Last Time They Met: Cavs vs Pacers
By Dante Nelson
Looking back at the last time the Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers met in the NBA Playoffs
In the history of the NBA Playoffs, we’ve seen teams from the same division meet each other quite often. Some teams seem to meet each year and other teams see each other barely. In this “Last time they met” series, we’re going to look at the current NBA playoff matchups and review the last time these two teams met in the playoffs.
Today, we’re looking at the second seeded Cleveland Cavaliers and the seventh seeded Indiana Pacers. The last time these two teams met was also the first time. Back in the 1998 NBA Playoffs, the Pacers won a best out of five series, 3-1. This was a first round matchup.
The Pacers were the 3rd seed and the Cavaliers were the 6th seed. Indiana won games 1 and 2 before the Cavs stopped the sweep to make it 2-1. Then, the Pacers finished the job. Indiana was led by Reggie Miller while the Cavs were led by Shawn Kemp.
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It’s a shame, really. The first game was a blowout. The Pacers won 106-77. But then, the Pacers won by only six points each the next two wins while the Cavs won by 8 in their win. Not to say the Cavs would’ve upset or at least gotten to game 5, but this series was likely a decent series, but also no question as to who would win.
Looking at the season matchup between the teams, and they went 2-2. The Cavs won by 3 and 4 points while the Pacers won by 6 and 2 points. So, basically, the point differential was 1. One point. So, you could say the season series was a decent one too.
For the 2017 NBA Playoffs, it appears it might be the same story. This should be a decent series, but it’s pretty clear that the Cavs are the favorites.
At first, I found it a little strange that these two teams have only met once. Then, common sense kicked in. The Cavaliers in their history have not been a successful team. They really haven’t. They’ve had a bright spot in the late 80’s and early 90’s but that’s about it before LeBron James showed up.
Meanwhile, Reggie Miller kept the Pacers relevant for just about his entire career which started in the 80’s and ended in the early 00’s. So, they just never really had a chance to meet that often. Then again, the Pacers are one of those ABA teams. I’m not going to get into that history, but one has to imagine they were one of the more successful teams since they survived the merger to the NBA.
But, from a strictly NBA standpoint, the Pacers actually haven’t been all that great either.
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Just a little summary of the last matchup. The Pacers have lost only one game to the Cavaliers in playoff history. Something tells me that’s about to change.