Cavaliers face Pacers in first round of playoffs

In it, NC State guard Dereck Whittenburg calls 7-4 Virginia center Ralph Sampson, “The Monster”. Let’s see what kind of best offshore sportsbook odds James & Co. are facing in Game 1 of this series. “And this time he’s mad”.

After all those ups and downs, the Cavaliers find themselves as the fourth seed facing off against the fifth seeded Indiana Pacers in the opening round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.

The Pacers have gotten off to a great start in round one of the 2018 NBA Playoffs, dominating Cleveland 98-80.

Can it be done? Both teams played good ball at times throughout the regular season. Not many things in life are certain but LeBron vs the Pacers postseason has quickly become a near-yearly tradition.

Sabonis showed the savvy and toughness that his old man displayed while playing for years in Portland. Kevin Love led the team on the glass with eight rebounds. For the game, they hit 30-of-78 (38.5 percent) from the field, but managed just 8-of-34 (23.5 percent) from beyond the arc, with those game-long struggles making any sustained comeback effort futile. IN is 4-0 ATS in its last four games following a straight up loss.

James led the Cavaliers with 24 points. Obviously their season, from the outside looking in, was more productive than ours because of what they went through in the offseason. I expect the Cavs to win. Eight of those wins came without Embiid. Therefore, if the Cavaliers are able to control the tempo, they will control the series.

James hasn’t lost a single game in the first round for six years and is a flawless 12-0 since returning to Cleveland in 2014.

Coach Nate McMillian won’t get much love for coach of the year, but he has quietly done maybe the best coaching job of his career. The Pacers lead the all-time regular season series 97-92 and won three of the four meetings this season: Cleveland took a 115-108 home win in the last matchup on January 26. That surge started with two J.R. Smith 3-pointers, triggering what wound up being a 13-1 run to make it a 70-63 game with 1:06 remaining in the quarter.

After the Cavaliers closed the margin to 76-69 with a driving layup by James, the Pacers answered with a 12-2 run, including 3-pointers by Oladipo and Bogdanovic, to take 88-71 lead with 7:28 to go in the fourth quarter.

If Curry is back for what is an expected showdown series with the Rockets in the conference finals, they’ll be the best in the West yet again.

LeBron James hadn’t lost a first round game in the NBA Playoffs since he was a member of the Miami Heat.

The Indiana Pacers are set to face off against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Paul George scored 36 points to help Oklahoma City beat Utah in Game 1 of the Western Conference series.

The Cavs are still favorites to win the conference, thanks nearly entirely to LeBron James.