How the Pacers contained LeBron James and the Cavaliers in Game 1
The Pacers shocked the world on Sunday with a convincing Game 1 victory in their opening round series against the Cavaliers. Led by Victor Oladipo’s game-high 32 points, the Pacers ended LeBron James’ impressive streak of 21 consecutive first round victories, dating back to 2012 when the three-time MVP was still a member of the Heat. The Pacers also ended a streak of 14 consecutive first round victories by the Cavaliers as a team, dating back to 2010 when James was a couple of months away from announcing he was going to sign with the Heat in free agency.
The Pacers were the aggressors in Game 1 and jumped out to a commanding lead in the first quarter. They held a Cavaliers team that finished the regular season with the fifth best offense in the league to 5-for-20 shooting from the field and 0-for-8 from the 3-point line. The Cavaliers ended up with more turnovers (six) than assists (five) and more field goal attempts (20) than points (14) in the first quarter. They got their offense back on track in the second and third quarters, but they were unable to capitalize down the stretch, scoring just 15 points on 6-for-19 shooting in the fourth quarter compared to 25 points on 10-for-21 shooting for the Pacers.
A big reason for the Cavaliers’ struggles in Game 1 was their inability to make outside shots. While they were one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the NBA during the regular season, they made just eight of their 34 shot attempts from distance. Kevin Love and J.R. Smith combined to make six of those 3-pointers. Outside of them, the Cavaliers shot 2-for-22 from the perimeter.
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The good news for the Cavaliers is some of those shots should start to fall as the series progresses. According to NBA.com, they made just 32.7 percent of their uncontested field goal attempts in Game 1. Love, Rodney Hood, Jordan Clarkson, George Hill and Jose Calderon — five of their more accurate 3-point shooters — made nine of their 26 uncontested shots, many of which came from the perimeter. Some of them are streakier than others, but they are each more than capable of making open 3-pointers at a high rate.
If the Cavaliers are to beat the Pacers and return to the NBA Finals for the fourth consecutive season, they have to take and make 3-pointers to keep the defense honest when James has the ball in his hands. Otherwise the Pacers will continue to pack the paint whenever James puts the ball on the floor to prevent him from getting all the way to the basket. Unlike in years past, the Cavaliers don’t have a secondary ball handler who can constantly create their own shot. It puts even more pressure on James to carry the Cavaliers offensively in his 15th season, which is why he desperately needs his teammates to knock down open shots when given the opportunity.
However, based on how well these Pacers have defended the 3-point line, it’s possible the Cavaliers won’t be as successful from the perimeter as they were during the regular season. With Oladipo, Darren Collison and Thaddeus Young guarding Cleveland’s shooters, the Pacers have a trio of lengthy help defenders who can collapse the paint, and recover in time to contest outside shots. It makes the types of 3-pointers the Cavaliers usually feast on slightly more difficult — a theme in the three games the Pacers won against the Cavaliers in the regular season, as they combined to make less than 30.0 percent of their 3-point attempts in those losses.
The Pacers were also smart about who they helped off of in Game 1, Jeff Green being the player they exposed the most. Green, a career 33.8 percent shooter from the perimeter, made just 31.2 percent of his 3-point attempts in his first season with the Cavaliers. The Pacers weren’t concerned about him taking shots from deep — even wide open ones from the corner — and he failed to make them pay in his 26 minutes on the court by missing all seven of his field goal attempts.
The Pacers weren’t overly concerned with James shooting 3-pointers, either. He missed all four of his 3-point attempts, two coming off the dribble, one coming out of isolation and a fourth coming as a heave from several feet behind the arc with the shot clock winding down.
It’s a smart but risky way of defending James. On one hand, his jump shot has always been his greatest weakness. If it means he’s not getting into the paint and making plays for himself and others, it can slow the offensive-minded Cavaliers down just enough to get the better of them, as the Pacers did in Game 1. On the other, James is coming off of his best season from the 3-point line. He set career-highs in makes and attempts, all while converting 36.7 percent of his 3-point opportunities. He has been effective from both a standstill and off the dribble, making 40.6 percent of the former and 36.0 percent of the latter.
If James does start to knock down those 3-point opportunities, it’ll open up the floor for him and the Cavaliers in the ways the Pacers won’t likely have an answer for, because their drop coverage in pick-and-rolls won’t be quite as effective. In Game 1, the Pacers could afford to send James’ defender underneath the screen while the big retreated to the basket. Doing so stopped James from getting into the paint and allowed them to defend pick-and-rolls with two defenders.
The Cavaliers didn’t lose Game 1 simply because they didn’t make 3-pointers at a higher rate, though. The Pacers did all the little things to stymie their offense, from sprinting back on defense to break up easy transition opportunities to making anyone but James beat them in half court. They did a good job of defending James in 1-on-1 situations, too. While James finished the game with 24 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds, he committed three turnovers and shot 41.2 percent from the field. Bojan Bogdanovic drew the main assignment of guarding James and limited him to nine points in the 48 possessions they were matched up together. Oladipo spent time on James as well and held him scoreless in the seven possession he picked him up.
The only Pacers defender James had success against was Lance Stephenson. (James scored eight points and dished out five assists on the 18 possessions Stephenson defended him. The two have always had a rivalry and James seems to take the matchup personally). Stephenson isn’t afraid to battle with James, but he has neither the strength nor size to contain him in the post. It showed during the second quarter, when James scored a couple of quick baskets during a Cavaliers run that helped cut the Pacers lead to 10 points.
Regardless, the Pacers defended James and the Cavaliers as well as anyone could’ve expected in Game 1. Even though the series is only getting started, to hold the reigning Eastern Conference champions to 80 points on their home court and beat them by 18 points is a tremendous achievement. It sets them up well for the rest of the series as they look to upset the Cavaliers and progress to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2013-14.
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As for the Cavaliers, they will need to make some adjustments heading into Game 2. There are several they can make to put them in a better position to win — one being giving less minutes to Jeff Green to surround James with better 3-point shooters at all times — but the Pacers have proven that they have what it takes to make this one of the more competitive first round series James has been a part of in a long time. Whereas previous iterations of the Cavaliers could flip the switch when needed, this team probably can’t afford to go into Indiana down 0-2.