Lance Stephenson Says Cavaliers Will Panic If They Go Down 3-1 to Pacers

With his Indiana Pacers holding a 2-1 series lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers, Lance Stephenson believes their opponent is one loss away from becoming shook.

"We have full control right now," Stephenson told reporters on Saturday, per ESPN's Mike Wells. "We have to keep it. We get another win in our building, and that's when I think they're going to start panicking. We're going to bring it like we [brought] it the first game."

Apparently, he doesn't know LeBron James' history. It was just two years ago that James and the Cavaliers rallied from a 3-1 hole in the NBA Finals against the 73-win Golden State Warriors to win a championship. Sure, this is a different Cleveland squad—but James isn't one to let his team panic.

Indiana stole home-court advantage with a victory in Game 1 and rallied from a 17-point halftime deficit to stun the Cavs in Game 3. Now, they are just two games away from pulling off the upset.

Even though James has a history of comebacks, Stephenson may be going off what he saw on Friday night. Cleveland controlled the game early on by scoring 57 in the first half but watched its lead disappear while only scoring 33 over the final two quarters. Over the final nine minutes and 17 seconds, no Cav other than James scored until Kevin Love knocked down a trey with 7.7 seconds remaining.

The moment clearly isn't too big for James, but perhaps the same can't be said about his teammates.

Stephenson, who is averaging 10.0 points and 4.7 rebounds in the series, noted that he doesn't expect Cleveland to just roll over.

"Our goal is to stay together, try to contain LeBron, play team defense," Stephenson said, per Wells. "That team is a good team. I don't think they're going to get frustrated."

Game 4 tips off at 8:30 p.m. ET on Sunday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Even if James and Co. fall behind 3-1, two of the potential final three games would be played at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.