Indiana Pacers: 3 takeaways from Game 7 vs. Cavaliers

The Indiana Pacers’ dream season ended Sunday afternoon in Cleveland. Here’s why they’re going home despite arguably being the better team in the series.

Have you ever been on a date with someone you knew was way, way out of your league? A person who it took all the nerve you had in you just to ask out? When the night is happening, it’s the highest of highs, and as it winds down, you tell yourself, “Whatever happens from here is gravy.”

A couple days later, you shoot off a text. No response. You wait another couple days, send one more, and…nada.

It’s over before it even began. I mean, you get it. In your heart of hearts, you knew this person was always too good for you. But you just felt like you had it…that for whatever reason it was clicking and the universe was smiling down upon you for the first time in your otherwise unspectacular existence.

You were mistaken.

(…sigh…)

Here’s the part where the analogy to the Indiana Pacers would usually go. It’s the part that says how they were in over their heads. It’s where you read that it was an accomplishment to even make it a competitive series against one of the three greatest players of all time — a man who somehow is still at the peak of his powers 15 years into a career that itself has no peer.

Keep waiting. The Pacers just lost a series to an inferior team, and while they still have every reason to be proud of their season, they’ll also have a fair amount of regret heading into the summer. They were the better team, and they are going home.

Here are three reasons why the little engine that could finally ran out of fuel.