{"id":700715,"date":"2026-04-06T03:22:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/700715\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T03:22:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:22:45","slug":"9-takeaways-from-cavs-win-over-pacer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/700715\/","title":{"rendered":"9 Takeaways from Cavs win over Pacer"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND \u2014 It wasn\u2019t pretty, but the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> did enough to escape with a 117-108 win<\/a> over the Indiana Pacers.<\/p>\n

Thomas Bryant said something in the locker room before Sunday\u2019s game that presumably got the team fired up. Although neither he, James Harden, nor Donovan Mitchell would reveal what that was.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever it was, it worked, at least for Bryant.<\/p>\n

Bryant didn\u2019t disappoint in his first start with the Cavs. He provided infectious energy on a night the team desperately needed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just how he plays,\u201d head coach Kenny Atkinson said. \u201cIf we\u2019re playing a pickup game tomorrow at our practice facility, he\u2019s going to play the same. He\u2019s going to talk, he\u2019s going to yell and scream. \u2026 But it\u2019s good to have a good game against your former team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bryant agreed. He said it \u201cfelt good\u201d to get the start and pour in 14 points on 6-9 shooting to go along with 10 rebounds and two assists, with both Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen<\/a> missing the front end of a back-to-back due to rest.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gets us going every night,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cThere\u2019s a level of consistency with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cavs desperately needed that level of consistency, considering all the players they were missing. They rested Mobley (calf), Allen (knee), and Sam Merrill (hamstring) in addition to being without Dean Wade (ankle) and Jaylon Tyson (toe)<\/a>. That\u2019s five guys right there that are a part of your playoff rotations, which includes your starting front court and their depth.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s irresponsible to draw declarative conclusions from how this team looks when none of the five-man lineups \u2014 even this starting lineup \u2014 should be sharing the court in the postseason. And if the Cavs are forced to run out groups featuring Larry Nance Jr. and Nae\u2019Qwan Tomlin because of injuries, they likely aren\u2019t going to be reaching their postseason goals.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Anything bought from the links helps support Fear the Sword. You can buy the Donovan Mitchell and James Harden NBA Jam shirt HERE<\/a>. You can also shop all of Homage\u2019s Cavs gear HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That said, it\u2019s concerning that the Cavs are running into the same issues no matter who is on the court.<\/p>\n

Indiana has one of the worst records in the league and has an incentive to make that record even worse, considering the convoluted protections on their first-round pick. That\u2019s why they only dressed nine players for this game, and started two guys on two-way contracts.<\/p>\n

Still, Indiana\u2019s hustle and commitment to trying to play the right way defensively stood out. The Cavs were once again a step slow on that end, and the communication wasn\u2019t crisp. This led to easy shots and defenders with their palms up in frustration after the ball went through the net.<\/p>\n

It\u2019d be easy to explain this away as the Cavs being down so many key players. However, this is something we\u2019ve seen with this group for the last several weeks, no matter who\u2019s in the lineup.<\/p>\n

Cleveland locked in late defensively. They surrendered just 17 points in the fourth quarter, paving the way for what ended up being a mostly stress-free victory.<\/p>\n

Atkinson attributed the turnaround to getting energy from a group captained by Nance, Tomlin, and Craig Porter Jr. \u201cThat was the group that shifted the momentum,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cLarry and those young guys changed the complexion of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also helped to get superstar performances from both Mitchell and Harden.<\/p>\n

Mitchell was able to get into the lane at will in his 38-point outing. He went 14-18 (77.7%) on shots in the paint, which included going 10-12 (83.3%) at the rim.<\/p>\n

The only thing that could stop him was turning his ankle late. Afterward, he insisted that he was fine. Hopefully for the Cavs sake, he is. They need him at this level if they want to meet their postseason goals.<\/p>\n

Harden, conversely, made sure to keep the offense on track. This included quarterbacking the offense late to ensure it ran smoothly.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll take what [the defense] gives him,\u201d Atkinson said about how Harden runs the offense in the clutch. \u201cHe\u2019ll make the right play. That\u2019s why our clutch rating is so good.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was only a clutch game briefly (games within five points in the final five minutes), but the Cavs\u2019 offense was superb down the stretch. They scored 11 points in three minutes late that took things from a four-point game to a 1-point advantage, effectively ending the game.<\/p>\n

This has been nothing new; the Cavs have the third-best offensive rating in the clutch<\/a> (131.9<\/a>) since Harden\u2019s debut. That bodes well for a team that has previously struggled to close playoff games offensively.<\/p>\n

Despite scoring 28 points and having seven assists, Atkinson was most impressed with Harden\u2019s defense to the point that he remarked to his staff during the game that \u201che\u2019s our best defender\u201d this evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was thrilled with his defense tonight,\u201d Atkinson said of Harden. \u201cHe\u2019s sitting down, he\u2019s guarding. \u2026 He\u2019s so solid. He\u2019s always in the right place. Got great hands, smart as heck. I\u2019ll take that any day of the week. \u2026 He really knows his personnel, right? He knows who he\u2019s got to close out too hard. He knows who he can back off of. He just manages the game defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n

As mentioned at the top, it\u2019s difficult to take too much from this game. Despite injury scares to Mitchell (ankle)<\/a> and Max Strus (wrist), the Cavs seemed to have escaped this game mostly unscathed. That\u2019s what matters on a night like this when one more win ensures them home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, and there\u2019s little to play for.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing for us is getting healthy,\u201d Harden said. \u201cWhen we do that, we can figure everything else out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND \u2014 It wasn\u2019t pretty, but the Cleveland Cavaliers did enough to escape with a 117-108 win over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,1236,113,126,3866,6,114],"class_list":{"0":"post-700715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indiana-pacers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cavs-analysis","10":"tag-indiana","11":"tag-indiana-pacers","12":"tag-indianapacers","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-pacers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116355622540529142","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}