Forget that the Cavaliers rallied from a 16-point deficit to challenge the Indiana Pacers. Forget that Dion Waiters scored 12 straight points during that fourth-quarter charge or that C.J. Miles had carried them until then with 21 points. Forget, even, that the Pacers’ 82-78 victory over the Cavs on Sunday at The Q was their ninth straight over Cleveland.
Let’s look at the final 20 seconds that sealed the deal.
The Cavs were down, 80-78. With Kyrie Irving missing his third straight game with a left knee contusion, Cavaliers coach Mike Brown knew he was going to put the ball in the hands of the red-hot Waiters. He thought about running a pick-and-roll, but elected to let Waiters go one-on-one instead.
“Dion in a one-on-one situation…obviously that’s a good team and Paul George is a good defender, but Dion in a one-on-one situation is very good,” Brown said. “He’s a talented guy offensively. He knows it. Everybody knows it.”
Similarly, everybody knows he loves to go to his left — as he did in forcing the overtime in the 87-81 victory over Orlando on Thursday night at The Q.
So George forced him to his right, causing Waiters to bobble the ball before putting up a weak shot that wound up in the hands of Roy Hibbert, whom Waiters promptly fouled.
“Paul George is a good defender, but I knew I could get by him,” Waiters said. “It was that next guy you had to worry about. If I could do it differently, I would, but I was just trying to be aggressive at that moment and put the pressure on the refs to make a call.”
It was eerily similar to what he did against Brandon Bass in Boston last weekend, when the Cavs were down, 102-100, with 20 seconds left, and Waiters tried to take Brandon Bass to the hole before Bass blocked his shot with 8.9 seconds left.
What was even eerier was that, like in Boston, the Cavs still had a chance to tie the game with a 3-pointer and send it to overtime.
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