Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. If the Cavs were a college team, they’d spend all day today practicing boxing out on free throws.
In today’s SI:AM:
🏇 Horse racing’s self-induced wounds
Two historic comebacks in one week
The Indiana Pacers refuse to surrender. Even a seven-point deficit in the final minute isn’t too much to overcome—twice.
The Pacers took a 2–0 lead in their second-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday with a dramatic comeback victory in Game 2, punctuated by Tyrese Haliburton’s last-second three-pointer. But before Haliburton could play hero, the Pacers had to dig themselves out of a sizable hole.
Indiana trailed by as much as 20 midway through the third quarter, 81–61, before beginning to chip away at the deficit. Still, the Cavs managed to hold the Pacers at an arm’s length until the very end. Donovan Mitchell hit a pair of free throws with 57 seconds remaining to stretch Cleveland’s lead to 119–112, but those were the last points the Cavs would score.
The Cavs completely collapsed over the final minute, gifting the Pacers five possessions by failing to secure three defensive rebounds and turning the ball over twice. The dagger was Haliburton’s step-back three after he collected his own rebound following a missed free throw.
It was the second time this postseason that the Pacers had overcome a seven-point deficit in the final minute of the game, having also done so in the fifth and final game of their first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks. According to ESPN, 1,643 teams have trailed by at least seven points in the final minute of a playoff game since the NBA began tracking play-by-play data in the 1997–98 season and only one team before this year’s Pacers had successfully completed the comeback. Indiana is also the first team on record to have multiple comebacks of at least 20 points in the same postseason, according to NBA writer Keerthika Uthayakumar.
“We just have a resilient group, man,” Haliburton said after the game. “We just figure out ways to win. We don’t give up. We’re battle-tested as a group. We’ve basically been together for about two years now, and that continuity has been really good for us.”
The Cavs’ collapse puts them in the unenviable position of having to go on the road already trailing 2–0 in the series against a Pacers team riding high off of two thrilling comebacks in the span of a week. To make matters worse, Cleveland is dealing with a trio of key injuries. Star point guard Darius Garland has not played since the second game of the team’s first-round series against the Miami Heat due to a toe injury. Big man Evan Mobley, recently named the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year, missed Game 2 with an ankle issue after being injured in the opening game of the series. Forward De’Andre Hunter, a key bench piece, dislocated his thumb in Game 1 and missed Tuesday’s game as well.
Mitchell has been excellent in the first two games of the series, scoring 33 points in Game 1 and 48 on Tuesday. But Cleveland has lacked the offensive depth necessary to put the Pacers away without Garland. Mitchell hasn’t been spared by the injury bug, either. TNT reported that he is playing through a calf strain, but he said after the game that he never considered sitting out.
The fact that he was able to put up 48 points while playing at less than 100% should assuage most concerns about Mitchell’s injury. But at the same time, Tuesday’s game was intensely physical, and you have to wonder how much the effects will linger in Game 3 on Friday. Mitchell remained on the floor for several moments after crashing hard to the court on Aaron Nesmith’s incredible putback dunk that started the Pacers’ winning 8–0 run. Mitchell was briefly subbed out after the play, but coach Kenny Atkinson said it was because he was cramping. While Mitchell’s injury doesn’t appear too serious (it wasn’t severe enough to earn him a spot on the team’s injury report), it’s certainly worth paying attention to. The same calf issue caused him to miss the final two games of Cleveland’s second-round loss to the Boston Celtics last season.
The best of Sports Illustrated
• Stephanie Apstein has a great profile of Chandler Simpson, the Rays rookie who is, without a doubt, the fastest man in baseball.
• After the news that Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty will skip the Preakness, Pat Forde writes that horse racing needs to change its cramped, antiquated schedule.
• Gilberto Manzano graded the offseason for every team in the NFC South and NFC North.
• The Warriors beat the Timberwolves, but Stephen Curry hurt his hamstring and is unlikely to play in Game 2.
• The Cowboys are reportedly acquiring receiver George Pickens from the Steelers.
• Here is the full field for the upcoming PGA Championship, featuring a couple of surprises.
• Outfielder Teoscar Hernández is the latest Dodgers player to land on the injured list.
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
5. The White Sox’ comical blunder that helped the Royals come back to win in the ninth.
4. Austin Wells’s grand slam to cap the Yankees’ 10-run inning.
3. Connor Brown’s nifty deke for a breakaway goal in the Oilers’ win over the Golden Knights.
2. Jaccob Slavin’s game-winning goal in overtime for the Hurricanes in Game 1 against the Capitals.
1. Aaron Nesmith’s put-back dunk to start the Pacers’ comeback.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Pacers’ Latest Miracle Comeback Gives Them 2–0 Lead Over Cavs.