On Monday, the Cleveland Cavaliers threw everything including the kitchen sink to prevail with a 140-135 win in overtime against the resurgent Washington Wizards. The Cavs have won all three of their games in their current four-game road trip, all the while also ending Washington’s 17-game home win streak.
The East’s best team will look to put another co-conference playoff hopeful’s impressive run to a halt this Wednesday when they travel to Indy and face off against the Pacers. As strange as it sounds, though, the Cavs have actually lost nine of their last 10 games played in Bankers Life Fieldhouse (SU/ATS). However, they didn’t have the services of LeBron James in their last two losses at that.
Speaking of James, he was his typical beastly self on Monday, racking up a career-best 17 assists along with 32 points, including the game-tying three-pointer to force overtime.
And even though The King fouled out of a game for the first time in over three years with less than a minute left in the extra period, the rest of his cohorts from Cleveland were just as spectacular that night. Kyrie Irving scored 11 of his 13 points in OT, while Kevin Love went wild for a whopping 39 points and 12 rebounds as well.
Everything’s going pretty smoothly for Cleveland again after the team’s disastrous 2-6 stretch from mid to late January. Having said that, perhaps not even the sizzling Pacers can stop the Cavaliers from humbling their opposition on a nightly basis once more. Then again…
On an even hotter run than the Cavs are the Indiana Pacers who, like the Wizards, have a seven-game win streak going after defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday, 93-90.
Down 11 points after halftime, the Pacers went to their superstar in Paul George to escape with a victory and keep the streak going. PG13 finished with 21 points and eight boards, with 15 of his 21 points coming in the second half. Young center Myles Turner also had a solid night against OKC, pitching in with 10 points and four blocks. It was Turner’s 13th game this season with at least four blocks in a contest.
But above all else, Indiana’s revitalized defense has been the key to its recent success. The team is still currently giving up as many points as it puts up this season at around 106 points per game, but it has also limited its last four opponents to less than 100 points scored. Most recently, Indy kept the Thunder to a dismal 30.2-percent shootng clip from the field in the second half, all the while denying Russell Westbrook from yet another triple-double performance as well.
Five of the Pacers’ wins from their current win streak were against teams with a losing record, but victories over the Thunder and the Houston Rockets prove that they didn’t really take advantage of a weak schedule. Now comes the mighty Cavs and, as mentioned earlier, they’ve been very successful at beating LeBron and Co. at home for some time now. Not only that, but they’ve also won nine of their last 10 games at Indy in general (albeit with just a 6-4 record against the spread).
Writer’s Prediction
The Cavaliers (-3.5) cool off another red-hot Eastern Conference rival with a tense 108-104 victory.
