and outlasted the vaunted Cavaliers.

Tyrese Haliburton knew how important it was for the Pacers to get off to a fast start in this series. “It gives us a lot of momentum, for sure,” he said on the win. “This is the best team in our conference. They don’t lose much.” Not only didn’t the 64-win Cavaliers lose much all season long, but they also rarely lost at home. A 34-7 record at home gave them the second-best home record in the NBA behind only the Oklahoma City Thunder.

“We had an exceptionally good shot-making night,” Rick Carlisle said in the postgame. “But the key word is aggression. We’ve got to be in attack mode to beat this team.” Attack mode, they were. Their relentless pace and hot shooting put the Cavs and their fans on their heels. A pair of big 3-pointers from Bennedict Mathurin and Myles Turner stopped momentum building for the Cavaliers in the third quarter and the Pacers didn’t let the foot off the gas in the fourth.

“We’ve got to be in attack mode to beat this team,” Rick Carlisle on what it will take for the Pacers to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers

The Pacers did what every underdog wants to do, steal Game 1 on the road. But they also aren’t just any underdog. This Pacers team may be the lower-seed but they also are last year’s runners-up in the Eastern Conference Finals. They have playoff experience and pedigree and depth that the Cavaliers simply don’t. Can they deliver another uppercut in Tuesday’s Game 2? The Cavaliers are already dazed, but the Pacers have the chance of giving them an early round knockout if they can repeat that Game 1 magic.