Notorious LeBron rival on 2-1 series lead - 'we have full control right now'
This might finally be the year Lance Stephenson prevails over LeBron James.
The Indiana Pacers fan favorite, notorious for spawning a thousand memes after he blew in James’ ear at the free throw line during Game 5 of the 2014 Eastern Conference Finals, always found himself ultimately on the losing side.
Now, with the Pacers up 2-1 on James’ Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of this year’s Eastern Conference playoffs, Stephenson might finally get a series victory to go with his trash talk and antics.
After practice Saturday ahead of Game 4 on Sunday, Stephenson wasn’t shy about saying his team is in a good place.
“We have full control right now,” he said, according to ESPN. “We have to keep it. We get another win in our building, and that’s when I think they’re going to start panicking. We’re going to bring it like we (brought) it the first game.”
The “first game” was a 98-80 shellacking the Pacers slapped on the Cavaliers in Game 1 in Cleveland.
Stephenson abruptly shifted tone in the same interview, going from the over-the-top pro-wrestling-esque “they’re panicking, we’ve got them” to the standard respect-your-opponent spiel common among players talking to the media.
“Our goal is to stay together, try to contain LeBron, play team defense,” Stephenson said. “That team is a good team. I don’t think they’re going to get frustrated.”
All the same, Cleveland has looked out of sorts, unable to put together 48 solid minutes of basketball at any point in this series.
In Game 1, Indiana just plain blew the Cavaliers out of their own building, leading wire-to-wire in that 18-point win.
In Game 2, Cleveland instantly got off to a great start, taking a quick 16-1 lead. James scored all 16 of those points on his way to 46 in the game. The Cavs ended up needing that 15-point lead, as the Pacers’ Victor Oladipo nearly tied the game with 27 seconds left before Indiana ultimately lost by just three points.
In Game 3, the Cavaliers frustrated Oladipo in the first half, bringing double-teams and forcing the Pacers into lots of turnovers and bad shots en route to taking a 57-40 lead, before blowing that 17-point lead and losing 92-90.
Following that Game 3 win, Oladipo said he thought his team was improving.
“I think we’re getting better. Teams make adjustments between games. We did a great job of adjusting in the second half. I think our best basketball is still to come,” he said.
Embattled Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue, meanwhile, tried to keep a lid on calls for his head from those who believe he’s lost control of the team.
“I’m encouraged. They won a game we should’ve won. That’s why the disappointment, because we was up 17, and they come back and win the game,” he said. “That’s what’s disappointing, but we’re not discouraged. Still got a Game 4, feel very confident that we can come out and win this game, and so do our guys.”
Indiana has controlled the series by controlling the pace of the game. They were 24th in pace of play during the regular season (96.0 possessions per game), and so far in this series, there have been just 90.9 possessions per game, on average.
If they can continue to slow down the game, frustrate the Cavaliers and pick apart Cleveland’s subpar defense, the Pacers may yet take this series.
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