Indiana Pacers: 3 takeaways from Game 5 vs. Cavaliers

3. Victor Oladipo needs to find his groove

It’s tough to be critical of a guy who has singlehandedly turned around the fortunes of the Pacers franchise this year, but in two games that Indiana lost by a total of seven points, Oladipo has gone a combined 7-for-35.

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In Game 5, he had several open looks from 3 that have been going down all year, but they didn’t on Wednesday night. He made up for it some by going 7-of-9 from the line, grabbing 12 rebounds and dishing four assists, but it’s still shocking the Pacers were even in the game considering Vic’s struggles (12 points on 2-of-15 shooting).

There is no simple solution to getting this fixed, and some of it just comes down to the Pacers’ MVP hitting more of his open looks. If nothing else, in the game of chess that has been the Cavs’ trapping schemes employed to slow him down, Cleveland is certainly ahead at this point (although they mostly went away from these until late in the game, so it will be interesting to see if that trend continues on Friday).

One idea might be trying to spring Oladipo for rim runs early and often in Game 6. Tristan Thompson remains out of the Cavs’ rotation, and Kevin Love is nobody’s idea of a rim protector. The Pacers might also want to quicken there pace, something Cleveland has been susceptible to all year and Indiana hasn’t done nearly enough. Even with LeBron on the court, Indiana should make every effort to get Oladipo lanes to the basket more often for however long they have left.

It may be the difference between Indiana forcing a winner-take-all Game 7 or not.