Cavaliers survive late push from Pacers: 3 takeaways from their Game 1 win

The Cavaliers’ escaped a strong push from the Pacers, and squeaked out a 109-108 win in Game 1 of their first round playoff series. Here are three big takeaways from the opening game.

Suffice it to say that surviving a possible game-winning jumper from the Pacers C.J. Miles on the game’s final possession is not how the Cavaliers wanted to begin the title defense. Cleveland was in control for much of the game and, entering the fourth quarter with a eight-point lead, it seemed like just a matter of time before they closed Indiana out.

Instead, Indiana kept the outcome in doubt until the final seconds. Much has been made of Cleveland’s poor defense in the lead-up to the playoffs and it looked pretty bad in this first game, giving up 118.9 points per 100 possessions to an offense that had only averaged 106.2 during the regular season.

It’s just one game, but we can already see a few storylines that are going to be important as the series evolves. Here are three big takeaways from Game 1.

Takeaways

The Cavaliers are far more talented. Paul George is phenomenal, but by an aggregate accounting, the Cavaliers are just far more talented than the Pacers. LeBron is LeBron, but Paul George had himself a pretty nice game — 29 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds — and might be able to keep up producing 85 percent of what LeBron does. The difference is from there on down.

In the first quarter, the Cavaliers repeatedly swung the ball to Kevin Love against a scrambled Pacers’ defense and he responded with a pair of made 3-pointers and 10 points in the quarter. Kyrie Irving was just as destructive and finished the half with 15 points and 5 assists. When the dust settled, Irving and Love had combined for 40 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, on 16-of-36 shooting from the field. For the sake of comparison, Jeff Teague and Myles Turner combined for 26 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists, shooting 8-of-22 from the field. They got some nice contributions from Miles, Lance Stephenson, and Monta Ellis but it ultimately wasn’t enough to close the gap.

Indiana’s best-case scenario for this series has George playing LeBron to a draw. If the rest of their roster can’t rise to the level of Irving, Love, and the Cavaliers bench, Indiana is in a lot of trouble.

Good things happen for Cleveland when they can force a switch. The Pacers start an incredibly small backcourt — Jeff Teague at 6-foot-2 and 186 pounds, and Monta Ellis at 6-3 and 185 pounds. Cleveland was able to repeatedly force defensive switches in the pick-and-roll and get LeBron matched up against one of those smaller defenders. LeBron either exploited the mismatch by getting deep post position or passing over the top to an open shooter once the defense collapsed.

The Pacers don’t have a lot of counters for this, unfortunately. Having Paul George fight over the top of these screens instead of switching asks him to exert a lot more of his energy at the defensive end, something that’s concerning when they basically need him to carry the offense as well. In addition, a more aggressive pick-and-roll scheme at the point of attack puts more pressure on second-year center Myles Turner to provide top-notch rim protection without fouling. If Turner gets in foul trouble, things get even tricker for Indiana.

In this game we saw the Cavaliers leveraging LeBron’s size off these switches but they can find a similar advantage by involving Love and letting him take a smaller defender in the post, or letting Irving attack a big off the dribble.

The most obvious solution also happens to be our next takeaway.

Lance Stephenson probably needs to start. Stephenson has only played six games since returning to Indiana and he’s yet to start. But it’s probably time. While his ball-handling helps scaffold the second-unit offense, his size and energy is looking too important to keep on the bench in this series. Stephenson had 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists in Game 1, and Indiana was +7 in the nearly 27 minutes he was on the floor. Stephenson’s size and strength would make the Pacers less vulnerable on switches and he looks much more aggressive offensively than Ellis, which will be important for Indiana.

Next: NBA Playoffs 2017: 5 keys to Cavaliers vs. Pacers matchup

This one was closer than Cleveland would have liked but they still were able to escape with the win. Clearly their defense is still a work in progress but every win counts and the fact that a Pacers’ path to victory relies heavily on Lance Stephenson says everything we need to know about the relative positions of each team.