Cleveland Cavaliers Must Improve to Overcome Pacers

The Cleveland Cavaliers know they need to bounce back from their Game 1 defeat to the Indiana Pacers on Sunday.

Cleveland lost the opener of the first round 98 – 80 to Indiana due to a stuttering start. The Cavaliers All-Star duo LeBron James and Kevin Love underperformed on the night.

LeBron James finished the night with  24 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds. Although he didn’t attempt a shot until there was less than two minutes left in the first quarter. At that point, the Indiana Pacers were up 25 – 8.

Kevin Love scored 9 points and made 17 rebounds, shooting just 3-for-8 from the field. Conversely, the Pacers were led by All-Star guard Victor Oladipo, who scored a playoff career-high 32 points.

“It’s like that sometimes,” Love said. “Sometimes you need to get hit in the mouth and that will wake you up pretty fast. That will make you pay attention.

“So we did that, we fought back, gave ourselves a chance, cut the lead down to single digits, but at that point they just had a ton of confidence. They’re a good team. They’re a really good team, well-coached with guys who do a lot of different things, so we’re going to have to read and react, continue to watch film, see where we can get better and make sure that our coverages are on point.”

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Bovada has the Cleveland Cavaliers at – 8 against the spread to win Game 2 on Wednesday night in Cleveland. Coach Tyronn Lue is confident that his team can bring the required aggression to turn the series around.

“The mood is good,” Lue said. “I think guys understand what it takes to win, to beat this team. Got to be aggressive, got to be more physical. Got to own our space offensively. They pick us up full court, they deny us swing passes, denied elbow passes. So we just got to be stronger with the ball. Can’t turn the ball over 17 times. We got to be physical with the ball, own our space, and we’ll be fine.”