INDIANAPOLIS – It takes a dominating effort to hold a 41-point lead at halftime and push the top seed in the Eastern Conference to the brink of elimination.
The Indiana Pacers got exactly that on Sunday. While the final score was 129-109, it wasn’t even that close. At one point, the Pacers pushed the lead to 44 against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The win came on the heels of a disappointing effort in Game 3, when the series shifted to Indianapolis and the sluggish Pacers let the Cavs run them off their own home court.
This time, the Pacers were the aggressors. They carved up Cleveland’s various defensive looks and had scored 80 points by halftime. The Blue and Gold shot 60% from the field (30 for 50) and 66% from three-point range (12 for 18) in the first half.
“Obviously the first half was pretty amazing,” said guard Tyrese Haliburton, who finished with 11 points, 5 assists and 5 rebounds. “The shot making and I thought we were really good on the defensive end. We still got a lot of work to do. Just taking it a day at a time. We can feel good about this for the night and move on.”
“We just had a better attitude about attacking the zone tonight. We did it with greater urgency and more attitude and that’s the main thing,” said head coach Rick Carlisle. “We’ve seen more zone than any other team in the league this year. We had to make some adjustments. The biggest adjustments were in attitude and how we brought a certain level of aggression to it.”
Their only setback was losing third-year player Bennedict Mathurin, who was ejected after a dustup involving Cleveland’s De’Andre Hunter. Mathurin hit Hunter in the midsection; Hunter responded by shoving Mathurin to the floor.
The messy situation led to a flagrant two foul on Mathurin, a technical foul for Hunter and another technical for Myles Turner, who intervened on Mathurin’s behalf and shoved Hunter.
Indiana’s defensive intensity forced 14 first-half turnovers. The Pacers committed just four. However, Carlisle wasn’t happy with the free throw disparity—the Cavs shot 40 to Indiana’s 20.
“Got to play with intensity and play clean,” Carlisle said. “You don’t like them shooting 40 free throws. An inordinate number of free throws in the series. We’ve just got to look at it and figure out ways to play cleaner. And still have a level of aggression and physicality without having them go to the line all night. We’ll look at it and figure out what we need to do better.”
Indiana’s 41-point lead was the largest for any team in Pacers history and tied the largest such margin in NBA playoff history. The team’s 80 points marked the highest-scoring half in franchise postseason history.
“We came out with good energy. I thought last game they set the tone from a physicality standpoint,” said Haliburton. “That’s been a talking point from them all series and they set the tone and today we came out, set the tone from the jump. We really just rode that wave. I was really proud of our performance.”
The Pacers weren’t shy about sharing. Indiana had 25 assists in that dominant first half, the most for any team in a half.
Seven players finished in double figures: Pascal Siakam (21), Myles Turner (20), Obi Toppin (20), Ben Sheppard (14), TJ McConnell (13), Aaron Nesmith (12) and Haliburton (11).
Seven players had at least three assists: McConnell (8), Nembhard (7), Haliburton (5), Nesmith (4), Siakam (3), Turner (3) and Sheppard (3).
It was a marked difference from Game 3, which quickly got out of hand as Cleveland dictated the pace and physicality.
“First off, our film sessions are always pretty ugly after a loss,” Haliburton said. “I think over the course of the last two years, you can see when we’re in a two-game series with somebody, we lose the first game, we typically come to play that second game.”
The Pacers turned to their bench about midway through the third quarter, with reserves finishing things out.
“We had some good runs when we needed them. Particularly in the first half,” Carlisle said. “I’m not crazy about the way the game ended. Garbage time is ugly. It can be ugly. We did a lot of good things to get ourselves enough of a cushion to finish the game, so I’m grateful for that. We had a lot of guys do a lot of great things. Now it’s over.”
Haliburton credited Siakam and Toppin for giving the team a boost.
“I think those guys just setting the tone really, especially Pascal [Siakam] to start the game, really got going. And then when Obi [Toppin] checked in, he did a really good job at setting the screens, sealing the smaller guy and finishing over the top,” Haliburton said. “Thought those guys were really good at setting the tone.”
Indiana now holds a 3-1 advantage in the series, with a chance to close out the Cavs on Tuesday. But it’s a best-of-seven series, and the Cavs finished the regular season 64-18—the best mark in the Eastern Conference.
Carlise knows the work is far from finished.
“We haven’t done anything yet. We’re a pretty significant underdog in every game we’ve played this series,” he said. “And that will continue till the end and we’re going to continue to approach this like we have everything to prove. And we know people don’t believe in us. So we’re just going to stay in the fight and keep fighting.”
Game 5 is set for 7 p.m. on Tuesday at Rocket Arena in Cleveland.