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The 48-30 Cleveland Cavaliers defended home court against the 34-44 Indiana Pacers as they look to clinch the fourth seed heading into the playoffs. The Cavs won 115-105 thanks to an explosive fourth quarter.
Indiana was without some of their key players in Myles Turner, Chris Duarte and the all-star Tyrese Haliburton. Cleveland finally got their starting center back in Jarrett Allen, but were without Isaac Okoro for the third straight game after he suffered a knee injury in a win over the Houston Rockets. Dean Wade filled in for Okoro, making his first start since early December.
The Pacers won the opening tipoff. Benedict Mathurin, Aaron Nesmith and the rest of the Pacers showed they would not back down without a fight early. They got out to a quick 14-10 lead.
The Cavs bounced back quickly though. They were able to take a 26-21 lead late in the first. Indiana bounced right back as well though, as the game was tied 28-28 by the end of the quarter.
Donovan Mitchell led the way for Cleveland with 13 points. Mathurin had 9 and Nesmith had 6 for Indiana.
The second quarter started out strong for the Pacers. They got out to a 54-43 lead about halfway through the quarter. The Cavs made up ground in the rest of the quarter. They briefly tied it at 59 before going into halftime down 61-59.
The big difference for the Cavs in the first half was their lower percentage from deep. They shot around 33 percent from three in the first half while the Pacers shot 42 percent.
Mitchell had 19 points at half while Allen had 10. Indiana’s Jalen Smith had 12 while T.J. McConnell had 10, both off the bench.
Coming out of the half the Cavs were leaving shots short while the Pacers got hot from behind the arc. Indiana built an eight point lead out of the break.
Cleveland kept fighting though. With 4:37 left in the third they were finally able to retake a lead, 80-78.
The third quarter ended as tightly as the others, with Indiana up 87-86. Both teams looked very streaky through three quarters, with the Pacers often building leads for the Cavs to overcome. Mitchell had 36 through three while Darius Garland had 12 with 5 assists.
Indiana was playing by committee, though Mathurin had 15 and Andrew Nembhard had 9, including a tough shot with a defender draped all over him.
The fourth quarter was all Cleveland. The Pacers got into foul trouble early and the Cleveland backcourt in Mitchell, Garland and Caris LeVert all heated up.
The players of the game for Cleveland were Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland and Evan Mobley.
Mitchell scored 40 with 3 steals while Garland had 20 and 6 assists. Mobley made his presence felt on the defensive end, putting up 4 blocks and 16 rebounds to go with 14 points.
For Indiana it was Benedict Mathurin and T.J. McConnell leading the way. Mathurin had 19 with 9 rebounds in another excellent showing for the rookie, while McConnell had 16 off the bench.
The Pacers will be back in action on Wednesday against the 46-33 New York Knicks. A win for the Pacers would help the Cavs clinch the fourth seed in case of a few losses.
Cleveland will take on another young squad on Tuesday against the 34-44 Orlando Magic. If the Cavs win they will clinch the fourth seed.
