Cleveland Cavaliers: Top 5 NBA Playoff moments from Big 3 era

5. (2017) 25-point comeback versus Indiana

LeBron James’ led teams have a tendency to coast during the regular season. Combine this with a potential championship hangover from the year before and it’s no wonder the Cleveland Cavaliers were struggling in their first-round matchup with a hungry Indiana Pacers team.

The Pacers, led by Paul George, had watched their window for a title be slammed shut repeatedly by James during his time with the Miami Heat. Now that George was fully recovered from a devastating leg injury, the franchise hoped to stun the reigning champions and finally take down James.

Through the first two games of the series, Indiana was proving to be a surprisingly worthy opponent as a seven seed. The first game was decided by one point while the second ended as a two-possession game. Heading back to Indy for Game 3, the Pacers jumped out to an early big lead.

Much like they did in the previous two games, the Cavaliers looked lifeless on the floor. This time, the Pacers were taking full advantage in front of their home crowd and rolled their way to a 25-point halftime lead.

The Cavaliers were operating under the thought that they could simply ‘flip the switch’ whenever they felt like it. And well, that’s exactly what LeBron James and company did.

James was on another level in the second half. The King posted 28 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds on 9-of-16 shooting in the final 24 minutes. These are impressive numbers for an entire game, let alone one half.

One of the most interesting things from this game was the fact that this comeback was completed with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love on the bench. James and the second unit were rolling in the third quarter and head coach Tyronn Lue elected to ride the wave.

This obviously worked in the Cavaliers favor as the bench combined for 19 points in the fourth quarter. James put an exclamation mark on their record-breaking second-half comeback with a tomahawk dunk to silence the crowd.