Cavaliers eliminated from playoffs with 114-105 loss in game five

BY TIM SHIRER

CAVS BET WRITER

(CLEVELAND, OH) - Entering Tuesday night’s game, the Cleveland Cavaliers backs were against the wall. The Cavs trail the Indiana Pacers 3-1 in their Eastern Conference semifinals series. The Cavs were absolutely blown out of Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Sunday night 129-109, trailing by as much as 44 points in the game. To make matters worse Cavs superstar and MVP candidate Donovan Mitchell left the game after spraining his left ankle during halftime shoot around and never came out of the locker room for the second half. It was apparent after the first quarter that Mitchell was playing on guts alone as he scored only six points in the second and third quarters combined, but gutted it out to finish the game with 16 points in the fourth quarter finishing with 35 points but it was not enough as the Pacers eliminated the Cavs 114-105.

The game started the same way as much of the series had gone as the Cavs turned the ball over and the Pacers took a 2-0 lead. The bad officiating started early just 1:20 into the game when crew chief James Capers called Max Strus for a foul when Strus barely touched the shooter Pascal Siakam. Siakam hit one of two free throws to give Indiana a 3-2 lead. The Cavs took their first lead since game three when Mobley scored in the paint putting Cleveland on top 4-3 with 9:39 left in the opening period. After the Pacers tied the game, the Cavs tied it up when Myles Turner fouled Evan Mobley and he hit both free throws tying the game at 6-6. The Cavs then took the lead 9-6 when Cleveland public enemy number one Tyrese Haliburton fouled Donovan Mitchell. Mitchel converted the free throw. With 6:15 left in the quarter and the Cavs leading 11-8 Darius Garland blocked a passed and the ball went out of bounds, the 19,432 in attendance erupted and Pacers coach Rick Carlisle called a timeout. With 5:46 left in the first half when Cleveland Public Enemy number two Benedict Mathurin turned over the ball much to the pleasure of the Cleveland crowd when he committed an offensive foul shoving, Garland. With 4:37 left Garland gave the Cavs a 15-12 lead when he hit a jumper from the top of the paint. With 4:02 left the Cavs took a 17-12 lead when Mitchell was fouled, shoved in the back by Thomas Bryant and hit both free throws. With 3:42 left in the first quarter Mathurin got the ball, was soundly booed by the Cavs faithful and shot an air ball well under the cylinder. With 3:00 left the Cavs took a 21-12 lead when Mitchell stole the ball and hit Jarrett Allen in the paint who slammed the ball home, sending the crowd into a frenzy and forcing Carlisle to take a timeout. With 1:46 left in the opening quarter Mitchell stole the ball again, drove and scored and was fouled, he missed the free throw, but the Cavs lead was 25-14. With 1:17 left Turner picked up his second foul and had to leave the game. With time running out and :36.8 left in the first quarter Mitchell scored again in the paint and the Cleveland lead was 29-17. Then with :04.6 left Mitchell was fouled again. He hit both free throws, scoring his 12,13 points of the quarter and giving the Cavs a 31-17 lead. A ticky tack foul was called on Isaac Okoro and some great acting by Haliburton with :02.7 left. Haliburton hit one of the two free throws, and the Cavs lead 31-19 when the quarter ended. Mitchell led all scorers with 13 his 13 first quarter points, Mobley also had 10 for the Cavs. Andrew Nembhard was pacing Indiana with six. The Cavs shot 48% (10 of 21) while the Pacers shot 32% (7 of 22) in the opening 12 minutes. Both teams were ice cold from three-point range as Indiana hit the only three of the quarter. The Cavs did force four Pacers turnovers resulting in six points.

De’Andre Hunter, who struggled mightily in the series as he is playing with a sore thumb hit a three with 10:03 left in the second quarter to give the Cavs a 36-19 lead, the crowd loudly showed their appreciation. With 9:24 left Max Strus picked up his third foul on what looked like another bad call by an NBA official. With 8:56 left in the first half, Garland picked up his first foul when he contacted Nesmith behind the three-point line. Nesmith hit two of three to cut the Cavs lead to 40-25. With 8:22 left Indiana committed their sixth turnover of the half and Carlisle took another timeout with the Cavs up 42-25. With 7:02 left in the half and the Pacers on a 6-2 Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson took a timeout as the Cleveland lead was trimmed to 44-31. With 5:44 left Siakam was fouled, hit both free throws and cut the Cleveland lead to 48-38. With 4:36 left the Pacers cut the Cavs lead to 48-31 when Haliburton drained a three-pointer and Atkinson called another timeout. With 3:23 left in the half the Pacers cut the lead to 54-47 as Haliburton began to heat up as the Cavs’ defense was not good on the perimeter. With 2:13 left the Cavs caught a break when Allen was fouled. He hit one of two and the Cavs lead was just four points at 53-49. With 1:15 left the Pacers cut the Cavs lead to 53-52 on another three by Haliburton. As time ran out on the first 24 minutes the Cavs clung to a 56-52 lead. The Pacers outscored the Cavs 33-25 in the second period. Haliburton led all scorers with 17 first half points including 15 in the second quarter. Mitchell led the Cavs with 16 points but only scored three in the second quarter. The Cavs shot 48% in the first half (19 of 39) while the Pacers shot 41% (17 of 42), but Indiana shot 50% (10 of 20) in the second period. The big difference in the second quarter was from three-point range as the Pacers were 7 of 12 and the Cavs were a miserable 1 of 6. The battle of the boards was even after one half as each team had pulled down 21 rebounds.

In the first minute of the third quarter the Cavs looked like they had more energy than the Pacers as the Pacers turned the ball over and the Cavs scored the first four points of the half to take a 60-52 lead with 11:03 on the clock. Carlisle called a quick timeout. With 9:44 left in the third, the Cavs’ lead was back to nine points at 563-54 when Mobley drained a three, only the second of the game for the Cavs. The Pacers responded, scoring the next five points trimming the Cavs lead to 63-59 with 8:27 left in the period. Then with 7:57 left Haliburton hit another three, cutting the Cavs lead to two points. Suddenly with 7:04 left the Pacers, as they had done most of the series, took the lead 65-64 on a three by Siakam. The Cavs took a timeout as the momentum of the game was in favor of the Pacers. As the third quarter continued the Cavs looked as though they didn’t realize that halftime had ended as the Pacers lead was 69-64 with 4:54 left in the third. After a horrible offensive series by the Cavs and a turnover the Pacers took a 71-65 lead and then extended it to 73-65 when Bryant scored in the paint with 3:14 left and Atkinson took a timeout to a chorus of boos from the sellout crowd. Immediately after the timeout Garland missed an easy layup and the Pacers scored at the other end and the Indiana lead was 10. The Cavs defense that was so good all season and in the first quarter of this game had abandoned them and with 1:50 left the Pacers went up 80-68 as Ty Jerome picked up a foul just 1:24 after seeing his first action of the night after playing terrible in the first four games of the series proving that the voters were right not giving him sixth man of the year. He finally got on the board when he hit a three with 1:06 left in the quarter. The second and third quarters were a microcosm of the Cavs’ postseason, disappointing as the Pacers outscored them 66-45 to give the Pacers an 85-76 lead heading into the final quarter. Haliburton was leading all scorers with 24 points, Mobley was leading Cleveland with 20. Mitchell had 19 and had only scored six points in the second and third quarter combined.

As the fourth quarter began the Cavs showed signs of life as they cut the Pacers lead to 85-81 and then cut the lead to 87-85 when Hunter hit a three. He was fouled but missed the free throw. Mobley grabbed the rebound after the missed free throw passed it to Hunter who hit Garland in the paint and the Pacers lead was cut to 87-86 with 9:24 left in the game. After the Pacer led 89-86 Garland was fouled and hit both free throws to cut the lead once again to one with 8:54 left in the game. Once again, the Cavs defense failed, and Nembhard drained a three giving the Pacers a 94-88 lead with 7:59 remaining in the contest. The Cavs had no answer once again to the Pacers’ physical play. With 6:53 left the Cavs who looked dead in the water scored five straight points to cut the Pacers lead to 96-94. Then with 5:03 left Mitchell hit another three and cut the Indiana lead to 98-97. The Cavaliers, however, continued to fail in defending the Indiana three and extended their lead to 104-97 when the Cavs turned the ball over for the 11th time in the game. With 2:38 and the Cavs down 104-97 Atkinson took a timeout. Turner went to the foul line immediately after and hit both free throws to give the Pacers and nine point lead. Mitchell hit a three to cut it to 106-100 with 2:23 left. Then with 1:49 left Mitchell was fouled and missed all three free throws. But with 1:27 left Mitchell hit another three to cut the Pacers lead to 106-103. The next trip down Garland was called for his fourth foul and the Pacers now led 109-103 and the Cavs 2024-2025 fate was sealed and added to another Cleveland postseason disaster along with the Browns and Indians/Guardians. When the final buzzer sounded, the Pacers were headed to the Eastern Conference finals to face either the New York Knicks or the Boston Celtics.

The Cavs were simply outplayed with heart and hustle and outcoached by the Pacers in the series it is as simple as that.

The Cavaliers organization will look forward to next year as they have many questions after having a great regular season and collapsing like a folding table in round two of the postseason for the second straight season. Will Darius Garland be back? Will the Cavs try to acquire Gianis Antetokounmpo? Many questions heading into the offseason.