The Cleveland Cavaliers versus the Indiana Pacers Matchup

I don’t think this is your ordinary one versus eight matchup like you’ve seen in the past. The Indiana Pacers are a very good basketball team, they just happen to have the “eighth” best record in the East. With no player that I would classify as a superstar they have two of the elite role player/all stars in the NBA in Mikal Bridges and Norman Powell who can just let it fly on any given night and get you 20+, along with with their young guys in Scoot Henderson, Rui Hachimura and Zaccharie Risacher. All that to say, they are going up against one of the best teams in the league, if not the best one, the Cleveland Cavaliers. With Star Point Guard De’Aaron Fox leading the way for this team with 30 points per game, his running mates in Julius Randle and Anfernee Simons both are adding on their own Twenty points per night as well. This is a high scoring offense with rim protectors in Andre Drummond and Onyeka Okongwu. And that’s all without mentioning probably their most coveted asset in Scottie Barnes, who is a two way monster for them, picking up the team's best player on defense and also adding on 16 points per game of his own.

Stars in this Series

We touched on them a bit up top but let's go into a deep dive of who to watch for and why from each team. On the Cleveland Cavaliers side we will start off with someone who has been in MVP conversations all year, De’Aaron Fox. Fox, coming off a 31 points per game regular season, comes into the playoffs with high expectations. Something I would like to see is how he’s going to handle playoff defense and can he play make for others throughout the playoffs as he is only about four and half assists a game. Another player on the Cleveland Cavaliers end, he may not be a top 3 scorer on the team but I think he may be just as important as Fox for this team, he is a great playmaker and defensive player that he is and that’s Scottie Barnes. Scottie is going to have the assignment of slowing down Mikal Bridges who is the greatest threat of the Indiana Pacers, as well as, getting out in transition, getting easy baskets for himself and his teammates. Speaking of Mikal Bridges, now we move to the Pacers and who to watch on their end. Mikal is going to have to have an outer body experience for them to be as competitive as possible. Which he is fully capable of doing as long as he isn’t changing his jumpshot mid series along with not being absolutely beat up by Scottie Barnes all series long. And the other person I’m looking at, I’ve already mentioned as well and that’s Norman Powell. 15 points per game is NOT going to cut it in this series, I’d look to see if you can move Terry Rozier to the bench and have a more “pass friendly” (and I use the term pass friendly loosely) point guard like Scoot Henderson and see if he can get the ball into Norman’s hands early and often to get him going. You can then allow Terry off the bench to do him and jack up a bunch of shots without hurting a guy like Norman. Honorable Mentions for both teams are Anfernee Simons, Julius Randle and Terry Rozier, one of those guys who can easily get off throughout the series and change a game.

Predictions