The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Indiana Pacers will kick off the NBA playoffs again this year, but these teams are a whole lot different than last year.
Last year it seemed like the last straw for Paul George and the Pacers and the team didn’t seem all too interested even playing in the series.
This year though they have a lot of young fresh faces that are hungry, and feel like they can beat LeBron James and the Cavs.
James knows that this isn’t going to be an easy test though, and talked about how tough it was going to be after Wednesday night’s regular-season finale against the Knicks.
“They got an All-Star in [Victor] Oladipo and all those other guys off ’em. They play so well off him. You just gotta be ready for that, gotta be ready for what they bring to the table. They’re long. They’re athletic. They can shoot the ball, they shoot it well. They can rebound, so we gotta be ready for that matchup.”
This matchup is going to be a lot different than the years past and it truly seems like James understands how much he is going to have to fight for this first round matchup.
He is used to having no issues in the first round and usually coming away with the series sweep. This year though it’s going to be a hard series to win, and a sweep would actually probably be near impossible.
One thing is for sure though, this is going to be an entertaining value and a good way to kick off the playoffs.