Why you shouldn't overreact to Cleveland's Game 1 Loss to the Pacers
There is no need to worry about the loss today Cavs fans. You guys are still going to win the series and at least make the conference finals. The media might have a field day with this and try to act like the Pacers will win, but they don’t realize that one team has LeBron and the other one doesn’t. Honestly, this game was a classic underdog game. The Pacers had a chip on their shoulder for the entire game and acted like it, playing with great intensity and hustle. However, this game was mainly lost because the Cavs underestimated the Pacers. They thought that they could easily defeat the Pacers and sweep them. I wouldn’t blame them for their overconfidence, considering the fact that LeBron has made the finals seven years in a row. The Cavs’ overconfidence is seen by their slow first quarter in which they were outscored by 19 points. Now that they have seen that the Pacers are for real, the Cavs will make sure not to underestimate their opponent and will not have a slow start. The Cavs just started off slow, which is why they lost the game. I mean it is no surprise that they started slow because most of their team has little playoff experience. If you saw how the Cavs played after the first quarter, they actually played very well. They outscored the Pacers in the final three quarters of the game. With all the nerves out of their system, the Cavs will take control of the series. Also, the play of the Indiana Pacers cannot remain at such a high level. While I like Victor Oladipo as a player and believe that he has had a great season, I still think that he will not have another game like that this series. He shot an absurd 66% from three, while his average for the year is 37%. I mean he was really feeling it this game and I simply don’t think he will have that efficient and great of a shooting performance this series. I mean the Cavs had an off-night shooting. Now this wasn’t just a regular off night because it was so bad that is must be a fluke. The team just was not clicking and did not have a single player with a positive plus minus. They shot 23.5% from three and only had one starter in double figures. During the season, they had seven players average at least double digits and shot 37.6% from three. At the end of the day, the Cavs have LeBron and he will make sure that the team makes the needed adjustments in order to win the series. First of all, they will make sure to get to the rack more. Kevin Love only shot 2 shots inside the arc, which is completely unacceptable for a big man. LeBron will also get on his starters because no one in the starting lineup besides LeBron scored more than 10 points. The starters will be motivated and will have great games the next time they play the Pacers. I also think that coach Tyronn Lue will limit the amount of playing time that Jeff Green gets and increase the minutes of Tristan Thompson. Jeff Green played 27 minutes and did not score a single point. A single one! He played so badly that Coach Lue just has to sit him. It is amazing to me that Tristan Thompson only played two minutes this game. I don’t care what problems he is dealing with outside the court, you need to play him more in this series. The Pacers’ starting center, Myles Turner, was the scored the second most points on the Pacers. The Cavs will need to give Thompson more than 2 minutes in order to at least try and stop Turner. The real reason that I am confident in the Cavs is because at the end of the day one team has LeBron and the other one does not. LeBron is the greatest basketball player I have ever seen and I trust that he will get the job done. He knows how to get it done in the postseason and has shown that he can comeback from leads, like he did in the 2016 finals when he came back from a 3-1 deficit. I know that he will rally his teammates and make sure that he makes a deep run this postseason. I believe that the Cleveland Cavaliers will defeat the Pacers in 5-6 games.
