Indiana Pacers: 3 takeaways from Game 1 vs. Cavaliers

2. Pacers defense gets under Cavs skin

Before Sunday afternoon, the Cavs had scored 80 points or less exactly once this year. This makes it twice.

Nothing much went right for Cleveland on offense. They shot 8-for-34 for the game from deep, and only 38.5 percent from the field — and that was with J.R. Smith finding the range and going 6-for-11, including 3-for-6 from downtown.

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Other than Smith, it was tough sledding. The reason, as coach David Thorpe noted to Zach Lowe on the the Lowe Post podcast this week, is that while the Pacers aren’t the most gifted team on defense, they excel at making opponents uncomfortable by getting into their bodies and making shooters uncomfortable on seemingly open looks.

This was never more apparent than in the first quarter, when the Cavs went 0-for-8 from long range. Some of these looks were ones they usually make, but it’s hard to separate the effect that Indiana’s tenacity had on Cleveland’s comfort level.

Throw in the general pain the butt that Indiana’s wings are when they get into passing lanes (the team had 12 steals, lead by soon to be All-Defense captain Victor Oladipo‘s four), and it’s not hard to see how they made life so difficult.

It’s also fair to consider how unnerved all of the new Cavs were playing in their first playoff game for a presumptive conference favorite. Rodney Hood looked like a deer in headlights at the beginning of the afternoon and Jeff Green was 0-for-7 from the field.

Nowhere to go but up, I suppose.