LeBron James hadn’t lost a single First Round Playoff game in over four seasons. On Sunday afternoon, he made it five.
Running his personal streak to 21 straight wins in the postseason’s opening round, LeBron and the Cavaliers completed their four-game sweep of the Pacers – taking the 106-102 win on Sunday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in a contest that wasn’t exactly a thing of beauty.
One game after completing an historic comeback – erasing Indiana’s 25-point halftime lead to win Game 3 on Thursday night – the Wine and Gold nearly had the tables turned on them on Sunday.
Working with a comfortable 13-point lead early in the fourth quarter, the Cavaliers looked poised to cruise to the finish line. But the stingy Pacers – a franchise that had never been swept in a seven-game series – rallied from there, going on a 17-4 run to tie the game at 100-apiece on Thaddeus Young’s short jumper with 2:39 to play.
Just over a minute later, Young tipped in a Paul George miss to give the Pacers their first lead, 102-100, since early in the second quarter.
But Indiana’s joy was fleeting.
On Cleveland’s next possession, LeBron James calmly pulled up from beyond the arc and splashed home a three-pointer to give the Cavaliers back the lead. The Cavs wouldn’t trail again, but that doesn’t mean the final moments were easy.
With the Wine and Gold up three, 105-102, with 11 seconds to play, J.R. Smith picked Jeff Teague’s pocket in front of the Cavs bench. But instead of being intentionally fouled, tried a behind-the-back pass to a streaking Kyrie Irving. Paul George tipped and stole the pass and was able to attempt a game-tying triple with 1.9 to play.
George’s three-point attempt hit the backboard and caromed into the waiting arms of LeBron, who split the free throws to seal the deal and send the Pacers packing after a tough four-game set.
James led all scorers with 33 points – going 13-for-25 from the floor and 6-of-9 from the stripe, adding 10 boards, four assists, four steals and a pair of blocks.
”You don’t go into a series saying, ‘Let’s sweep,’” asserted James. “You go into the series saying ‘Let’s win Game 1’ and then in Game 2 you say ‘Let’s be better than Game 1’ and same with 3 and 4. And if it happens to go to 5, 6 or 7, you have to make adjustments throughout the course of a series. But every game has different challenges.”
For the series, the four-time MVP averaged 32.8 points, 9.8 boards and 9.0 assists – doubling-up in all four games of the First Round, including Thursday night’s triple-double in Cleveland’s epic Game 3 win.
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