Cavs Prove They’re Still The Team To Beat
By Zain Ahmed
Despite a rocky finish to the regular season, the Cleveland Cavaliers, after sweeping the Indiana Pacers, are proving that they’re still the team to beat in the East
After Game 1 of the first round series between the Indiana Pacers and Cleveland Cavaliers, in which the Paul George led 7th-seed only lost 98-97, there was belief that perhaps the Pacers could challenge Cleveland.
However, whatever hope that the Pacers – and the rest of the East – carried quickly subsided with LeBron and the Cavs winning the next three games to compete the sweep of Indiana.
The signature moment of the series came in Game 3, when Cleveland overcame a 25-point second half deficit to win by five. The comeback tied for the largest come-from-behind victory in playoff history.
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What was even more impressive was that Cleveland made this comeback with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love on the bench. LeBron completely took over in the second half and finished the game with 41 points, 12 rebounds and 13 assists.
Cleveland’s defense, however, was still an issue throughout the series. The Cleveland Cavaliers gave up more than 100 points in all four games of the series. A positive takeaway from their defense is that it was great when needed late in games.
The Pacers made multiple runs towards the end of all four games, but Cleveland’s defense stood tall in crunch time.
"[via Cleveland.com]“I thought defensively we took a step forward.”"
While there was not much improvement for the Cavaliers defensively, any improvement is a welcome sight for Cleveland and with LeBron still doing this they will be just fine.
Offensively, Cleveland remains an elite team with three elite scoring threats in the starting lineup.
During their first four games in the playoffs, the Cavaliers have had stretches of offense where they looked completely unstoppable. A prime example could be seen towards the latter portion of the third quarter in Game 3, when a 16-4 run (which cut a 25-point third quarter deficit to seven) put them in prime position to complete the historic comeback.
This high-powered offense masks their defensive shortcomings, which was good enough to sweep the Pacers in round one.
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After it appeared Cleveland may struggle come playoff time, they have come out and shown the opposite. Cleveland is looking for their third-straight Finals appearance and may not have much trouble getting there if the defense steps up.