How Indiana Pacers Still Haunt Cleveland Cavaliers originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
In the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, the best team in the Conference all season, the Cleveland Cavaliers, simply could not hold their own against the Indiana Pacers.
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Indiana played fast, hit tough shots, and relied on a well-rounded offense to keep them afloat, as well as Tyrese Haliburton’s heroics to seal the deal. Winning in five games, Indiana sent the Cavs home, foiling their plan to make their first Conference Finals since LeBron James left.
Next season, Indiana will suffer a down year, and the Cavs are running things back with the same roster. Head coach Kenny Atkinson has not taken a break this summer, traveling all over the country to build chemistry with his players.
“He spent some time with Evan Mobley and De’Andre Hunter out in Los Angeles, he spent some time with Darius Garland going through the whole recovery plan with the doctors and stuff like that, he went out to see Sam Merrill, he went out to see Donovan Mitchell,” listed insider Chris Fedor.
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Of course, Atkinson remains haunted by the series and hasn’t let a day go by without thinking about it.
Despite not having any downtime, Atkinson has obsessed over the series, poring over film to see where Cleveland went wrong.
“He has re-watched the Indiana series so many different times, trying to study that and learn from that,” Fedor added.
Of course, the Cavs were banged up in the matchup, although they couldn’t match the pace of Indiana, which ran them out of the building in three of their four wins.
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This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Aug 7, 2025, where it first appeared.