CLEVELAND 107, PACERS 75
Jackson Benched, Pacers Routed
At Quicken Loans Arena | Dec. 9, 2006
Dealing with the Cavaliers, on the road, on the second night of the eighth back-to-back set of the young season, would be a challenge even at full strength. Entering said game without Jermaine O'Neal and finishing without Stephen Jackson turned it into a mess. Cleveland jumped on the Pacers immediately and didn't let up, leading by double figures most of the way en route to a 107-75 rout Saturday.
O'Neal missed his second game in a row with a sore left hamstring that will be re-evaluated before the Pacers play in Chicago Monday night. Jackson, who started at small forward as Coach Rick Carlisle opted to go with a small lineup including Sarunas Jasikevicius at shooting guard, was sent to the locker room by Carlisle late in the second quarter for what was described as "conduct detrimental to the team."
LeBron James set the tone immediately, scoring 24 of his 27 points in the first half while hitting 10-of-11 shots. Unlike their previous meeting, when the Pacers rallied from a 12-point halftime deficit to take a 10-point victory, Indiana had nothing to offer in the second half as the final margin tied the most lopsided loss in series history.
The loss snapped a two-game winning streak for the Pacers (11-11), who dropped their fourth in a row on the road, where they're 5-9. The Cavs won for the ninth time in 11 games at home to improve to 12-7.
PLUSES
The only individual positives for the Pacers were the performances of reserves Darrell Armstrong and Danny Granger. Armstrong scored 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting and sparked the Pacers' only meaningful run of the game in the second period. Granger scored 12 points with nine rebounds and two assists in a reserve role. Jeff Foster pulled 10 rebounds.
MINUSES
This is a long list, beginning with Jackson's benching for the second half, a particularly unfortunate time for the veteran coming off his two best games of the season to regress into a situation where disciplinary action was necessary. None of the starters (outscored 70-37) had an effective game. The two scorers the team needed most were AWOL as Al Harrington shot 3-of-13 and Jamaal Tinsley 1-of-10 as the Pacers wound up hitting just .325 from the field, a season low – as was the final point total. They were badly outrebounded (57-34) and couldn't even make free throws, going 16-of-28 from the line (.571)
James got to the rim at will and scored an easy 27 on 11-of-16 shooting, adding seven rebounds and six assists. Damon Jones scored 15 and Donyell Marshall had 11 points, 17 rebounds and four blocked shots off the bench. Zydrunas Ilgauskas came out aggressively, scoring seven of his 15 points in the first quarter and pulling seven rebounds. Anderson Varejao had 13 points and nine rebounds. The Cavs shot .527.
MOMENTS
The Pacers were hoping for déjà vu in the first half, which was almost a carbon copy of the teams' first meeting. The Cavs dominated the first quarter 31-16 but Indiana seemed to regain its footing and some momentum late in the second quarter as Armstrong sparked a nine-point run by scoring seven points in 31 seconds and the deficit at intermission was a manageable 56-42.
Unlike the first time around, however, that's where Indiana's spark died. The Cavs scored the first six points of the second half to push the margin back up to 20 and the Pacers offered no threat thereafter. Cleveland blew it wide open by scoring the final nine points of the third to make it 84-55 entering the fourth, offering plenty of playing time for both teams' reserves.
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