Who’s Really To Blame For Cleveland Cavaliers’ Disappointing Exit vs. Pacers?
The Cleveland Cavaliers absolutely melted down in their second-round series against the Indiana Pacers and now face a long offseason with a roster that's currently projected to rise above the second apron.
So who, or what, is to blame?
The Cavs managed just a single win in the series, blowing multiple double-digit leads during games that led to Pacers victories. There were some players who were definitely disappointments, although a number of other factors played a part as well.
When looking back over the five-game series, these were the five biggest reasons for Cleveland's collapse.
No. 5: Ty Jerome
1 of 5
Coming off the best season of his career where he finished third in Sixth Man of the Year voting, Ty Jerome was expected to be an important part of the Cleveland Cavaliers' playoff rotation.
The need for his ball-handling, scoring and playmaking became even more important once Darius Garland went down in the Miami Heat series with a toe injury, one that caused him to miss the first two games against the Indiana Pacers as well.
Jerome was good in Game 1, putting up 21 points and eight assists off the bench. His efficiency was beginning to take a hit with Garland out, however, as defenses were able to hone in on him more.
Games 2 through 5 for Jerome were complete disasters.
The 27-year-old would finish the series averaging just 4.8 points, 1.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 17.5 minutes while shooting a miserable 23.3 percent overall from the field.
Jerome looked completely broken, so much so that Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson benched him entirely for the first half of Game 5, only inserting his sixth man into the contest when the Cavaliers had gone over seven minutes of game time without scoring a basket in the third quarter.
This was bad timing for Jerome to go ice cold heading into unrestricted free agency this summer coming off a year where he made a modest $2.5 million. If there's a silver lining for Cleveland, they may now be able to afford to bring him back.
No. 4: Tyrese Haliburton
2 of 5
If any member of the Cleveland Cavaliers voted Tyrese Haliburton as the NBA's most overrated player, you can be sure that they now regret that decision.
Halburton's raw numbers in the series were modest (17.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 7.0 assists, 1.0 blocks, 0.6 steals), although the Indiana Pacers' leading man made a huge impact on his team's success overall.
In the five games, the Pacers outscored the Cavs by 56 total points when Haliburton was on the floor, by far the highest total of any Indiana player. For comparison, Cleveland was still outscored by nine total points in Donovan Mitchell's 165 minutes.
Not only did Haliburton do an excellent job of orchestrating the offense and getting everyone up and down the rotation involved, he shot a blistering 54.4 percent overall and 45.8 percent from three including a number of spirit-breaking daggers.
Halburton perhaps won the series at the end of Game 2, grabbing his own rebound off a missed free throw with 12.4 second left before having the presence of mind to dribble out, reset and run some time off the clock before hitting a tough step-back three-pointer to complete a historic comeback. Putting Cleveland in an 0-2 hole going to Indiana ultimately proved too big to climb out of.
Beating the 64-win Cavs in five games was a team effort, although Haliburton played the biggest role.
No. 3: Difference in Team Depth, Toughness
3 of 5
Typically in the NBA playoffs, rotations become shorter and stars play far more than they did in the regular season.
The Indiana Pacers threw this strategy out the window, playing a whopping 10 players for 10 minutes or more per game. Injuries caused the Cleveland Cavaliers to dip into their bench more than they would have liked, resulting in players like Dean Wade, Sam Merrill and Isaac Okoro playing way more than they should have.
"I think they presented a physical challenge, that's probably the first off the bat. And to their credit they kind of did it longer, could sustain it longer than we could," Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson said after Game 5.
The numbers back this up.
Cleveland hung tough in the first and third quarters when players had fresh legs and starters were the first on the court, yet were noticeably fatigued and couldn't match Indiana's physicality and depth as the game moved on.
The Pacers had net ratings of plus-11.5 in the second quarter and plus-6.5 in the fourth and completed a furious comeback at the end of Game 2 that seemingly broke the Cavaliers' spirit in the series.
Benedict Mathurin combined for 42 points in Games 2 and 3. Obi Toppin had 20 points in Game 4. Even Thomas Bryant hit a big three-pointer and had some tough dunks in a series-clinching Game 5.
Donovan Mitchell was the best player in the series, although the Pacers were by far the deeper team overall.
No. 2: Battle of the 3-Point Line
4 of 5
The three-point line was a tremendous ally for the Cleveland Cavaliers both during the regular season and first-round of the playoffs.
The Cavs finished second overall in both three-point accuracy (38.3 percent) and makes per game (15.9) before blitzing the Miami Heat in the opening round (19.3 makes on 44.0 percent shooting, both first among all 16 playoff teams).
What happened against the Indiana Pacers still doesn't seem comprehensible.
Cleveland shot just 29.4 percent from deep in the five games (compared to Indiana at 42.9 percent), currently the worst mark of all eight second-round teams. Players weren't shooting with confidence. Missed shots continued to pile up, creating even more doubt that you could physically see in the way players would hesitantly pull up from outside the arc.
For as good as Donovan Mitchell was in the series, he made just 12 of his 49 three-point attempts (24.5 percent). Darius Garland, playing through a toe injury, connected on just three of his 18 attempts (16.7 percent) coming off a regular season where he shot 40.1 percent. With the exception of Evan Mobley and a small sample size from Isaac Okoro, the other seven members of the Cavaliers' rotation all shot significantly below their regular season averages.
With no Garland for the first two games and Ty Jerome struggling mightily, we saw way too much hero ball from Mitchell, which killed ball movement that would typically lead to open threes.
The Pacers averaged 328.8 passes per game leading to a whopping 76.8 points created off assists. The Cavs' 244.2 passes generated just 54.0 points in the series.
With shots only falling for one side, Cleveland's offense had no chance.
No. 1: Injuries to Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and De'Andre Hunter
5 of 5
Give credit to the Indiana Pacers, who were clearly the better team and deserved to win this series.
Injuries to Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, De'Andre Hunter and Donovan Mitchell (during Game 4) clearly crippled a Cavs team that won 64 games and had the best offense in the NBA this season, however.
Garland's toe injury was the biggest disappointment. An All-Star this season who averaged 20.6 points and 6.7 assists on 40.1 percent shooting from three during the regular season, Garland struggled physically in this series and wasn't supposed to even see the court for up to four weeks.
“Y’all don’t understand what I’m going through,” Garland said via Cleveland.com's Chris Fedor.
Normally a player who can use his agility and handles to blow by opponents, Garland struggled to generate any downhill momentum and shot just 16.7 percent from three in his three games.
Mobley missed Game 2 with a sprained ankle after stepping on the foot of Myles Turner and didn't move normally for the rest of the series. The Pacers outscored the Cavs by 35 points in the 135 minutes the Defensive Player of the Year was on the floor, tied for the worst mark on the team.
Hunter was supposed to be the big wing that Cleveland was lacking, yet a hard foul in Game 1 caused him to miss Game 2 with a wrist injury on his shooting hand. In Games 3-through-5, Hunter averaged just 8.3 points on 31.8 percent shooting.
Had the Cavs been healthy, the Pacers still may have won. But trying to take down a team running with all 10 healthy rotation players was too much for the banged up Cavaliers.
.png?w=600 "Ranking KD Trade Ideas, Landing Spots 📍")
