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Key: Friday Night Lights
Here’s the question we need to be asking ourselves heading into Friday night’s Game 6: What could LeBron James possibly break out of his bag of tricks for tonight?
The legend of LeBron’s prolific 2017-18 campaign grew yet again on Wednesday night, when LBJ drilled the game-winning triple in his squad’s most important game of the season – giving the Wine & Gold a 3-2 series lead and turning the tables on a Pacers squad that was feeling very confident heading home just one week ago.
Trailing the series, 2-1, the Cavaliers won a white-knuckle affair on Sunday night here in Indiana and returned home to take Wednesday’s see-saw affair at The Q – setting up an elimination contest on Friday.
History is on Cleveland’s side when it comes to elimination contests – with the Cavaliers winning 13-straight series-clinching games since 2009, the longest streak in NBA history.
Tyronn Lue’s squad – which finally shook off its third quarter bugaboo in Game 5 – hasn’t allowed the Pacers to post more than 100 points in any game in the series and has done a tremendous job stifling Indy’s high-octane backcourt through most of the series.
The rubber hits the road in downtown Indianapolis on Friday. The Pacers have frustrated the Eastern Conference champs all season long, but can they stop them from ending their season tonight?
Key: Long Live the King
All year long, we’ve been witnessing history as LeBron James’ momentous season – and now postseason – has unfolded before our eyes. Just when it seems there’s nothing he can do to top the previous performance, he pulls out a game-winning 25-footer at the buzzer mere seconds after a jaw-dropping defensive play on the other end.
In Wednesday’s Game 5 victory, James tracked down Victor Oladipo’s layup attempt with 3.3 to play in regulation then took the in-bounds pass on the offensive end, dribbled left, stopped and drained the game-winning bomb as time expired, giving Cleveland a win it needed to have.
On the night, Numeral 23 finished with 44 points – his second 40-point game in the series – going 14-for-24 from the floor and a perfect 15-of-15 from the stripe, adding 10 boards, a game-high eight assists, one steal and the block of the night.
James, who now has 21 40-point Playoff outings, has now doubled-up in 14-straight games against Indiana, his longest such run against any opponent.
On the defensive end, James has turned off Bojan Bogdanovic’s water following his 30-point outing last Friday – holding him to 21 combined points on 36 percent shooting, including 5-of-13 from deep, in Games 4 and 5.
Key: Getting Defensive
If you just checked the boxscore from Wednesday’s game, you’d see that JR Smith took the collar in eight shot attempts – including an 0-for-6 mark from long-range. But to say he had a bad game would be inaccurate – especially after checking Victor Oladipo’s numbers.
After tormenting the Wine & Gold in the series opener, the Cavaliers have effectively put a lid on the first-time All-Star since.
In Game 5, the former Indiana standout doubled-up with 12 points and a team-high 12 boards, but was just 2-for-15 from the floor, including 1-for-7 from beyond the arc. Following his 32-point performance in Game 1, Oladipo has shot just 31 percent from the floor over his next four outings, including a .226 mark from long-distance over that span.
Cleveland’s opposing shooting guard, Kyle Korver, has been trending in the other direction. After struggling early in the series – going scoreless in Games 1 and 3 – the veteran sharpshooter has begun to heat up.
After notching 18 points, including eight in the final four minutes on Sunday, Korver followed up with another strong showing in Game 5, following LeBron with 19 points, going 5-of-9 from long-distance, 6-of-11 from the floor overall. After starting the series 4-for-13 from deep, Korver has canned nine of his last 18 three-point attempts.
Key: Straight to the Point
In terms of rough starts to the series, Jose Calderon struggled just to stay on the floor through the first three games – seeing just a combined 22 minutes in Games 1 and 2 and taking a DNP-CD in Game 3. But after George Hill suffered a back injury that’s kept him out of the last two contests, Calderon has been a key member of the starting lineup.
Calderon doesn’t put up huge numbers – averaging just 5.5 points over his past two outings. But there is one number that Calderon has built upon all year – and that’s his record in the starting lineup, which improved to 25-9 with Wednesday’s thrilling victory.
Hill, who was having a stellar Game 3 before his back tightened up at halftime, could return to the lineup on Friday night.
Regardless of who’s starting at the point for Cleveland, the Cavaliers have managed to thoroughly flummox Indiana’s head of the snake – Darren Collison.
The former UCLA standout finished the 2017-18 regular season as the league’s top three-point shooter, but the Wine & Gold have stymied him in the series. He’s only shot better than 50 percent from the floor in one of the first five games and, excluding a Game 2 performance in which he went 7-for-14, Collison is 9-for-35 from the floor and 2-for-12 from long-distance.
Key: Center of Attention
If the Wine & Gold are able to get past the Pacers in the First Round, there might not be a happier Cavalier than Kevin Love to see Indiana in the rearview mirror. Between Thaddeus Young and Myles Turner, the Cavs five-time All-Star has been locked in a tough matchup throughout the first five games.
In Wednesday’s win, Love was one of just three Cavs in double-figures, notching his first double-double of the postseason despite struggling from the floor – finishing with 11 points and 10 boards, going 2-of-11 from the floor but a perfect 6-of-6 from the stripe.
Aside from Game 3, Love has struggled from the floor – shooting just 33 percent in the series, 39 percent from three-point range. He has, however, been his normal effective self on the boards – snagging a series-high 17 rebounds in Game 1 and averaging 10.4 in the series.
Thad Young has been getting better as the series has progressed, netting double-figures in each of the last three contests, going 8-of-9 from the floor for 16 points and six boards in Game 5.
Cleveland’s big men will also have to do a better job slowing down Myles Turner, who’s hit 10 of his last 13 shots from the floor, including 3-of-4 from long-range, over the last two games.