Injuries and a late-game collapse have the Cavs in an 0-2 hole to the Indiana Pacers in their Eastern Conference semifinal series. Indiana rallied from a 119-112 deficit with eight straight points in the final 47.9 seconds to win 120-119.
“It just was such a fun night until basically the last minute-plus when they couldn't get the ball in bounds, they couldn’t get a rebound on a missed free throw,” said our sports commentator Terry Pluto. “I think a lot of us still feel very drained because it was one of those things where you were so close to having this incredible story of the gritty and plucky Cavaliers without three of their top guys come back and beat Indiana and (they) were right there! (The Cavs) needed to get one last rebound in the final few seconds, and we'd be having a completely different talk right now.”
Donovan Mitchell scored 48 points and tied a playoff career high with 17 made free throws. But the team was without three key players due to injuries; Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and De'Andre Hunter.
“Some people say, ‘Well, this is the playoffs. They should be playing,’ but we've seen in the past, a lot of times they're very unclear on exactly the extent of these injuries until after the playoffs,” Pluto said. “The guys that the Cavaliers started last night, that combination of Dean Wade, Jarrett Allen, Donovan Mitchell, Ty Jerome, and Max Strus, they never started a game together in the NBA. They never used that combination because they never had so many guys hurt all at once...that group of five played only about four minutes together all season.”
Pluto said he believed it was going to be a tough series against the Pacers.
“Indiana's good, and they have a coach named Rick Carlisle who's won 996 regular season NBA games," Pluto said. "While the Cavs won 64 games, people forget that a year ago, Indiana was in the NBA's final four. Indiana's always been an underrated team, and I think part of the deal there is just like the Cavs playing in Cleveland, Indiana playing in Indianapolis is not in a big market. People just tend to miss them.”
It’s a tough challenge ahead for first-year head coach Kenny Atkinson and the Cavs, who are down 0-2 in the best-of-seven-game series heading on the road to Indiana.
“Kenny Atkinson has been complaining, I think now it's getting to the point of too much, about the officials," Pluto said. "Indiana's ‘holding and grabbing and holding and grabbing ‘, he keeps saying that. Sometimes you say that because you want the officials to call more fouls on the other team. You say stuff like that because you want your players to know that you're fighting for them. But he did like two soliloquies -- one on Monday after practice about the officials…and then he turned around and did it again, four straight minutes before the game on Tuesday. I would say, at this point, Kenny kind of needs to knock that off.”
Game 3 is Friday night in Indiana.
“Only 7% of the time is a team that's down 2-0 come back to win," Pluto said. "I mean, they're trying to climb Mount Everest in their bare feet right now with their injuries, with Indiana playing at home (and) Indiana being fairly healthy. It's just an emotionally draining game."
