The Pacers were simply white-hot as Indiana scored a franchise-record 47 points in the first quarter and it looked like one of those nights that you run into the wrong team on the wrong night.
However, shooting like that is unsustainable on even the best evening, and this Cavaliers team began to chip away from a nineteen point deficit after the first quarter,
Still late in the third, Indiana led by as much as eighteen points, and then Cleveland turned on the gas to catch the Pacers and blow by them to take a 120-113 win.
Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen each scored 22 points to lead a balanced Cleveland offense that saw seven Cavaliers finish with double-figure scoring.
Cleveland's win moved them to 35-21 overall and moved into a tie with Chicago for second place in the Eastern Conference, one game behind Miami, and a tie for the Central Division lead with those same Bulls.
Cleveland travels to Philadelphia tonight for their final game before the All-Star break against the 76ers and their new arrival James Harden.
Swashbucklings
1) Cleveland played again without Darius Garland and I'm not sure if he will play tonight against Philadelphia as my guess is that the team wishes to keep Garland's back from pounding on back-to-back nights.
And with the All-Star game in Cleveland, it's possible that the Cavaliers want to be very cautious as I'm sure the first-time All-Star will badly want to play in that game at home.
2) Caris LeVert made his first start as a Cavalier and made the most of it with his high total.
Levert hit ten of nineteen shots and drove to the hoop with strength against his former teammates.
LeVert only shot two three-pointers, hitting one, and I wonder if the reason that he didn't shoot as many was his inside knowledge of the people attempting to defend against him?
3) Still, the Cavalier of the night, in my opinion, was the veteran Rajon Rondo, who hit six of seven shots, two from three-point distance, and with his play in the third quarter helped keep Cleveland in sight of Indiana for a potential comeback.
Rondo finished the night with seventeen points, seven rebounds. and six assists as Rondo continues to duel with Brandon Goodwin for the first point guard off the bench behind Darius Garland, which is a role that is even more important on evenings that Garland doesn't play.
Goodwin was a coach's decision DNP on the evening.
4) Kevin Love continues to buy into his sixth man role and he is doing it in ways other than only scoring.
Love seems to be all over the bench encouraging teammates in good times and bad and looks like he is having more fun even than in the championship days with LeBron James.,
5) Love is also drawing charges at a very high rate.
John Michael (Cavalier play by play man) mentioned during the telecast that Love had around fifteen charges with the second-highest number at only three.
Charges are always an effort play anyway as it takes a lot to see a two hundred-plus pound man flying at you and knowing you have to set your feet and take the hit, so Love accumulating so many of these makes you believe that he has truly bought into his role in the program.
6) Indiana made a big trade with Sacramento after the Pacers peddled Caris LeVert to Cleveland and I think it was a good one for the Pacers as they added Tyrese Halliburton as part of a six-player swap with the Kings.
While I like Domantas Sabonis (the main player heading west) a lot as a player, Halliburton had impressed me a lot in his year and a half with Sacramento after being drafted 12th in the 2020 draft from Iowa State.
In fact, I had Halliburton pegged as the future face of the Kings and their foundational building block in yet another Sacramento rebuild, so I was shocked to see him traded to Indiana.
The game was the debut in Indiana for Halliburton (as well as Buddy Hield and former Cavalier Tristan Thompson) and Halliburton (and Hield) would play forty minutes in the defeat.
Halliburton would finish with twenty-three points and six assists and I have a feeling that we might be seeing some classic showdowns between Halliburton and Darius Garland over the next few seasons in divisional matchups.
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