LeBron absence felt as Pacers down Cavs

While just a regular-season encounter, the Raptors entered understanding the importance of getting a win at Quicken Loans Arena after failing to win there a year ago and in each of the three Eastern Conference Finals games before losing the series 4-2. Fans were rightly disgruntled and the Cavaliers obviously missed their MVP.

McMillan received quality contributions for nearly every player on the Pacers’ roster. The Cavs will need to figure out how to win some of those games.

On consecutive nights, the Raptors are taking on the league’s top two teams in Cleveland and Golden State, last season’s finals participants. “If a team is making 22 or 25 threes, you’re going to have a hard night”. Against the Cavaliers, Casey played only four players off the bench.

James is expected to be back in the Cavs lineup on Friday evening when they host the Detroit Pistons in a game that will tip off just after 7:30 p.m.

“We wanted to get him low, but he said he wanted to ramp him up early and then kind of tailor him down in January, February, [around] our All-Star break”, Lue said after the Cavs’ 103-93 loss to the Indiana Pacers.

“Our defense is allowing us to get into a good flow”, George said. “We’re just honoring each other’s calls. We made them put the ball on the floor, which some of their guys don’t like to do”. “I think we’ve matured over these last three year.s I think Kyrie and Kevin are doing a great job”. Thompson tallied 15 points and 11 rebounds while Love had 19 points and 13 rebounds. Cleveland was shooting only 40.6 percent (28 of 69).

I know, both games featured an opponent on the second night of a back-to-back on the road.

None of the backup bigs played much, and Big Al only had 2 points and a rebound to show for his 7 minutes of work. The reigning World Champion Cavaliers entered with G Kyrie Irving (23.9), James (23.4) and F Kevin Love (20.4) averaging at least 20 points a game.

LeBron James was once again in PEAK LeBron form, finishing with a rebound shy of a triple-double with the stat line of 28 points, 14 assists and nine rebounds. Both scored at a rate higher than their season averages. Teams will only be able to carry 15 on the National Basketball Association roster (and three of them need to be inactive for a game), but the other three will be in the D-League and can be called up at any point.

“S–, as long as we keep winning, man”, Irving said.

And then there’s point guard Jeff Teague, who continues growing into his new role with his new team. What’s more, these are really open shots, too, with no defenders within six feet of him on about two-thirds of his three-point attempts.

Cleveland is clicking, showing no signs of a championship hangover.

“He’s a talented player”, Teague of Irving. “Have to see how we’re playing at the time and how guys’ minutes are at the time, and just got to gauge it from there”.

“We needed a win, we weren’t anxious who was going to be on the floor for them”, Teague said. IN never led by more than 13, but maintained its lead from midway through the first quarter until the final buzzer. You know it’s a good Lowry game when there are multiple sequences late in the game where he’s running like a insane person, arriving first at the basketball or keeping possessions alive for Toronto. “It’s made us better on defense, it’s made us a better team”. “They took one thing away, and we’d go to the next option”. He’s arguably the best player in our game. This just so happens to be one of those games.

But, it’s a start.