The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Indiana Pacers in a winner-take-all Game 7, while the Rockets and Jazz kick off the second-round in Houston. Follow along here for the latest analysis and commentary from The Post’s NBA reporter Tim Bontemps, and ask him questions in the comments section. Catch up with Saturday’s results here.
Schedule and results | Pregame reading | Comments section Q&A
The Houston Rockets looked fairly ordinary for large stretches of their eventual five-game victory in their first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
They have looked anything but ordinary in their opening game of the second round.
Shooting over 50 percent from the field and 60 percent from three, Houston is boat-racing the Utah Jazz and leading by more than 20 early in the second half.
James Harden has 20 points and Chris Paul has 14 for the Rockets, while they also have combined for nine assists. Utah has struggled to generate offense, with Rudy Gobert only scoring two points and Donovan Mitchell leading Utah with 13.
The Utah Jazz have had a terrific season, and have the potential to give the Houston Rockets problems.
One thing they are going to struggle to do against any team, though, is come back from double-digit deficits. That’s especially true against a team that’s as explosive as the Houston Rockets.
That’s why the Jazz falling behind 34-21 after one quarter in Houston — especially after playing an intense game Friday night to close out the Oklahoma City Thunder and without Ricky Rubio, who is out for at least a week with a hamstring injury — is exactly what Utah couldn’t have happen.
With Houston already hitting six three-pointers, it’s going to be difficult for Utah to get back into this game with the Rockets at home in open air space and feeling good.
Cavaliers make sure LeBron James still hasn’t lost a first-round series
CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers have survived — barely.
Behind yet another herculean effort from LeBron James, Cleveland managed to escape from this Game 7 against the Indiana Pacers with 105-101 victory, advancing to face the Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference semifinals starting Tuesday.
With the win, James improved to 13-0 all-time in first-round playoff series. But unlike the past five seasons, in which James has repeatedly swept through the first round of the playoffs, this time he only escaped from this series by the skin of his teeth.
“We’ll take this win, and worry about the next round when we get there,” James said in his television interview after finishing with 45 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and four steals in 45 minutes. “My guys stepped up.”
For so much of this series, the focus has been on what the players around James weren’t doing. But in this one, it has to be said, it was the other members of the Cavs — despite James’s usual brilliance — that proved to be the difference.
Coach Tyronn Lue went to the players he’d been with before in the playoffs — J.R. Smith, Kyle Korver, Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson, who had barely played in the series before Game 6 — to start the game.
He was rewarded with a terrific game from Thompson, who had 15 points, 10 rebounds and a key block of a shot by Darren Collison in the fourth quarter.
Meanwhile, when James had to exit the game late in the third quarter with cramps — the first time he’d sit in the entire game — the Cavs clung to a one-point lead. By the time he came back in with 8:25 remaining, the lead had ballooned to eight after Cleveland went on an 11-4 run.
That run was powered, in part, by George Hill, who hadn’t played the last three games and didn’t play in the first half — only to play the final 19 minutes of the game and finish with nine points (including a perfect 7-for-7 from the foul line), five rebounds, three assists and a blocked shot.
“We started the game with the guys that have been in big games before. JR, Tristan, Kev, Kyle Korver,” James said. “We knew what we wanted to get out of each and every one of us.
“I would split the game ball in half between Tristan and G-Hill. Tristan was magnificent protecting the rim, getting offensive rebounds. That’s called staying ready.”
Victor Oladipo had 30 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and three steals for Indiana, but struggled in the first half as the Pacers fell behind by 12 points at the break. A 20-5 run put Indiana briefly into the lead in the third quarter, but once Cleveland got back ahead at the end of the quarter, the Cavaliers stayed there.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are still leading, but the story now is LeBron James dealing with cramping.
James hadn’t come out of the game once before exiting with a minute left in the third quarter and immediately heading back to the locker room, accompanied by Cleveland’s trainer. He eventually re-emerged just after the start of the fourth quarter, coming back to the bench, where he still remains.
In the three minutes he was out of the game, Cleveland scored six straight points, expanding the lead from 75-74 late in the third to 82-74 early in the fourth on a foul shot by Larry Nance, three foul shots by George Hill and a three-pointer from Kevin Love.
That could be the defining stretch of this game, as the Cavaliers managed to extend their lead with James not in the game. Now he should be back for the duration.
Things have quickly gone sideways for the Cavaliers.
After Cleveland committed just one turnover in the first half, the Cavaliers came out of the gates in the third quarter and committed four early on, allowing Indiana to come roaring back with a 20-5 run to take a 61-58 lead after three pointers by Thaddeus Young and Bojan Bogdanovic, followed by a pair of free throws from Victor Oladipo.
In what could be seen as a sign of desperation, Cavaliers Coach Tyronn Lue went to George Hill — who missed the last three games with a back injury and didn’t play in the first half — in the third quarter.
Something else to monitor: Cleveland so far has one basket by a bench player — a three-pointer from Jeff Green. If LeBron James, who is likely to play all 48 minutes, is going to win this game, he very well may have to do it alone.
The Cleveland Cavaliers couldn’t have played much better in the first half.
Behind a sterling performance from LeBron James, 11 offensive rebounds and committing just one turnovers, the Cavaliers opened up a 54-43 lead over the Indiana Pacers at halftime of Game 7 of this first round series.
James — who told his family section that he was playing the whole game during the second quarter — had 26 points on 11-for-16 shooting to go with five rebounds and four assists for Cleveland. The rest of the Cavaliers, though, are shooting 10-for-32.
Darren Collison is off to a hot start for the Pacers, scoring 17 points on 6-for-7 shooting, but all-star Victor Oladipo (five points on 2-for-6 shooting) has once again not shown up.
Tristan Thompson has 10 points and nine rebounds — including four offensive — for Cleveland, which isn’t shooting well, but is making up for it but having 17 more shots than the Pacers (who are shooting 53.3 percent overall, and 5-for-12 from three) in the first half.
It looks like LeBron James is planning to play all 48 minutes of Game 7.
That could be a problem — for Cleveland.
Why? Because for as much work as James puts into his body, playing 48 high-intensity minutes 36 hours after Game 6 is a bad idea.
It would’ve been smarter for him and the Cavaliers to sit him at the start of the second quarter when Cleveland had a 14-point lead. Instead, it kept James in as the Pacers managed to cut the lead to as little as four.
Cleveland has pushed the lead back to 12 thanks to more exemplary play from James. But if he’s having exert this much for 48 minutes, the Cavaliers had better hope this game doesn’t get back down close at the end — or else James may not have enough energy to pull it out of the fire.
LeBron James has come out on a mission to win this Game 7. Victor Oladipo hasn’t shown up.
That, in a nutshell, is what happened in the first quarter, as the Cleveland Cavaliers jumped out to a 31-19 lead. James is 5-for-5 and had 13 points in the first quarter, while Oladipo went 0-for-4 and was a game-worst minus-13.
Even more importantly for the Cavaliers? They committed no turnovers in the first quarter, which often is a bugaboo when James plays point guard, as he is today.
The way James is playing, though, they may not have a turnover the entire game at this rate.
In the game that could define not just Cleveland’s season but the future of the franchise, Cavaliers Coach Tyronn Lue is in “ride or die” mode.
By starting Tristan Thompson at center, and deploying LeBron James at point guard, Lue is leaning heavily on the players who have been through the wars with him in the past — and not on the new faces Cleveland has imported over the past year.
Early on, the Pacers have been trying to get isolations against Kevin Love, but haven’t been able to take advantage of them. Cleveland, meanwhile, has already had LeBron James barrel into the lane twice for layups and hit Love for a corner three to make it 9-2 Cavaliers early on.
CLEVELAND — The focal point of everyone’s attention here today will be on LeBron James. In what could be his final game in Cleveland, there will be scrutiny on every movement James makes and every word he says if this marks the end of the Cavaliers’ season.
Whether today’s Game 7 does result in the end of Cleveland’s season, though, has less to do with what James does than it does with the play of Victor Oladipo.
The truth is that Indiana has been the better team in this series by a significant margin, and that has been the case despite Oladipo’s inconsistency from game-to-game. Perfect example: After going 12-for-50 in Games 3, 4 and 5, he had a triple-double in Game 6.
If Oladipo just isn’t awful in Game 7, the Pacers should win the game. Indiana has arguably been the better team in all six games, and yet finds itself now in a Game 7 on the road.
But with Kevin Love clearly not 100 percent and the rest of Cleveland’s supporting cast not doing enough to provide a threat around James, this is a golden opportunity for the Pacers to finally vanquish James form the playoffs after losing to him four times previously in the postseason.
Cleveland did get a boost before Game 7 when Cavaliers Coach Tyronn Lue said point guard George Hill will be available to play after missing Games 4-6 after suffering a back injury in Game 3. Lue wouldn’t say whether Hill would start or not, but either way it seems unlikely Hill would be able to play more than 20-25 minutes regardless.
Sunday’s schedule and results:
- Indiana Pacers at Cleveland Cavaliers, 1 p.m., ABC (Series tied, 3-3)
- Utah Jazz at Houston Rockets (second-round series Game 1)
Additional reading:
Friday’s loss is likely just the beginning of a painful summer for the Oklahoma City Thunder
In wake of LeBron James no-call, Indianapolis mayor outlaws goaltending
The Miami Heat bet big on Hassan Whiteside. It appears they made a mistake. Now what?
The one-and-done rule is on the way out — because of NBA money, not NCAA morals
Retirement? Dwyane Wade says there’s ‘no breaking news here’
It feels like the end of an era for the San Antonio Spurs
The Sixers are flying high in the playoffs and, thanks to Joel Embiid, so is Kevin Hart
Why is there a snake on the Philadelphia 76ers’ court?
After first-round sweep, Blazers’ next steps could include trading away their stars
‘All my best games I was medicated’: Matt Barnes on his game-day use of marijuana
Adam Silver: One of the WNBA’s problems is that not enough young women pay attention to it
‘Get off her back’: LeBron James defends TNT reporter who asked him about Erin Popovich’s death
NBA, Twitch reach deal on 2K League streaming rights
Comment Q&A
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