The Cleveland Cavaliers effectively navigated the 2024-25 regular season and opening round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs.
After all, they won 64 games in the regular season and swept the Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs in historic fashion. Cleveland won the four games by a combined 122 points and picked up a 55-point win in Game 4 of the series.
However, the wheels fell off for the Cavaliers in their second-round playoff series against the Indiana Pacers. They lost to Indiana in a gentleman’s sweep and dropped three games at home in the process.
In light of his team looking outmatched against the Pacers in its best-of-seven series, Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson allegedly rewatched the series against Indiana “so many different times,” according to Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor.
“Kenny Atkinson was with the team in Las Vegas,” Fedor said. “He spent some time with Evan Mobley and De’Andre Hunter out in Los Angeles. He spent some time with Darius Garland going through the whole recovery plan with the doctors and stuff like that. He went out to see Sam Merrill. He went out to see Donovan Mitchell.
“He even told me he has rewatched the Indiana series so many different times trying to study that and learn from that.”
Simply put, the Cavaliers didn’t get enough scoring production from players not named Mitchell in the matchup against an Indiana team that went on to reach the 2025 NBA Finals. Mitchell averaged 34.2 points per game in the series and strung together plenty of herculean scoring showings, but no other Cavs player put up more than 18 per contest.
Forwards Max Strus and Hunter were plagued by inefficient shooting, and guard Ty Jerome did not look like a player who was named a finalist for the Sixth Man of the Year award not long ago. Jerome shot 43.9 percent from 3-point range in the regular season, and versus Indiana, he converted just 25.0 percent of his 3s.
Poor play in the fourth quarter of games really hurt the Cavaliers, too. Cleveland got outscored by seven in the final frame of Game 1 and 15 over the final 12 minutes of Game 2. It felt like Indiana especially snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in Game 2, as Cleveland held a commanding 14-point lead entering the fourth quarter.
For as painful as the series loss for the Pacers might still be to Cavaliers fans, the team might be better off in the long run for it. If nothing else, it’s evident that Atkinson is trying to learn from his team’s mistakes versus Indiana.