In Game 1 Sunday, the Indiana Pacers clearly knew who they were as a team. Indiana was confident in how they wanted to attack Cleveland and anything the defense threw at them (such as attempts to trap Victor Oladipo). The Pacers knew how they wanted to defend and how to help off of. Indiana played with confidence.
Cleveland looked lost.
LeBron was not attacking mismatches (and with him, everything is a mismatch), guys were standing around watching and waiting (seemingly for LeBron to just take over), and on defense the LeBron lacked energy and Cavaliers looked like they had all season when they were 29th in the league.
What happened to the Cavaliers? LeBron James said this to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
The Cavaliers didn’t have time to build a proper identity with this lineup, and that did have an impact heading into the playoffs. So did the talent level around LeBron this year compared to the last three.
Expect a different Cavaliers team in Game 2 Tuesday, starting with an attacking LeBron James from the opening top — especially of Bojon Bogdanovic remains the primary defender on him. Look for Kevin Love to get more touches. Look for more J.R. Smith (maybe starting). Look for the Cavaliers to play with some desperation.
But does this team have an identity yet? Do they have the trust and habits built up with each other to get by the Pacers? And if so, what about a Toronto team finding it’s groove.
If the Cavaliers don’t have that identity and fall short, it will make for a very wild offseason in Cleveland.
