NBA Playoffs 2017: Cavaliers vs. Pacers: 3 takeaways from Game 4

The Cleveland Cavaliers, despite blowing a fourth-quarter lead, have completed the sweep against the Indiana Pacers.

LeBron James’ teams have swept an opponent in the opening round for the fifth straight year. Although the Cleveland Cavaliers tried their best to cough up Game 4 to the Pacers, James’ huge 3-pointer with less than a minute remaining pushed the defending champs into the next round.

The game went exactly how we all should’ve come to expect from this series, except for the first half of Game 3. The Cavs dominate the first three quarters, only to come within seconds of allowing the Pacers to steal a game.

Fortunately for the Cavaliers — and unfortunately for Paul George — seven of the eight halves ended with the same result, a win. Here are some takeaways from Game 4.

Takeaways

The Cavs need sweeps: Of course, every team wants to sweep. Sweeping an opponent is not only the most dominant thing a team can do in a series, it maximizes rest. More, sweeps work double duty, negatively impacting future opponents whose series could go six or seven games, which will be the case for the Cavs’ next opponent, the winner of the Toronto Raptors-Milwaukee Bucks series.

But the Cavs, above all other teams, need as much rest as possible. And their effort through the first three quarters had the feel of a team who didn’t want to go to a Game 5.

James averaged 43.7 minutes in their opening round against the Pacers. Those are his most minutes per game during his streak of five straight first-round sweeps. In fact, James hasn’t averaged that many minutes in an opening-round series since 2006-07, when he averaged an absurd 45.4. James was 22-years-old then. He’s 32 now.

The NBA’s playoff schedule lends itself to rewarding sweeps more than other sports with a seven-game series. And rest in the NBA has never been more universally accepted in importance to a player’s production. Because of their sweep, the Cavs have eight days off before the Conference Semifinals begin.

To maximize James’ chances of making a seventh straight NBA Finals–and to maximize his effectiveness in a Finals matchup against, say, the Golden State Warriors–the Cavs have to end their series in as few games as possible.

What are assists?: Entering Game 4, the Cavaliers were fourth in the NBA in assists per game, averaging 22.7 through three games.

Their drive-and-kicks and their proficiency at the 3-point-line helped those assist numbers, but the Cavaliers finished 9-31 from 3 in Game 4, including an almost-disastrous 2-8 in the fourth quarter — one of the two was James’ game winner. Without their best weapon on offense landing, the Cavaliers finished with 11 assists in Game 4, which tied for 51st in this year’s playoffs. Worse, the Cavaliers finished with 13 turnovers for the game.

At one point, in the fourth quarter, the Cavaliers abandoned any semblance of an offense, opting for isolation off of a switch during Irving-James pick and rolls. It’s no wonder the Cavs only made five shots in the fourth quarter and blew a double-digit lead. It took a clutch 3-pointer on one end and a steal on the other by James for the Cavs to avoid disaster.

Deron Williams and Iman Shumpert provided a spark: Williams and Shumpert were key parts of the Cavs’ crunch-time lineup during their second-half comeback in Game 3. In game 4, Williams had his best of the series, racking up 14 points, finishing 4-4 with 2 3s, and shooting 4-5 from the free-throw line in only 13 minutes. He’s now shooting a ridiculous 76.9 percent in the playoffs while averaging only 15.5 minutes.

Williams’ 14 points were third-best on the Cavs in Game 4, and his production picked up some of the slack for Kevin Love — who finished with only six points on 2-13 shooting in 34 minutes. The Cavs obviously can’t survive with Love shooting so poorly, but, in spots, and with that level of efficiency, Williams could help mitigate bad performances.

As for Shumpert, he didn’t play in Game 1. And, like Williams, averaged fewer than 17 minutes in Games 2-4. But, when he was on the floor, he was tasked with guarding George, who torched the Cavaliers for 28-8-7 in four games.

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With Shumpert on the floor, however, George’s shooting percentage dropped from 41.3 percent to 32. George shot 25 percent from deep and struggled to get any shots off in the restricted area. Shumpert won’t play many minutes throughout the playoffs, but his value defensively will mean even fewer minutes of James having to guard a team’s best wing player. And if he can keep his 3-point percentage up, he can give the Cavs really efficient minutes.