Written by Kelly Dwyer At Ball Don’t Lie/ YahooSports.com
If any two teams were going to give us the lead-in to one of the biggest playoff comebacks in NBA history, let it be these Indiana Pacers and Cleveland Cavaliers, two clubs that appear at their best when engaged in mercurial play and unexpected outcomes.
The Cavs can get away with it; they’re the defending champs. The Pacers? They’re a game away from watching their season end.
The Cavs at least have LeBron James to lean on when things get … well, when they go down 26 points.
Behind LeBron’s brilliant 41-point, 13-rebound, 12-assist night, the Cavaliers were able to craft a comeback for the ages in the Game 3 win, roaring all the way back from a 72-46 deficit to a 119-114 victory. James even did his best work without ineffective teammates Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love down the stretch, as Cavs coach Tyronn Lue went with a cast of aging reserves to surround James in the fourth quarter of the 119-114 conquest.
The Pacers, struck by a spirit that put them swiftly in control of Game 3 in front of their home crowd, fell hard in the second half. The team managed just 40 points during that term, sputtering in the same places that seemed so warm just one half prior.
Paul George led the Pacers with 36 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists. He missed 18 of 28 shots in the loss, though, and was neither able to get in James’ way defensively nor make Cleveland sweat with clutch play of his own. Other Pacers looked tired or timid as the pace tightened, and James worked through a series of screen-and-rolls bent on allowing him the chance to survey the defense.
The attack, especially once his legs hit their stride in the third quarter, was unrelenting.
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