NBA playoffs live: Victor Oladipo is in foul trouble, and the Pacers can't score without him

(Ken Blaze/USA Today Sports)

The first round of the NBA playoffs continues today with three pivotal Game 2s. 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 on last night’s games here.

Schedule | Pregame reading | Comments section Q&A

• Leaving Victor Oladipo on the bench isn’t going to work for the Pacers.

• Cavaliers shake up lineup … and they clearly wanted more offense.

• LeBron James finds himself in an unusual position: down 0-1 in a first-round playoff series.

Victor Oladipo up to three fouls already

Nate McMillan has twice had a chance to leave Victor Oladipo in the game with foul trouble.

Twice, he’s chosen not to.

After Oladipo was caught in the air by Kevin Love, who leapt into him and drew his third foul with 4:47 to go in the second quarter, McMillan opted to send Oladipo to the bench — just as he did when Oladipo picked up a pair of fouls 62 seconds into the game.

Perhaps Indiana will be able to survive this and make this a game. But for a team that already has trouble scoring, the more time it leaves itself without one of its best players, the more trouble it’s going to find itself in.

Forty-eight minutes in an NBA game is truly an eternity.

We’ve seen countless early leads evaporate as the game goes along, and the losing team makes a run to make things interesting.

When one of the teams involved is the Cleveland Cavaliers, though, that can be guaranteed to happen.

So it comes as little surprise that the Indiana Pacers have been able to make this game interesting in the second quarter. The reintroduction of Victor Oladipo, shockingly, has seen Indiana begin hitting shots again. And with LeBron James on the bench for the first few minutes of the second quarter, it was even less surprising that Oladipo was able to lead the Pacers back into this game.

The question, though, is if Indiana had to use up too much energy making a game of this again to prevent Cleveland from blowing it back open here over the latter stages of the first half.

Cavaliers are hitting three again

In Game 1, Cleveland — the team that made the third-most three-pointers per game of any team in the NBA this season — went just 8 for 34 from deep. Indiana, on the other hand — the team that made the 25th most three-pointers per game this season — shot 11 for 28.

That was always likely to regress back to the mean. And, in the first quarter of Game 2, it did.

Indiana only got off two three-point attempts — and missed both. Cleveland, meanwhile, went 5 for 10 from three, with four different players making one (and LeBron James making 2 of 4 on his way to 20 points).

If the Pacers can’t start making more baskets from three, the math equation just isn’t going to work in Indiana’s favor.

Leaving Victor Oladipo on the bench isn’t going to work for the Pacers

Nate McMillan has opted to leave Victor Oladipo on the bench here after the Pacers have gone from down six to down 16 early in Game 2 thanks to an avalanche of baskets from LeBron James.

Oladipo has two fouls, yes. But Oladipo also has fouled out of exactly one game in his five seasons in the NBA. The chances of him fouling out of this game, even with the early calls against him, are low.

So are the chances of the Pacers winning this game now that McMillan has left him on the bench while James has gone nuclear to start this game. Indiana has trouble scoring normally — let alone with their only true creator stuck on the bench.

The longer he stays there, the worse Indiana’s chances of winning become.

Lebron James has scored 16 points less than 6 minutes into the game
It's the most any player has scored in the first 6 minutes of a playoff game in the last 20 seasons
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 18, 2018

Not the best start if you’re Indiana

So in the first 78 seconds of Cavaliers-Pacers, we have:

– LeBron James scoring six points on three baskets.
– Victor Oladipo being called for a backcourt violation.
– Victor Oladipo being called for a charge.
– Victor Oladipo being called for a second foul and going to the bench 62 seconds into the game.

Let’s just say that wasn’t the start the Pacers were looking for.

Cavaliers shake up lineup … and they clearly want more offense

The starting lineup that was supposed to last for the entirety of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ run through the playoffs lasted for all of one game.

After the Cavaliers were routed by the Indiana Pacers in the opening game of their first-round series, Coach Tyronn Lue leaned into his team’s strengths — offense, and specifically shooting the three — and began Game 2 on Wednesday night with a starting five of George Hill, Kyle Korver, J.R. Smith, LeBron James and Kevin Love.

That should be a devastating offensive attack, with four premium three-point shooters surrounding James. Cleveland needs to get its outside shot back on track after going 8 for 34 from behind the arc in Game 1, and this should do the trick.

What it won’t do, though, is allow the Cavs to play much defense. Truth is, though, Cleveland doesn’t have much of a chance to stop anyone, anyway. It’s going to have to score to win — and this lineup should give it a chance to score a lot.

Could LeBron James, Cavaliers really go down 2-0 in the first round?

LeBron James finds himself in an unusual position: down 0-1 in a first-round playoff series.

Before the Cleveland Cavaliers were blown out in Game 1 by the Indiana Pacers, James had won 21 straight first round playoff games — going all the way back to Game 4 of the Miami Heat’s series against the New York Knicks in 2012. The Cavaliers have gone 36-5 over the past three seasons in the Eastern Conference since James returned to Northeast Ohio in 2014.

Now, though, Cleveland heads into Wednesday night’s Game 2 against Indiana with the very real possibility of going down 0-2 in the series staring the Cavaliers in the face — a moment James said shouldn’t be surprising that it has arrived, given how turbulent Cleveland’s season has been.

“I think we spent so much time trying to figure out who we were in the regular season and getting the right lineups and guys in and out and things of that nature, we could never build for the playoffs. It was kind of like, build for the next game,” James told reporters Wednesday morning. “So the postseason finally hit us and it hit us very well. And I think that can be the best teacher for us to know exactly what we should be ready for tonight.”

The Cavaliers need to be ready, or their season could be in jeopardy. Indiana has gone 4-1 now against Cleveland this season, and former DeMatha star Victor Oladipo is playing at an all-NBA level.

It’s unlikely the Pacers will shoot 11 for 28 from three again (they were 25th in the NBA in three-pointers made this season), just as it is unlikely the Cavaliers will shoot 8 for 34 (they were third). But it will take more than shooting regressing to the mean for Cleveland to look better than it did in Sunday’s lackluster performance.

And, if it doesn’t, the Cavaliers might have far less time to build than James, or anyone else, could’ve expected.

Wednesday’s schedule