Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue says there could be lineup changes on the way in lieu of their less-than-impressive performance in Sunday afternoon’s game against the Indiana Pacers. However, coach Lue would not reveal the finer details of what he has in mind.
Let’s just get to it — the Cavs played poorly on Sunday, especially on the offensive end of the floor, though some analysts had issues with their defensive effort as well (the Pacers shot 45.6 percent from the field). When the smoke cleared inside Quicken Loans Arena, Victor Oladipo’s 32-point performance had led the Pacers to a 98-80 win in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
What these changes might be is still up for debate, but there were several interesting takeaways from Sunday’s game. Kyle Korver, who missed Monday morning’s practice due to an illness, logged just four minutes, scoring zero points on 0-3 shooting from the field. Jeff Green went 0-7 from the field in his 27 minutes of action, though he says he’s “going to keep shooting if they leave me open.” Tristan Thompson didn’t play a single minute until the game was well in-hand. And how about LeBron James scoring just two points in the first quarter before going on to record a triple-double (24 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds)?
Collectively, the Cavs went 8-34 from beyond the arc — a far cry from their normal marks from downtown. Making things worse, Cleveland racked up 16 turnovers to Indiana’s 11. It’s just hard to win games like that.
Whether or not coach Lue will indeed change the Cavs’ lineup for Game 2 remains to be seen, but there is no doubt they need to play better.