Pacers’ hand already seems a royal flush as Game 7 looms
By CHRIS GOFF
Is it possible for a team to be winning a playoff series that’s tied? It sure feels like the Pacers are doing that.
Maybe it’s because the composite score has them up 44 points in this memorable first-round series against defending Eastern Conference champion Cleveland.
Or maybe it feels like everything that can be lost is on the other side, now that the Cavaliers are one defeat from watching their championship hopes evaporate in the first round and the NBA potentially 48 minutes away from losing the possibility of an eighth consecutive Finals featuring LeBron James.
No. 5 seed Indiana doesn’t carry around the burden that the fourth-seeded Cavs do, of a star player, fan base and front office that will be satisfied with nothing less than a championship.
By now, you’ve heard all about what unfolded Friday night at a rocking Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Indiana stared elimination in the face, dug down and overwhelmed the Cavs 121-87 in Game 6 and tied the series at three games apiece. Game 7 is 1 p.m. Sunday in Cleveland.
You knew these Pacers weren’t going down without a fight. Not after how hard they played and how together they were all season. Not after Victor Oladipo blew up in Game 6 for 28 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists and four steals.
On the most important night of the Pacers’ season, their All-Star took over. This game was all Oladipo. At one point he was stuck with the ball outside the 3-point line, his team about to rack up a 24-second violation, so he heaved up a shot. It went in off the glass, and he produced another signature first-half play with a reverse jam on a run-out made possible by Oladipo first intercepting a James pass.
It would be one of 15 Cleveland turnovers.
Oladipo then delivered the exclamation point late in the third quarter, barreling past shooting guard counterpart J.R. Smith, launching himself at the rim, cocking the ball above his head and crushing a dunk over James, the four-time MVP.
It was in that third quarter when Game 6 changed from fairly intense and competitive to what wound up a statement-making rout.
The Pacers finished with a stunning 35-12 edge in fast-break points and made 56 percent of their shots, including 15 of their 30 3-pointers. Indiana had an edge in second-chance points, 15-7, while points in the paint favored the Pacers 58-32.
“I thought he played faster,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said in assessing the damage Oladipo inflicted Friday. “He even banked one in, he got it going so good.”
The same couldn’t be said for James, who had an “off” game by his standards with 22 points, seven assists and five boards and was unusually passive. It was his lowest scoring output of the series, aided by staying on the bench the entire fourth quarter.
You read that correctly. Down 25 at the end of the third, the Cavs didn’t even try to retrieve their dignity in the fourth.
Indiana’s defense and energy affected James and the other Cavs players, too. The Cavs shot 12-of-38 from beyond the arc, many of them forced, and scored only nine points from the free throw line, where they normally do much of their damage.
For many, it’s still hard to imagine the upstart Pacers advancing past Sunday. Even if they pull out Game 7 on the road, going against historical favor bestowed on home teams in Game 7s, chances are that Indiana would be no less of an underdog going into the second round against top-seeded Toronto.
But no one should think the Pacers will suddenly feel the magnitude of the moment and are thus about to get crushed under the weight of playing a Game 7. Just listen to this portion of Oladipo’s postgame interview.
“We were confident before the series even started,” Oladipo said. “You credit everybody on the team, everybody in that locker room. It’s great men that I play with. They’re not only great players, but they’re men of high character who have been resilient not only on the court but off the court. They’re just applying it to the game, and all of us, together, can be something special.”
The journey goes at least another 315 miles, northeast to Quicken Loans Arena once more. The last time the Pacers set foot in that building, they were served with James’ 3-pointer at the buzzer that gave Cleveland a 98-95 victory. The Pacers’ hearts after that Game 5 were broken. It also became clear at the outset of Game 6 Friday that they felt no lingering aftereffects.
Maybe, just maybe, Indiana’s improbable Cinderella season has at least one more surprise in store.
