Pacers STUN Cavs in Game 2 Thriller | Can Cleveland RECOVER from Devastating Loss?

Pacers STUN Cavs in Game 2 Thriller | Can Cleveland RECOVER from Devastating Loss?

The return of the escape artist Pacers. I don’t know how they do it. The Cavs don’t know how they did it, but Tyrese Hallebertton’s three sealed it. It’s two Pacers. And we have so much to discuss. Although last 45 seconds had a crazy game on a crossover. Locked on Pacers and locked on [Music] Cavs. You are locked on NBA Crossover, part of the locked on podcast network. your team every day. What’s up everybody? Game two is done. Lockdown Pacers and lockdown Cavs crossing it over here for a game that all my notes don’t matter. Uh all the stuff I thought we’d be talking about are not the lead of the show or not the import most important moment. The Cavs led by seven inside of 50 seconds to go. Pascalaka missed two free throws that looked like it was over and then every single thing for the rest of the game went the Pacers way. They had to capitalize on the chances the Cavs gave them and they did. Tyresese Halbertton stealing the hearts of another fan base with another miracle win. You can call it a miracle. It’s the second time the Pacers have done it in one week. I have no idea how. And I cover the team. Danny, what just happened? I mean, stunning stuff. Like I I this is on I think a I don’t want to say a short list because it’s Cleveland sports and there have been a lot of heartbreaks like a lot of stunning things have happened to sports teams in this town, but this was shocking. Um, I don’t think there’s anyone that works for the organization, plays for the team, is a fan of this team, was in this building that didn’t walk out of Rocket Arena tonight, just absolutely shocked with the events that happened. I know that a very similar thing happened in the Pacers favor in game five against the Milwaukee Bucks in overtime. But for the Cavs to have an effort where they’re without two Allstars, they don’t have DeAndre Hunter, Donovan Mitchell did what I thought was a very predictable thing. I thought he was going to show up and have a great game and he was I thought the best player on the floor by a mile in this game. 48 points, 15 of 30 shooting and it wasn’t enough because the Pacers did whatever dark magic they have on their sides at the end of this game and ultimately they came into Cleveland and won two games and things are very very dire for the Cavs right now. Yeah. The the thing about these endings is every you have to score every time, right? So in that in that way the Pacers get their credit. Aaron Nesmith insane tip dunk that they reviewed for some reason even though it was very obviously not and and you know it really made me happy they reviewed it when there was a play literally two seconds later that they had to go to the monitor for again it’s like you know last second of a playoff game or last minute of a playoff game let’s go to the monitor twice in a minute with Mitchell drawing all the fouls was a long game with the reviews too uh so N Smith the tip dunk Hallebertton hit a free throw someone else hit two free throws and then Halbert shot like they earned that part of this but when you’re down seven. The other team has to, sorry to put it this way, vomit all over themselves for it to be possible. And the Cavs did that. They inbounded after the Niss dunk on the sideline and just threw it right to Andrew Nehard for some reason. Like I don’t even know who that was supposed to go to. Donovan Mitchell on the inbounds after, oh, sorry, after the Nis slam, Donovan Mitchell tries to take it up the side. Basketball move, but gets him in the face. Offensive foul. Uh, and after the basket after that is the turnover I just described. two plays that you just have to get across the timeline and have the ball in bounds and they couldn’t do it either time, right? That is that is where the Cavs ultimately failed because you knew the Pacers weren’t going to go away. You know, they were going to do everything they possibly could to find a way to win this game and the Cavs I thought lo this is the tough thing to say because of what Hallebertton did, that shot he made, the fact that they made the plays down the stretch, but I felt like the Cavs lost this game because of everything they didn’t do because they didn’t box out or miss free throws. When you think about a seven-point comeback inside of 50 seconds or whatever it was, typically those comebacks don’t involve three missed free throws, right? Like that is part of this that the Pacers not only did this, they did this because they missed free throws and the Cavs didn’t box out and didn’t grab rebounds. Like that to me is more so and give the Pacers all the credit in the world for doing it, but that to me is more so the Cavs lost this game. Um, and I think this is just such a huge gut punch for them considering what this team was this season, how good they’ve been and injuries struck at the wrong time and nobody’s going to feel sorry for them. But to waste an effort like what they got from Donova Mitchell and that where three-pointers aren’t going in again. They opened the game shooting much better, but finished at 28% from deep, which is something it’s it’s really hard to win when they play that style of basketball. And just overall, this is a a huge gut punch to the Cavs. Yeah, we just were there when Donov Mitchell was asked about He said, “I should have got the rebound on that last one.” I mean, Miles Turner kind of well blocked out, but not well enough that he couldn’t just reach over and tip it right to Tyrese Halurn. I have no clue was supposed to block out Aaron Smith. Nobody was really even close to him in that moment. And he just ran to the like you have to get those. And then you it’s just all a calamity. The the turnover to Nemhard, I think, is the biggest sin. They were across half court already. They just had to pitch it a couple inches in bounds, but going for the long pass there. and NM hard rough night for him to have that moment was huge. And obviously poor Ty Jerome I thought he defended an Albertton okay enough on the last shot but you let him get to the step back you can’t block it he creates a lot of space stepping backwards you’re just kind of dead and look to opine on the Pacers just for a second like maybe this is more opining on me like I would if I’m on that team and I’m on the bench and I see those two free throws it would totally the thought would totally cross my mind we lost like we f we had a nice fourth quarter we defended pretty well for a lot of it but it’s over like we just lost it on those free throws to be able to overcome that is like human element impressive and for the Pacers and I think equally demoralizing for the Cavs who probably thought, “Oh, he missed both. Great. We’re feeling awesome.” Right. And there was a moment in game one and we talked about this when we did our crossover after game one, but Thomas Bryant like hit a fade away from the elbow. And when Thomas Bryant’s doing that, if you’re on the Cavs, it’s kind of like, okay, maybe it’s just not our night, right? And then there was a moment in game two where yes, those missed free throws, but earlier in the fourth quarter with I think around four minutes left, Miles Turner has three looks inside the restricted area. Misses all three of them. Max Drew was awesome defending him there. Don’t know how he missed all three of those looks though. And it was at that moment I turned to the person next to me. I said, “It just might not be the Pacers night.” Like, it was a very similar feeling that I had in Indiana’s favor in game one, in the Cavs favor in game two. And the Pacers being able to overcome everything. I don’t know how you can’t be impressed. Um I don’t Do you as you watch this, as you think about this game happening, do you give do you feel like they deserve credit or the Cavs deserve blame? And I know that the answer to a question like that is always somewhere in the middle because it has to be. But where do you come out there? Yeah, the middle part is what we said at the beginning. We’re like, yes, the Pacers have to take advantage of those chances, but they only get the chances if the Cavs just forget how to, you know, cross half court for 45 seconds. But I I’ve always leaned Pacers credit on this both because they just did it and because look look I get that if you follow the Cavs you didn’t keep up with the Pacers in March. They had like four out of five wins that were just just like this. Not this insane but they had a win over the Mavs, the Nets, um the Bucks with Tyrese Halbert hitting the three fading in the corner and another Nets win that just all four of those games at some point in the fourth that felt like they were toast and they just summoned something and a different player stepped up and they won the game. And after all those games, they said something to the effect of, you know, we probably shouldn’t be in this situation. Like, this is good. This will help us in the playoffs if we’re in this situation. And sometimes you’re like, yeah, okay, I guess. And the other times you roll your eyes like you’re playing the Brooklyn Nets in March. Like, right, that’s not good enough. But I do think they have battle tested themselves in these clutch moments enough. Their only clutch loss since like mid-March was LeBron James dunking at the buzzer because they forgot to box out. Like they have proven they are very good and not like they don’t have what I said, they don’t get any doubt ever until the clock is off. They think they can win the game for better or worse. And today they pushed through a situation that I would assume a lot of people would said, “Oh yeah, they it’s over, right? One-1 going back to Indie.” Yeah, I I certainly s thought so. I I don’t know if you did for sure. You’ve seen far more of these comebacks than I did. I was close. I mean, when the Cavs are up by double digits in the fourth quarter and Donovan playing as well as he did, I thought, okay, Donovan did what a superstar did. He just carried his team to a win and the Cavs are going to be in a much better spot in this series potentially with guys coming back for game three on Friday. But now they are their backs are very firmly against the wall and and in this game I thought one of the things where the Pacers had a huge advantage was Cavs ran out of gas. Like that playing style I thought early on in game one the Pacers dictated the pace. Game two, I thought the Cavs really controlled this game early on and then they wore the Cavs down. Everybody on Cleveland was out of gas. And yes, the rotation had to be shorter because they were missing two all-stars in DeAndre Hunter. That obviously matters in the context of this conversation. But Donovan Mitchell, who is dealing with a calf strain right now, out of gas. U Max Truce played almost 40 minutes, seemed to be out of gas. Jared Allen, who I thought was awesome tonight, played 38 minutes, he was out of gas by the end of it. Like the Cavs just had nothing left in the tank. I think there’s probably a bigger conversation that I might have on lockdown on Cavs about whether or not limiting the minutes during the regular season as much as the Cavs did actually came back to hurt them in this game, but I think a lot of it had to do with the style that the Pacers played and making them defend for 94 feet and play offense for 94 ft for a full 48 minutes. You knew the Cavs were getting clever rotationally for those minutes when they went small. The Cavaliers, no center, that was I mean they didn’t have options, but I that was stunning. The Pacers had to respond with, you know, some 11man rotation in the first quarter. Reacted what the Cavs are doing. Craig Porter Jr. gets dusted off for this game. Like they had to do that to not play a one calf man Donovan Mitchell 40 minutes. And of course, everyone’s going to crush him for that, right? He was plus 14, right, in this game. Plus 13 something impressive. He was amazing. He was drawing fouls. If he was making threes, he would have scored 60 points. He was plus 13 in 36 minutes. Scored 48 points. 15 of 30 shooting. just one of seven from three, which I actually do think makes this more impressive. Like often when you see somebody start to get close to that 50 point mark, it’s like, okay, they probably just made a bunch of free threes. Um Donovan got to the basket, got to the free throw line a ton. Like that is kind of where he he made his money tonight. But I it’s hard for me to sit here and say, well, he’s the best player. He should have played more than 36 minutes, but he was barely able to get up and down the floor by the end of this game. Yeah, I think part of that offensive foul line a bit he couldn’t dribble out of the space to actually move away. If you want to know which one of us is the professional, Danny has a stat sheet. Donovan Mitchell stats are right there. And I still didn’t know them. Can the Cavs recover from their current situation? We’ll talk about that coming up here on Lockdown Pacers and Lockdown Cavs. But first, we’re going to tell you guys about open phone. If you’re running a business, you know that every mis call is money left on the table. Think about that. The last time you had an urgent need, maybe a plumber or a service provider. If the first person didn’t answer, did you wait? No, you moved on. That’s why you need open phone. The number one business phone system to streamline and scale your customer communications all from an app on your phone or computer. Open phone lets people manage calls and texts from a single app. The shared inbox feature is a game changer. Your team can jump into any conversation instantly without missing a beat. And their AI agent handles after hours calls, answers common questions, and captures leads so you never miss a customer. Open Phone is offering listeners of Lockdown Pacers and Lockdown CF 20% off your first six months at openphone.com/lockdownba. That’s op n h o n e.com/lockdown NBA. And if you have an existing member with another service, Open Phone will port them over at no extra charge. That’s open phone. No missed calls, no missed customers. Back here crossing it over. Lockdown Pacers and Lockdown Cavs. I asked this question in the last round uh of the Bucks. I asked this question of the Pacers when they were down 02 to the Knicks last year. The Pacers did in fact win that series, which is a good lead into this. Can the Cavs recover from this? They can. Um, I don’t think it’s likely, but listen, they won 64 games. They were the second best team in basketball from start to finish. Really, for a good portion of the season, they they had the best record in the NBA. Um, this is stunning. It’s shocking. I will be very curious to see how this team responds over the next 48 hours before they have to play again on Friday in Indie. But they can overcome this. They have enough talent to overcome this. I do think that they are hopeful that they will have some combination of the players in Darius Garland and Evan Moley and DeAndre Hunter that did not play on Tuesday night available to play on Friday night. Now, does that fix everything? Probably not. The Cavs need to shoot better. Like that is the number one thing that I look at and say, “Okay, how can the Cavs get back in this series?” Part of it has to be they need to shoot the ball better from outside. They finished 11 of 39. They were nine of, I believe, 38 in game one. That’s correct. That is something that this team was the number two team really for most of the season before they hit a March swoon. They were the best three-point shooting team in basketball. Start of March, they were shooting almost 40% from three. And they have shot the and they shot 44% against the Miami Heat, which I understand not a real playoff opponent, but for them to get back in the series, they need to be making Donovan Mitchell. And I I have nothing bad to say about how he played tonight because he was absolutely phenomenal. got to make some jumpers. He’s got to make some jumpers from the outside. If they get Darius Garland back, he needs to be able to connect from beyond the arc. Ty Jerome I thought was abysmal tonight. He was a guy that was a 40 plus% three-point shooter. He’s not made shots. He couldn’t make anything tonight. Um I thought, you know, Max Sh going five of 12. That’s fine. He hit a big one that I thought was the dagger with 106 left. That put the Cavs up seven. I thought, okay, that’s the Cavs got out of here with a win despite it getting a little hairy at the end. But they ultimately they need to make three-pointers. That’s that’s what this team I don’t want to say was built on, but when they’re at their best, they’re shooting the ball really well from beyond the arc. They’ve not done that in this series. Obviously, it’s not the only reason why, and they can win games without good shooting. We’ve seen that happen at times, but if they want to win four more games and get to the conference finals, they’re going to need probably three games where they shoot the ball really well and then find a way to win a fourth. They’re going to have to win either three games in a row or win two games on the road to win the series. That’s just tough to do in the playoffs, but it’s not impossible. I’ll be extremely curious about game three. One, because when the Pacers did this to the Bucks, the series ended that night. I didn’t get to see what a response to that kind of moment would look like from Milwaukee. The Cavs have to, right? We just heard Donovan Mitchell talk about this like I I appreciated his interest, what else can we do? We have to find a way to the next 48 hours respond and play well in game three. You know, what does that look like? Are you angry because you gave that away? Is it so demoralizing that like an early punch from the Pacers hits even harder? you I just don’t know and I’m not going to guess the calf psyche. I imagine they would like to come out extremely strong in game three, right? Um and then the other part of this is I mentioned the Pacers coming back from down on two to New York last year. The Knicks are the home team in that series. So the Pacers still had three games at home left. The Cavs only have two more home games left in this series. So that that is different a different scenario and a different challenge for them. Look, that said, you you cover them. You know, I think their longest three winning streaks combined for like 44 wins or something. I mean, they had a they had a 15game winning streak, a 16game winning streak, and a 12game winning streak, which of course, the Pacers were the team that snapped that 12-game winning streak here in January, but they’re capable of doing it. They are capable of playing like the best team in basketball. They’ve not done it in these first two games. That’s why they’re down 02. They’re capable of winning the next four. They could win this series in six games. I wouldn’t bet on that, but it’s not some impossible thing to to think could happen. Um, but they need to get healthier. They need Donovan Mitchell, who have more nights like tonight. They need that calf for him to be healthier than it is at this point. Two days off is also a huge reason the Cavs still in theory have a chance in this series. Yes, I I think that is a great point. If game three were Thursday in Indie, I would probably feel much different about the Cavs chances. But the fact that they have two days off to okay, go to Indie and get two and then say it doesn’t go your way and you have to maybe win in seven games looking ahead and this is probably from a Cavs standpoint being a little optimistic considering they are down 02. But if you’re looking ahead, they’ve got two days off before game three and then if this thing goes to seven, they have another two days off before game seven. And that kind of has to be your blueprint is just find ways to get rest, find ways to to get guys back healthy, and find ways to make shots as it gets dark here in Rocket Arena. I know you’re looking around checking out the lights. I I It’s cool. Like the Flash is actually kind of nice. They just They need to have the fire out of the scoreboard for our show. That’s right. Uh yeah, I think it’s totally possible. Like they’re good enough certainly to do it. Obviously, the Pacers should be extremely heavy favorites, right? being up too well with three games at home. They’re playing great in the playoffs and like even looking forward for them today. Andrew Dehard after a great game one was pretty bad until his steel late in the game. He had a bunch of turnovers. He wasn’t making shots in the same way that he did. Seakum was extremely quiet in this game. He had some okay moments late, but then missed two crucial free throws. You know, their bench was actually survivable in a certain they played five bench guys together, but outside of Ben Matherin, not a lot of bench guys that I thought, oh, that guy was awesome tonight or they got to turn back to him. That was a big adjustment. Right. There’s a lot that Pacers, I think, will think, great, if that goes better for us, we don’t need to close out the game like that, we’ll feel good at home. And the stat I’ve referenced for forever, that might end in this series. We’ll see. Tyrese Halbertton has never lost a home playoff game, right? Like, yeah, it injuries have made that a certainly skewed stat for a young player. Yeah. The two games they lost at home last year to Boston, he was hurt. He was out. So, it is not a obviously a perfect reflection of his playoff performance, but that’s the uphill battle. The Cavs have to climb and the Pacers know they can play better. They’ve played well in Gamebridge all postseason and they they’ll think they can do it. They know that if they’re within 10 in the last 90 seconds of a game, hey, they if they’re within 10 in the last 10 seconds of the game, I think anything’s possible with what they’ve done, not only tonight, but really all throughout the playoffs. Like, you can’t rule anything out with that team. Gut check. Uh Tyres Hallebertton left wrist. He said he’s fine. He’s just a little sore. Gut check from you on health status for game three. So I at this point um and listen I I know that there’s a lot of sentiment from Cavs fans that this team is soft because Darius Garland’s not playing. I do too. Um and I just want to talk about that for a second here. But like Darius Garland not playing because of a toe injury that has cost him two weeks. Evan Mobley still limping on that left ankle. DeAndre Hunter dislocated his right thumb in game one. Like those guys are not they’re not sitting out because they don’t feel like playing. like they are sitting out because they’re not healthy enough to help the team. If Darius Garland would have been out there tonight, would he have helped? I don’t know. Like in theory, a healthy healthy if Darius Garland’s healthy, I would probably up two nothing in the series, but he’s not. Like the current version of Darius Garland, the Cavs don’t think is good enough to help them. That is the thing here. They’re not going to let him on the floor until one they feel as if he’s going to be an aid to them on the floor and two they feel like he’s close enough to 100% that he’s not going to be in danger of injuring it any further. Like that is what the Cavs are going to do. That’s how they’re going to operate. Dislocating your thumb on your shooting hand and then trying to play in a basketball game 48 hours. Really difficult thing to do. That’s what DeAndre Hunter um is going through. I think he may have been the closest of those three guys to being able to suit up and play tonight. I don’t know for sure, but that’s kind of the vibe I get. We’ll see if he can play on on Friday night. I think he would be a huge boost for the Cavs, but ultimately I do think they’ll get some combination of that group back for game three on Friday night, but I think that these next 24 to 36 hours are going to be very, very, very big for the Cavs just in terms of health. Daryus Garland, we saw him run on a treadmill today in the Cavs facilities. Did not look like somebody about to play. Evan Mobley walk in today. Uh was not a perfect walking gate for Evan Moy, let’s say. Uh hope for the best. Look, the Rick Carlo said at pregame, you want to beat the team that you’re playing. You don’t want to beat a a hobbled team, and I think the Pacers would like that, even though obviously this game will always be a game that some guys were missing. Uh they still found a way to do whatever the heck that was. We need a term for it. Uh Danny, we’ll be back in India after game three. Everybody, thank you for this crossover. We did it. We fixed our audio problems. You can once again with Danny with Danny being the professional, you can blame me for that in any errors going forward. Thank you’all for listening. We will see you very soon.

On this episode of Locked On Cavs, Danny Cunningham (The Inside Shot, Cleveland Magazine, 92.3 The Fan) is joined by Tony East (Locked On Pacers) to discuss the Pacers’ stunning comeback victory, highlighting key plays like Tyrese Haliburton’s game-winning three-pointer and Aaron Neesmith’s crucial tip dunk. They examine the Cavaliers’ collapse, focusing on missed opportunities and the impact of injuries on their performance. Despite the loss, Donovan Mitchell’s impressive 48-point game is praised, showcasing his resilience despite a calf strain. The conversation shifts to the Cavaliers’ potential to bounce back in the series, considering their regular-season success and the possible return of key players like Darius Garland and Evan Mobley. The episode concludes with a discussion on injury concerns for both teams, emphasizing the importance of player health as the series progresses.
Check out Danny’s Substack, The Inside Shot: https://theinsideshot.substack.com/
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