About an hour and a half after concluding the Ricky Rubio – Caris LeVert trade, Cavs and Pacers faced off in a meeting where the former started out as big favorites. The Ohio players, currently 4th in their conference, have confirmed this status against an Indiana team plunged into collective gloom, with a seventh defeat in ten games, and which seems to be preparing to explode its workforce. here Thursday.
The Cavaliers, however, had to fight to win in this match played in two acts. The first was marked by the absolutely apocalyptic clumsiness of the locals to start the meeting: 24 of their first 29 missed shots, including nine award-winning baskets! Cleveland did not return the slightest shot outside the racket during a first quarter logically dominated by visitors (12-27).
The latter, led by their outside pair Chris Duarte – Duane Washington Jr, retained part of their lead in the second quarter (36-47), then at the end of the third quarter with a winning shot at the buzzer of the first city (61-68).
But the Pacers could not resist the sudden surge of the Cedi Osman – Kevin Love tandem at the start of the last act. The two men caught fire, especially behind the 3-point line, to overturn the table. After being led by 20 points at the start of the second quarter, the Cavs were up to 17 points ahead in the final minutes. A big gap fatal to the men of Rick Carlisle.
WHAT YOU MUST REMEMBER
– A 19-0 in… two minutes! This is called knocking out your opponent. His team trailing by nine points to start the final quarter, Cedi Osman started by converting an award-winning field goal. Then a second. Then a third. Then Kevin Love got into it too. The two men thus scored 19 points in a row in two minutes of play without the Pacers, despite three time-outs from Rick Carlisle (!), failing to react. Needless to say, the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse’s volume soared high on this footage. To the point that Darius Garland, in civilian clothes on the bench, pretended to faint!
– The Cavs with the best. Impossible at this stage to guess the final ranking in the East as the Top 5 is dense. The fact is, the Cavs, and you have to rub your eyes to believe it, are in contention for first place in the conference. The Ohio franchise is now only one victory behind the current leader, the Heat. But the 76ers, or the Raptors, are pushing hard behind them. A slack and the Cavs could quickly drop in the standings, like the Nets right now.
TOPS/FLOPS
✅ Kevin Love – Cedi Osman. And to think that the Turkish started his match with seven failures in a row… The substitute winger completely straightened the bar to sign a fiery fourth quarter (18 points scored!). ” At one point I thought I needed oxygen “, he laughed, after the meeting. ” It was madness. Madness. “A madness in which participated Kevin Love who, after five misses to start, converted three award-winning baskets in the 19-0 of the fourth quarter.
✅ Rajon Rondo. Hard to see more than a simple coincidence but the day the Cavs trade Ricky Rubio, Rajon Rondo puts out his best game since his arrival. Always off the bench, the veteran behaved like the conductor we know. Author of his first double-double of the season, he never stopped making the right choices, in particular in transition, and allowed himself to attack the circle regularly. The point guard finished with a +26 to the score when he was in play, the best ratio of the match.
⛔ Domantas Sabonis. Six points and rebounds in the first quarter and then… nothing. The interior did not weigh on this meeting. In his defence, he was out of Covid protocol and missed seven of his team’s last nine meetings. He was also well taken by the Cavs defense, which did not hesitate to send several players on him. The transfer of Caris LeVert may have had an impact too: what if he was the next to pack his bags?
THE FOLLOWING
Cavaliers (33-21) : reception of the Spurs, Wednesday.
Pacers (19-36) : trip to Atlanta, Tuesday.
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