Tyrese Haliburton goes off for 31 points to close out the Cavs in Game 5, sending the Pacers back to the East Finals.
CLEVELAND — NBA regular seasons are what you make of them.
Consider the Cleveland Cavaliers being eliminated Tuesday night from the 2025 playoffs by the Indiana Pacers, who closed out the conference’s No. 1 seed from the Eastern Conference semifinals 4-1 with their 114-105 victory at Rocket Arena.
Like Oklahoma City in the West, the Cavaliers had stormed through the season from start to finish, stringing together winning streaks of 16, 15 and 12 on their way to a 64-18 record. Indiana was back in the pack, happy to land the No. 4 seed with a solid but unspectacular 50-32 mark.
Look a little deeper, though. The Pacers started the season 5-10 and, for various reasons — a tough schedule, injuries, a slower-than-expected start by point guard Tyrese Haliburton — were 16-18 when the calendar rolled over to 2025. They were 13.5 games behind Cleveland on New Year’s Day and never did gain ground.
Then again, they didn’t lose any. From Jan. 1 through Game 82, the Cavs went 35-14. The Pacers, 34-14.
“I’m sorry their season had to end like this, in a way,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “Kenny [Atkinson, Cleveland coach] did an amazing job with their guys. They just kind of had the perfect season. Then we came along and we’re hot.”
Indiana didn’t get the acclaim the Cavs, the Thunder and the Celtics did in barreling to 60-plus victories, because it needed a couple of months to find itself.
Now it finds itself back in the East finals for the second consecutive year. Here are five takeaways from the clincher:
1. Indiana: We’re not about the stats
It’s not accurate to say that the Pacers’ whole is greater than the sum of their parts because their parts are many and talented. The roster is as deep as those of the league’s elite, with 10 or 11 players who — to use a popular NBA term — are stars in their roles.
But there is no Kia MVP candidate on this squad, no star’s name above the title. Haliburton is a two-time All-Star and a leader, but the 31 points he scored Tuesday were the Pacers’ first 30-point performance of the postseason. Heck, even some of his peers consider him to be (cough) “overrated.”
“We’re different from every other team in the NBA,” Haliburton said. “We don’t have one guy who scores all the points. We defeat teams in a lot of different ways. We move the ball, the ball finds guys making shots, making plays.”
Said Carlisle: “People look at playoff victories and point to great scoring performances and triple-doubles and stuff like that. Series-defining plays oftentimes are loose-ball effort plays.”
Those moments were strewn throughout the game, but particularly so down the stretch. Myles Turner’s run-down block of De’Andre Hunter. Andrew Nembhard bursting along the left baseline. Bennedict Mathurin swatting a Donovan Mitchell layup off the glass.
All timely plays, pivotal sequences, and added effort.
2. Tough ending for Cavaliers
Boil it all down and this very special season for Cleveland ended with a splat. Three of its four losses in getting eliminated came at home. Its star, Donovan Mitchell, has yet to reach a conference finals. This wasn’t what it had in mind at all as it breezed through the previous six months.
Mitchell was so unprepared for this ending that, after the final horn, he went back out into the arena bowl to acknowledge the disappointed fans. He sounded as heartbroken as any of them.
“Just couldn’t believe it. Still don’t wanna believe it,” Mitchell said. “I love playing in that arena, man. That energy, that crowd. Lost three at home, let the city down.
“Y’all gonna write us the f— off man. But we’ll be back. We let the city down, we let each other down, but we will be back.”
After being eliminated in the semifinals, is it fair to call top-seeded Cleveland a regular-season team that fails to deliver in the playoffs?
3. Nipping it in the bud
The Pacers had gotten spanked in the first quarter 31-19 and Cleveland’s start spilled into the second quarter when it went up by 19, 44-25. Indiana scratched back to get within four by halftime, felt good about themselves … and then promptly messed up again.
Out of the break, the Pacers failed to execute a play, then turned over the ball. Cavs guard Darius Garland got to midcourt, veered around a soft pick-and-roll, then strolled in unobstructed from the logo for a layup. Several Indiana players shot each other puzzled looks. Carlisle called a timeout just 55 seconds into the half.
“We had miscommunication,” he said. “We allowed a guy to defiantly just trot in there and lay the ball up. We came in the timeout and said ‘No more. This isn’t us.’ And our guys turned it around.”
4. Bryant shines in 3rd quarter
A second-round pick in 2017, Thomas Bryant was a journeyman when the Pacers acquired him in December from Miami for the princely sum of a 2031 second-round draft pick. Indiana became his fifth NBA team in four seasons and his contributions the rest of the season were modest (6.9 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 15.1 mpg).
Not so in Game 5. Bryant was a force in the third quarter, active at both ends to give Turner the breathers he needed.
One sequence began with the 6-foot-10 Bryant getting his shot blocked by Evan Mobley. He raced downcourt, picked off Darius Garland’s pass and ran back for a fast-break dunk. He cut and dunked a pass from Obi Toppin, then closed his spurt with a 3-pointer from the right corner.
By that point, the Pacers were back up by 12. It had to be deflating to Cleveland for yet another player to come off Indiana’s bench and make a difference.
“Gave us some of the greatest minutes you can ask of a backup center,” Carlisle said. “His enthusiasm permeates our team.”
5. Brief scouting report for Knicks or Celtics
Playoff opponents are virtually autopsied by teams they’ll be facing in a series, and it’s safe to say the Pacers and Cavaliers knew each other inside and out. Still, they learn things from repeated competition squeezed into a week or 10 days.
Here’s Atkinson on the biggest thing he learned about the Pacers in this up-close look:
“The duration of their intensity,” the Cavs coach said. “How long they can go. They press fullcourt, and then they run consistently all game. They never stop. It’s hard to do. I give them a ton of credit for that. It’s extreme ball pressure.”
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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Margherita Lanz
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