Demolished in Game 7

Cesar Gorillo .

BY the looks of it, I was thinking that the Indiana Pacers were about to enter the semi-final games in the Eastern Conference.

With the way Victor Oladipo ruled in their winning games prior to Game 7, I believe that the assignment of Cleveland Cavaliers would be very difficult.

But Lebron is King James and he simply displayed that kind of power he had displayed in all the finals that he had been on constant appearances from Cleveland, then to Miami Heats and back to Cleveland.

The Cleveland Cavaliers barely survived. But because of the herculean effort of King James, Cleveland managed to escape from this Game 7 with a 105-101 victory.

With the win, James improved to 13-0 all time in the play-off series.  But unlike the past five seasons in which James made the fight so easy, this time he barely escaped – barely., despite finishing with 45 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and four steals in 45 minutes.

It was brilliant of Coach Tyrone Lue to use his trusted back-ups in the old play-offs such as J.R. Smith, Kylie Korver, Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson, he, who barely played in the series before Game 6.  They were the members of the Cavs who, despite James brilliant showing,  made the difference.  It was Thompson who contributed 15 points, ten rebounds and a key block of Collison’s shot in the fourth quarter.  Korver fired 19 points and rained three-pointers, his favorite stuff.

When James suffered cramps in the third quarter and had to exit the game, the Cavs clung to a one-point lead, but when he came back with 8:25 remaining, the lead increased to eight points courtesy of George Gill who hadn’t played the last three games and didn’t play in the first half and was allowed to show his wares in the final 19 minutes and contributed nine points including a perfect 7-7 from the foul line, hauled five rebounds, assisted three and made a critical one block shot.

Victor Oladipo had 30 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and three steals for Indiana, but struggled in the first half as the Pacers fell behind by 12 points at the break. A 20-5 run put Indiana briefly into the lead in the third quarter, but once Cleveland recovered, the Pacers could no longer overtake them.

James hadn’t come out of the game once before exiting with a minute left in the third quarter and immediately heading back to the locker room, accompanied by Cleveland’s trainer. He eventually re-emerged just after the start of the fourth quarter, coming back to the bench, where he still remains.  While he was out, the Cavs scored six straight points and by early in the fourth made it 82-74 courtesy of Nance, Hill and Love.

The Indiana Pacers were about to lead at 61-58 in the third quarter on three-pointers by Young and Bogdanovic and a pair of free throws by Oladipo.  But Coach Tyrone Lue as a sign of desperation turned to George Hill who missed the last three games due to back injury and hadn’t played in the first half.  That made the difference.

By starting Tristan Thompson at center, and deploying LeBron James at point guard, Lue leaned heavily on the players who have been through the wars with him in the past — and not on the new faces Cleveland has imported over the past year

With James playing 100 percent and Victor Oladipo not good as in previous Pacers victory, the Pacers merely scared Cavs fans like me.

Is it Warriors vs. Cavs again?  James Harden might not agree.