The 1st seed Cleveland Cavaliers and the 4th seed Indiana Pacers will face off in the second round of Eastern Conference Playoffs.
Both teams quickly and easily dispatched their first-round opponents to get to the second round.
The Cavaliers swept the Miami Heat in 4 games, while the Pacers took care of the Milwaukee Bucks in 5.
Cleveland continues to be one of the league’s hottest teams heading into the semifinals.
The Cavaliers dominated the Heat all series. In 4 games, Cleveland defeated Miami by an average of 30.5 points, while also scoring an average of 126 points. This included a 55-point victory in Game 4.
It has been an all-around team effort from Cleveland, as 7 Cavaliers averaged double figures in scoring against Miami.
Donovan Mitchell led the way with an average of 23.8 points, 4 assists and 3.3 rebounds.
Darius Garland averaged 24 points and 7 assists through the first two games, but missed the last two with a left toe sprain.
The recently-named NBA Defensive Player of the Year Evan Mobley showed his two-way versatility as he averaged 16.3 points and 6.5 rebounds.
Cleveland did a good job of moving and taking care of the ball, as they averaged 25.8 assists and 10 turnovers as a team.
On the defensive end, Cleveland averaged 10 steals and limited Miami to 34.6% shooting from the 3-point line.
The Pacers enter this series as the heavy underdog.
They come off an emotional 5-game series against the Bucks, who they merely defeated in a Game 5 overtime thriller thanks to a game-winning layup from Tyrese Haliburton.
Haliburton continues to have a chip on his shoulder, as he was recently voted as the NBA’s most overrated player in an anonymous player poll. He showed out against Milwaukee though, as he averaged a double-double with 17.6 points and 11.6 assists.
Pascal Siakam led the Pacers in scoring with an average of 19.8 points. He shot 44.4% from the 3-point line, which is up from his 38.9% average from the regular season.
Indiana averaged 117.8 points and 30 assists through the series. Like Cleveland, the Pacers had 7 players average double digits in scoring.
Indiana won the regular season series against Cleveland 3-1. However, Mitchell missed one game and both teams rested their starters for another.
Both teams are capable of putting up over 120 points on any given night. Scoring will not be an issue in this series.
The deciding factor of this series will be defense. Indiana has an offense capable of keeping up with Cleveland, but their defense is light years behind. The Pacers simply don’t have a reliable defense to keep them in games if they go cold.
Cleveland will continue to put up big numbers on offense, without much resistance from Indiana. The Cavs have been an elite team on both sides of the ball all season. This trend has not shown any signs of slowing down any time soon.
Mobley and Jarrett Allen will disrupt Indiana’s perimeter and paint offense. Cleveland’s defense will come up big against Indiana in key moments down the stretch and will ultimately lead them to victory.
Prediction: Cavaliers in 6.
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