Pacers beat the Cavs again in another thriller
By TYLER SMITH (@TylerSmith_ISL)
ISL Editor
(Photo by Pacers Sports and Entertainment)
INDIANAPOLIS — By now, you’d think Pacer fans would stop writing their team off after a slow start.
The Pacers have had numerous comebacks this season, and on Friday night, they did it again.
After getting manhandled 34-12 in the first quarter, the Pacers came back to defeat LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers 97-95 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. They improved to 3-0 on the season against Cleveland.
Cavaliers= 0-3 against the #Pacers. 26-13 against everybody else.
— Tyler Smith (@TylerSmith_ISL) January 13, 2018
We’ve seen this movie before: Lance brought the energy to the building, and Oladipo hit the big shot.
“Great team win,” Oladipo said. “We stayed with it and fought through adversity. We showed some resilience. I’ve got confidence in myself in any situation. Credit to my teammates for a great overall team win.”
Playing without Myles Turner for a second straight game, the Pacers were able to withstand his absence this time around. Domantas Sabonis struggled with his shot but still contributed a double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds. Darren Collison was huge with 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting. Victor Oladipo scored 19 including the huge three.
Lance Stephenson’s stat line for the game looked like this: 16 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, and a whole lot of air guitar. Add another page to the Lance and LeBron history book as well. James was called for a crucial technical foul for shoving Stephenson after a play.
Here’s LeBron James on #Pacers Lance Stephenson (@KBowen1070 with the question, a question that neither of us thought would get this kind of answer): pic.twitter.com/7plQpHQPSl
— Corey Elliot (@CoreyElliot) January 13, 2018
“We just needed to settle down and focus,” Nate McMillan said. “We came out tentative for whatever reason. We felt like we could get back in the game. It’s always an emotional game when we play Cleveland. I was talking at the beginning of the game about how sweet it would be to beat Cleveland for a third time.”
McMillan and the Pacers were fortunate that LeBron’s final shot missed. They made a huge mistake that could’ve cost them the game. With the Pacers leading by one, Darren Collison had one more free-throw attempt with less than two seconds to play. Cleveland was out of timeouts, and Collison should’ve missed his final free-throw. Instead, he made the free throw which allowed the Cavs to throw the ball the length of the floor, but the Pacers were able to hold on.
Why did Collison not miss the second free throw on purpose? Cavs were out of timeouts. The coaches CANNOT miss that. Pacers very fortunate to hang on.
— Tyler Smith (@TylerSmith_ISL) January 13, 2018
The Pacers have now won six games this season when trailing by at least 10 points. They’ve won three games when trailing by at least 16 points, and have made several other great comebacks that fell just short.
It was a successful home-stand, as the Pacers went 3-1. They now head out West for a long road-trip that begins in Phoenix on Sunday night.
