CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – There was no Cavalanche Tuesday night.
Just a collapse.
Tyrese Haliburton grabbed a rebound off his own missed free throw, ran out to the three-point line and buried the game-winner with 1.1 seconds remaining to give the Pacers a stunning 120-119 win at Rocket Arena and a 2-0 series lead.
Here’s the top Wine & Gold nuggets from Game 2.
Blew it – The Cavs, who led by as many as 20, led by seven points with 57 seconds to play, and lost. “We could sit here and dwell on this and be home in about four or five days, or we can move on and take some things that we did really well and go from there,” Donovan Mitchell said. “I have no doubt everybody in the locker room is ready for Friday. It sucks stings, but we got to go out there and take care of business. Otherwise that's it. But I believe in everybody in the locker room. We believe in each other. We’ll figure it out.” For the second time in these playoffs Indiana rallied in the final minute to steal a win. According to ESPN Research, since 1997, teams were 3-1,640 when trailing by seven or more in the final minute of regulation or overtime. The Pacers have two of those victories in the last week. “I thought we outplayed them,” Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “That's a shame of this game. We outplayed them and there were some with fatigue comes decision making. We had some poor decision-making plays at the rim, turnovers. Couple bad decisions I felt like. So that was part of the collapse.”
Out of gas – Physical fatigue led to a multitude of mental lapses, from failing to box out on multiple missed free throws to the inability to inbound the ball – twice – over the final 57 seconds, to fuel the Pacers rally. “I love how they competed,” tkinson said. “I love how they fought down two All-Stars. Deandre [Hunter too]. We outplayed them for most of the game. We ran out of gas. We couldn't really separate ourselves, we couldn't get open in a half court. They're grabbing us, holding us, couldn't really move. We couldn't get to separation. Every possession, they just upped their physicality again, grabbing, holding. We couldn't move and we ran out of gas.”
Gutsy effort – Playing with a calf strain, Mitchell put on a performance for the ages, that went for naught. “I’m banged up, but we all are,” Mitchell said. Mitchell scored 48 points to go with nine assists, five rebounds and four steals. “I'm proud of every individual that put up a fight tonight. We've shown how deep we are as a team, how great we are as a unit. But yeah, it's tough losing like that. But we got to find a way to get to an Indy.” Mitchell scored 21 in the first half marking the 26th playoff game he’s scored 20 or more in a half. It was Mitchell’s sixth career 40-point game in the playoffs, his second with the Cavs joining LeBron James and Kyrie Irving as the only players in franchise history with multiple postseason 40-point games. “He was cramping and I don’t know, I don't know what more he could do. He single handedly kept us. That was a reason why we had to lead.” Mitchell struggled from three again making 1 of 7 but was aggressive taking it to the rim all night and also ending up on the floor and free throw line 21 times, a playoff-best for him.
Strus is loose – Max Strus tallied a playoff career-high 23 points in the loss.
Allen double double – Jarrett Allen scored 22 and pulled down a dozen rebounds. “They capitalized on every single mistake that we did and I feel like almost every play towards the end we had a mental lapse or a mental mistake and it's not something that X's and O's can save you from,” Allen said. “It's not something that a play call can save you. It's just one of those things where we have to just get the job done ourselves and we just got to look back at it and just take it at face value.”
Merrill – Sam Merril l was the lone spark off the bench finishing with 14 points.
Weakest link – Ty Jerome might have played his worst game of the season. The usually dependable reserve was unable to step up as he shot just 1-14 from the field and scored two points starting for Darius Garland. Jerome also failed to effectively close out on Haliburton’s game-winning three.
Depleted corps – As expected, following a pair of passionate rants from Atkinson about plays that he felt crossed the line and resulted in a sprained left ankle for Evan Mobley and dislocated right thumb for De’Andre Hunter in Game 1, Mobley and Hunter did not play along with Darius Garland, who missed his fourth consecutive playoff game due to a sprained left big toe.
Sword pull – Six-time UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic pulled the sword prior to the Cavs player introductions.
Starting 5 – Atkinson started Ty Jerome, Donovan Mitchell, Dean Wade, Max Strus, and Jarrett Allen.
Up next – Game 3 at. Indiana, Friday night at 7:30.