Cavaliers at Pacers
The Indiana Pacers battled back from a 17-point deficit to win Game 3 of their first-round, Eastern Conference playoff series over the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the momentum is entirely in their locker room moving forward. The Pacers will try to take advantage of that momentum and push the advantage to 3-1 when they host the Cavaliers in Game 4 on Sunday.
Indiana, led by small forward Bojan Bogdanovic, stunned Cleveland at both ends of the floor in the second half of Friday's Game 3 and held the Cavaliers to 33 points after the break. "I just thought their physicality," Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue told reporters. "Denying the basketball, getting into us so when we catch the ball we're back on our heels. The pressure. I thought it just hurt us." The Cavaliers were 40-0 when taking a lead into the fourth quarter this season prior to Friday, and Pacers coach Nate McMillan was not surprised that his team was able to battle back. "There's been a lot of fight in these guys all season long," McMillan told reporters. "We've been in that situation at half where we’ve been down or we haven't played our best basketball and they come out and just continue to fight, continue to scrap."
TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, TNT, FS Ohio (Cleveland), FS Indiana
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS: Superstar LeBron James often finds himself on an island with inconsistent production from his teammates, and he was one of three Cleveland players to score in double figures in Game 3 while finishing with 28 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists. James is 12-0 in his career in first-round playoff series and is trying to instill a sense of urgency in the Cavaliers. "It's the postseason," James told reporters. "Every game is a must win. You want to come in and play well and win no matter what. No matter if you have homecourt advantage or if you’re starting on the road, that's the mindset you have to have."
ABOUT THE PACERS: Bogdanovic scored a season-high 30 points on 11-of-15 shooting and went 7-of-9 from beyond the arc, including a four-point play late in the fourth quarter, while playing solid defense against James. "He did an excellent job," Indiana swingman Lance Stephenson, who often finds himself matched up against James, told reporters of Bogdanovic. "I'll give him a 100 on the test. He did a good job on LeBron and hit open shots. Attacked. We've seen he could do that throughout the season, but for him to do that in the playoffs is amazing. Bogey manned up." Indiana held the Cavaliers to an average of 90 points in the first three games.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Pacers All-Star SG Victor Oladipo is 3-of-16 from 3-point range in the last two games after going 6-of-9 in Game 1.
2. Cleveland PG George Hill scored 13 points in Game 3, matching his total from the first two contests.
3. Indiana PF Thaddeus Young is shooting 65 percent from the floor in the series and totaled six steals in the last two games.