Irving leads Cavs past Pacers
CLEVELAND — Kyrie Irving scored 37 points, Kevin Love added 27 and the Cleveland Cavaliers avoided another fourthquarter collapse in Game 2, beating the Indiana Pacers 117-111 on Monday night to take a 2-0 lead in the series.
After squeaking out the opener by a point, LeBron James and Co. showed more intensity on defense, more swagger in general and won their 10th straight first-round game over the past three seasons.
However, they nearly blew an 18-point lead in the fourth as the Pacers got within four before Cleveland closed it out at the line.
James added 10 rebounds and seven assists, but had eight of Cleveland’s 19 turnovers. Game 3 is Thursday night. Paul George scored 32 and Jeff Teague 23 for Indiana, which showed more fight, but now has a steep hill to climb to get back in the series. Cleveland is 12-0
when starting 2-0 in the postseason.
The Cavs vowed they would play better after their near-disaster in Game 1 and they backed up their talk, delivering the kind of performance that was routine last season but very rare in 2017.
Love scored 10 straight and drew a charging foul on Lance Stephenson in a span of two minutes as the Cavs opened an 89-70 lead. Irving closed the quarter by draining a 3-pointer over Stephenson and the All-Star made sure Indiana’s antagonizing guard knew about it, yapping in his direction long after the horn sounded.
The Cavs still led 109-91 with 6:09 left, but the Pacers ripped off 13 straight points and were within 113-109 when George hit a 3-pointer with 20 seconds left.
It continued a disturbing trend for the Cavs, who have been giving up late, big leads with regularity.
The other hitch for Cleveland was that starting guard J.R. Smith didn’t play in the second half because of a left hamstring injury. Iman Shumpert, who sat the opener, replaced Smith and played 20 solid minutes.
Despite losing the opener, Pacers coach Nate McMillian insisted his team hadn’t lost any confidence.
“We believe,” he said. “We came in believing, we still believe.”
SPURS 96, GRIZZLIES 82: In San Antonio, Kawhi Leonard had a postseason career-high 37 points and added 11 rebounds and San Antonio beat Memphis on Monday night to take a 2-0 lead in its first-round series.
San Antonio led for all but 13 seconds in winning its 10th consecutive postseason game over Memphis.
Leonard finished the game 9 for 14 from the field and was 19 for 19 on free throws.
Tony Parker added 15 points for the Spurs, who had three others score in double figures.
Mike Conley scored 24 points, Zach Randolph had 18 points and Marc Gasol added 12 points for the Grizzlies.
Game 3 is Thursday night in Memphis.