Indiana closed the first half on a 9-0 run and opened the second with another 9-0 run to take control of the game and send the Cavs to a 96-81 loss that dropped their record to 5-18. It was quite a comedown after the big victory over the Lakers on Tuesday night at The Q and a wild first quarter that saw Miles score 16 points while making 4 of 5 3-pointers.
“From about the three-minute mark of the second quarter, it all changed,” a grim Scott said. “From that point on, we just weren’t here. It’s as simple as that. I thought we did a good job when we started the game.”
“But once Indiana started to be a little bit more aggressive . . . I think our guys just caved in to it.
“Winning in this league is very hard, and I thought we just caved in to the pressure they were giving us and we just stopped playing. Period. That’s how we got our butt kicked.”
The Cavs were playing their fourth game in six nights, their second set of five straight back-to-backs. They are 0-7 on the second night this season. But it looked as if they were going to change that trend when Miles got off to such a hot start. He had 23 points by halftime after making 5 of 6 3-pointers, 6 of 11 field goals overall, and 6 of 6 free throws. Thanks to a pair of 3-pointers by Gibson, the Cavs made 7 of 8 3-pointers (87.5 percent) for the first time since Nov. 28, 2009, when they made 7 of 8 3-pointers in the first half against Dallas.
However, Miles made only 2 of 7 shots the rest of the game for five points. In the second half, the Cavs — minus an ailing Omri Casspi and injured rookie Dion Waiters — scored 23 points, which is a record low for a Pacers opponent, and made just 8 of 41 shots, a nippy 19.5 percent. During the Pacers’ 18-0 run, the Cavs were scoreless for four minutes as Indiana concentrated on taking the ball out of Kyrie Irving’s hands. The most life the Cavs showed was when Thompson was called for a flagrant foul after throwing an elbow with 9:38 left in the game.
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