Cavs See What Went Wrong vs. Pacers, Now Ready to Try Again

A dominant first half defensively quickly unraveled in the second half, as Indiana’s full-court pressure took a toll on the Cavs’ offense.

Cleveland struggled to deal with the Pacers’ defensive intensity, turning the ball over seven times in the third quarter alone, including four times in the backcourt.

Those turnovers led to six easy Indiana points and a total of 12 points off turnovers in that quarter alone.

“We can’t let it affect us,” Cavs guard Donovan Mitchell said about the Pacers’ full-court press.

The issue, though, was that it did.

Guard Darius Garland echoed the sentiment, explaining that the Pacers’ defense was designed to disrupt their rhythm.

“[They were] just trying to speed us up, trying to get us out of rhythm,” he said.

He’s right. As the Pacers ramped up their pressure, Cleveland found itself unable to get into any kind of offensive flow, resorting to high pick-and-roll sets or isolation plays that lacked efficiency.

Coach Kenny Atkinson didn’t mince words about his team’s struggles:

“We did not handle their pressure well,” he said. “And that kind of bleeds into your defense. You start turning it over, you’re not taking good shots, and they’re an elite transition team. Their pressure was a big part of their success tonight.”

Before the third-quarter collapse, the Cavaliers had played impressive defense, registering an 85.1 defensive rating in the first half thanks to solid second efforts and quick rotations.

But when their offense sputtered, that focus disappeared.

“We missed open [shots], and then we didn’t guard,” Mitchell said. “So it compounds and compounds. And so that’s a tough one, but you know, if we don’t make shots, we got to be able to guard and we didn’t do that.”

Atkinson shared his disappointment with the lack of consistency after a strong first half.

“What disappointed me was our first half was phenomenal defensively,” Atkinson said. “And then the second half we fell off so we couldn’t sustain our defense. … I think they had a 134 offensive rating in the second half.”

Cleveland’s issues weren’t limited to the third quarter, where they were outscored 37-18. The Cavs failed to crack 100 points for the first time all season and were held under 25 points in three of the four quarters.

While it’s easy to focus on the turnovers and pressure, Atkinson pointed to missed shots as a key issue.

“Our shot selection was good but not great,” he said. “We just looked at it, it was in the 80th percentile. Usually, we’re in the 90s in terms of shot quality.”

So yeah, the Cavs struggled to convert their typical high-percentage shots, finishing with just 58% on looks in the restricted area (21st percentile) and shooting a dismal 11-41 (27%) from beyond the arc.

“This was the first time of us not making shots,” Garland said.

Despite the loss, the Cavaliers’ offense remains one of the league’s best. They have shown they can handle pressure, as evidenced in their win over the Oklahoma City Thunder last Wednesday.

As Garland put it, “It happens. The season is super long. Some days you have one of those games. I mean, we went an entire month and haven’t lost, so we were due for one. I just didn’t know when it was going to come. But tonight is the night.

“Yeah, we play them again Tuesday (in Indiana). They got to come see us again.”