INDIANAPOLIS — After taking the first two games of their second-round playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Indiana Pacers were ineffective when the Cavs switched to 3-2 zone defense in the second quarter of Game 3. The Pacers watched film, assessed the damage and adjusted after the 22-point loss.
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Center Myles Turner, along with Pascal Siakam and Obi Toppin, helped Indiana create openings to attack against the 3-2 zone by finding smaller defenders on the back line and posting them up in Sunday’s Game 4. The Pacers scored 1.50 points per possession in the first half against the zone and took a 3-1 series lead by beating the Cavs 129-109.
“We just had a better attitude about attacking the zone tonight, but we did it with greater urgency and more attitude,” Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said. “We’ve seen more zone than anybody in the league this year, so we had to make some adjustments. But the biggest adjustments were in attitude and how we brought a certain level of aggression to it, and we did better tonight.”
Indiana got rolling early. On Cleveland’s opening possession, a turnover by guard Darius Garland resulted in a dunk by Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton.
Haliburton slams it on the break to open the scoring in Game 4!
📺 CLE (1-2) IND on TNT pic.twitter.com/eJhg7TP0RC
— NBA (@NBA) May 12, 2025
Throughout the series both sides have talked about throwing first punches and counterpunches, and those hits have come both literally and figuratively.
Less than eight minutes into the game, guard Bennedict Mathurin was ejected after he hit Cavaliers wing De’Andre Hunter in the sternum with his fist. Hunter responded by pushing Mathurin to the court, and Turner retaliated by shoving Hunter. After a lengthy review, Mathurin received a Flagrant-2, an automatic ejection. Both Hunter and Turner were assessed technical fouls as boos rained down from the crowd.
“Whatever happened, happened. He’ll accept the ejection, whatever else happens from it, and we just got to move forward,” Carlisle said. “It’s a learning experience for him. Playoff series are physical, they’re chippy, they’re personal. We gotta stay out of the weeds of things that take us away from what we do best.”
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Without one of their best players on the floor in Mathurin, Indiana still dominated the first half, shooting 60 percent from the field and making 12-of-18 3-pointers. After Aaron Nesmith’s buzzer-beater at the end of the second quarter, the Pacers took an 80-39 lead into halftime. That matched the largest halftime lead in NBA postseason history, tying the 2017 Cavaliers’ lead over the Boston Celtics in Game 2 of the 2017 Eastern Conference finals.
“When we get going like that, we’re a tough team to beat,” Turner said. “When everybody gets humming and everybody gets to touch the ball, everybody feels good.”
Turner scored 13 points in the period on 5-of-6 shooting including 3-of-3 from the 3-point line. He finished with 20 points.
In Game 3, the Pacers conceded 16 points on 13 turnovers as they struggled against the zone defense. This time, Cleveland had double-digit turnovers (22), and the Pacers scored 35 points off those miscues while attempting 23 more shots than the Cavs. Indiana was outrebounded 56-37 in Game 3 but shaved that deficit to 41-37 on Sunday.
“They’ve been killing us on the glass every game this series, and that’s allowed them to get more shots and more opportunities to rebound again,” Haliburton said. “I thought we did a good job of rebounding off the jump, and then that allowed us to play in transition more where we feel like we’re one of the best teams in the world at doing that.”
Haliburton wasn’t much of a contributor in Game 3 as the Cavs’ defense kept him out the game, removing him as a scoring threat and keeping him to just four points. He drew criticism for not speaking to the media afterward. After Saturday’s practice, Haliburton said that, after 12 hours of film study, he could’ve gotten himself more involved as a screener and created chaos.
“I thought I did a better job of moving without the ball. I feel like I’ve caught myself standing too high, like at half court, and I’m really doing nothing at that point,” Haliburton said. “I did a better job there, but there’s still room for me to improve. Keep watching the film, see where I can get better. I thought my teammates did a great job of screening for me, getting me open and telling me to screen for them as well.”
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Haliburton only played 26 minutes as Carlisle sat his starters early after the Pacers annihilated the Cavs’ top-10 defense, finishing with 11 points, five assists and five rebounds, The Pacers shot 9-of-15 (60 percent) from the field against the zone and hit 3 of their 6 3-pointers.
“I was really, really proud of our performance,” Haliburton said. “I thought, obviously, the first half was pretty amazing, the shot making, and I thought we were really good on the defensive end. We had a lot of different guys step up. Our bench was amazing. That’s why you see such a balanced scoring effort from all of us.”
The Pacers had seven players finish in double figures including Siakam, who posted 21 points and six rebounds. Toppin nearly matched him with 20 points and five rebounds. Three Indiana players had at least five assists. Backup point guard T.J. McConnell led with eight while Andrew Nembhard had seven. The Pacers’ 37 assists were the most by a team in the 2025 playoffs.
But despite the wire-to-wire dismantling of the 64-win Cavs, Carlisle wasn’t ready to consider that his team had the Cavs on the brink of elimination, choosing instead to maintain an underdog mindset heading into Tuesday’s Game 5 in Cleveland.
“We haven’t done anything yet,” said Carlisle, who passed Larry Bird for most playoff wins in Pacers franchise history with 33. “We’re going to keep approaching this like we have everything to prove. We know people don’t believe in us, and so we’re going to just stay in the fight and keep fighting.”
(Photo of Andrew Nembhard and Obi Toppin: Dylan Buell / Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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