CLEVELAND — The Pacers unexpectedly walked into a hornets nest on Saturday night in Cleveland. The Cavs’ record of 17-42 at the time said one thing but their fight said something entirely different. After an amazing 15 ties and 12 lead changes Indiana walked out of Quicken Loans Arena with a 113-104 win.
That win gave the Blue and Gold their fifth win in the last six games after dropping a season high six in a row. Once again, Indiana’s entire starting five finished in double figures led by TJ Warren’s 30 points.
Malcolm Brogdon came through with 22 as Victor Oladipo dropped a smooth 19 on a boy after being a game time decision with a sore ankle. Domantas Sabonis was just shy of a triple-double as he finished with 18 points, 13 rebounds and 9 assists. However, it was his 46th double-double of the season. That’s NUTS!!!
After the game Oladipo had this to say about his soldiers, “We have five guys on the court that can get us a great look… and a lot of teams can’t say that.”
That’s true as they finally found their rhythm down the stretch to pull away. They needed all of them to show up because their bench was an Amber Alert contributing only 14 total points.
Warren dropped three buckets down the stretch as Brogdon’s jumper put them ahead at the 6:41 mark 96-95 to get them into a groove to finish these boyz out. Myles Turner hit them with the dagger 3-pointer with the shot clock expiring with less than a minute left to stick a fork in the Cavs.
Up next the Pacers travel to San Antonio for a showdown with the Spurs on Monday.
