Indiana Pacers: 3 takeaways from Game 5 vs. Cavaliers

2. Do the Cavs continue to let LeBron beat Indiana?

The game LeBron James just had to essentially save Cleveland’s season has received most of the attention after Game 5, and rightly so. He was otherworldly, putting up 44 points on 24 shots to go with 10 rebounds and eight assists. At this point, hate on the man at your own peril.

With that being said, the Pacers have clearly made a decision in this series that they will live with James beating them by himself. They threw some different looks his way, and every one of those points was hard-earned.

Meanwhile, Indiana did what it needed to do against almost everyone else. Kevin Love was 2-for-11 and J.R. Smith missed all of his eight attempts. Many of these came with the shooter having a bit of room, but as we discussed before the series, Indiana prides itself on making every shot — evenly seemingly open ones — at least a bit uncomfortable.

One player who might be the key to forcing a Game 7 is Kyle Korver, the one other Cav the Pacers couldn’t shut down. He hit 5-of- 9 from deep and totaled 19 points, every one of which felt huge. For much of the night, it seemed as if James and Korver were the entire Cleveland offense.

But it was enough to win, and maybe for the Cavs, enough to advance. Speaking of which…