LeBron looms large as Cavs earn split
CLEVELAND The situation was dire, requiring dominance. LeBron James delivered. No surprise there. Taking matters into his own hands, James scored 46 points and added 12 rebounds as the Cleveland Cavaliers bounced back from a poor performance in the series opener by holding off the Indiana Pacers 10097 on Wednesday night to even their Eastern Conference playoff matchup at one game apiece.
Dazzling from the start, James scored the game’s first 16 points and had 29 at halftime, ruling the floor as he has done in so many previous postseasons.
“I played my game,” he said.
But in a season in which nothing has been easy for the Cavs, Cleveland was lucky that Indiana’s Victor Oladipo missed a wide-open 3-pointer that would have tied it with 27 seconds left.
“I got a clean look, I shot and I just missed,” Oladipo said, shrugging his shoulders. “If I had that look again, I would take it every time.”
Kevin Love scored 15, but Cleveland’s All-Star centre jammed his left thumb — the same hand he broke earlier this season- while deflecting a pass and sat out the final 3:43 left with the Cavs clinging to a slim lead. Lue said Love could have returned and “he’s fine” for Game 3 on Friday.
As long as James is OK, the Cavs will always have a chance.
Lue shook up his starting lineup for Game 2 and Kyle Korver contributed 12 points, all on 3s, made several hustling plays and took two charges.
Oladipo scored 22 — he was in early foul trouble — and Myles Turner 18 for the Pacers, who shocked the Cavs with an overpowering win in Game 1 and head home full of confidence.
Indiana clawed back from an 18-point deficit and was within 95-92 when Oladipo, who scored 32 in the opener, somehow came free off a screen but missed maybe his easiest shot in two games.
James grabbed the rebound and made three free throws over the final 22 seconds as the Cavs avoided falling behind 2-0 on the series.
The 33-year-old James was expected to be more aggressive than in Game 1, when he was unusually passive, deferred to teammates and suffered the first playoff-opening loss of his career.
James was his unstoppable self again, and there wasn’t a whole lot the Pacers could do about him in the first half.
“We just wanted him to set the tone and he did that by getting to the basket early, making a couple jump shots,” Lue said. “But we ran the same first play until they stopped it. He kept getting what he wanted. We just kind of followed his lead from there.”
JAZZ 102, THUNDER 95
OKLAHOMA CITY — Rookie Donovan Mitchell scored 13 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter to help the Utah Jazz defeat the Oklahoma City Thunder and tie their Western Conference playoff series at one win game apiece.
Derrick Favours had career playoff bests of 20 points and 16 rebounds for the Jazz, and Ricky Rubio had 22 points, nine assists and seven rebounds in the first playoff win of his seven-year career.
Russell Westbrook had 19 points, 13 assists and nine rebounds for the Thunder. Paul George, who scored 36 points in Game 1, finished with 18 on 6-for-21 shooting. Carmelo Anthony scored 17 points, but made just six of 18 shots.
ROCKETS 102, TIMBERWOLVES 82
HOUSTON — Chris Paul had 27 points and Gerald Green came off the bench to score 21 as the Houston Rockets used a huge second quarter to cruise past the Minnesota Timberwolves and take a 2-0 lead in the firstround playoff series.
Houston fell behind early, but went on top for good with a 37-point second quarter, powered by four 3-pointers from Green, and the Wolves didn’t threaten again. The topseeded Rockets won the opener by three behind a 44-point performance from James Harden on a night when most of the team struggled offensively. Things were much different on Wednesday when Harden had just 12 points as one of four Rockets who finished in double figures.
Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns had another disappointing game, scoring all of his five points in the first quarter, after being criticized for finishing with eight in the series opener.