The ‘Comeback Kids’ have punched their ticket to the Final Four.
The Indiana Pacers found their grit and determination and fought their way back from a 19-point, second-quarter deficit, 44-25, to eliminate the No. 1 seeded Cleveland Cavaliers from the NBA playoffs and reach the Eastern Conference Finals for a second consecutive year.
Their best player, Tyrese Haliburton, who struggled mightily in Games 3 and 4, had a team-high 31 points, with six rebounds and eight dimes to lead the Pacers to a 114-105 victory and secure the series in a gentlemen’s sweep, 4-1.
“I’m certainly very excited for our fans, our ownership, our city,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle told reporters after the game. “Winning a closeout game on the road is extremely difficult.
“We were down 19 and Ty’s run of shot-making in the second quarter got us back into it.
“We just had a lot of guys that played extremely hard, and we just said: ‘Hey, let’s hang in this thing, try to wear them down and see if we can outlast them,’ and essentially that’s what happened.”
The Cavaliers, who unexpectedly dropped all three home games in this series, will once again be kicking themselves after surrendering a big lead as they did in Games 1 and 2 in Cleveland.
The Cavaliers have been ravaged by injuries this series, but no one is healthy at this time of the year. Darius Garland missed the first two games with a sprained left toe and star guard Donovan Mitchell sitting the second half of Game 4 with an ankle injury that he reaggravated.
Both were back and ready to go for Tuesday’s Game 5, but it made little difference in the full scheme of things. Garland was a quiet non-factor, scoring 11 points on 4-of-16 from the field, including 0-of-6 from 3-point range, while Mitchell led everyone with 35 points on an inefficient 8-of-25 shooting night.
Embed from Getty ImagesMitchell did most of his damage from the free throw line; his 21 attempts from the charity stripe were one fewer than the entire Pacers’ team.
When asked about Cleveland’s injuries impacting the series, Carlisle thought back to someone recently telling him that “the winning team writes the script.”
“I have to give our guys credit, they earned this,” Carlisle said. “This (Cleveland) is one of the best teams in the league, injuries, dings or no dings. They had a great year. I’m sorry their season had to end like this. They kind of had the perfect season, and we then came along and we’re hot at the right time.
“We’re talking about eight more wins for an NBA championship,” Carlisle added. “The league is wide open this year, there are a lot of great teams, but it’s wide open. We’ve just got to keep believing, we’ve got a great group of guys who have committed to one another.”
While the Pacers earn some much-needed rest and get prepared to face either the New York Knicks or the Boston Celtics for another shot at reaching the NBA Finals, the Cavaliers will be left to think about a failure of a season in which they emerged as the East’s best team over 82 games. They also had the Coach of the Year, Kenny Atkinson and Defensive Player of the Year, Evan Mobley.
It is only the fourth time in NBA history that a team with at least 64 wins in the regular season did not advance past the second round, according to ESPN.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” Mitchell said after the defeat. “Didn’t want to believe it. Don’t want to believe it. Still don’t want to believe it.
“I love playing in that f**king arena, man. That energy, that crowd. We were 0-3 at home, let the city down. This place is special. This place is really special, and we didn’t get it done.
“Especially at home, that’s what hurts.”
The Knicks and Celtics play Game 5 in Boston on Wednesday, with New York holding a commanding 3-1 series lead and Boston missing star Jayson Tatum due to a torn Achilles tendon.
