Saturday, April 21, 2018

Yes. This could happen.

The Blob is nothing if not a forthright Blob. And so it will say now what it should have said a few days ago, when everyone got all exercised about the Pacers trash-bagging the Cavaliers in Cleveland in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.

The Blob said then it was time to slow the roll, because momentum in the NBA is a phantom and LeBron James has a history of digging up the Cavaliers and bringing them back from the dead when you least expect it.

The Blob says the same thing now, with Bojan Bogdanovic -- Bojan Bogdanovic! -- outscoring LeBron 30-28 in a 92-90 Pacers win in Game 3 last night.

But what the Blob will also say is this doesn't mean I don't think the Pacers could win this series.

They can. Clearly. Obviously.

They are -- clearly and obviously -- the better basketball team, and not just because they can get some guy named Bojan Bogdanovic to go for 30 on a given night. They are better because they're better defensively. They are better because, while Victor Oladipo doesn't have to go for 30 every night because occasionally a Bogdanovic will, the Cavaliers pretty much have to have LeBron go for 30 every night or they lose.

That's the lesson of Games 1 and 3.

And the lesson of Game 2?

That when the Cavs are up against it, LeBron is going to do whatever he has to do to keep them from coding. He's like a breathing tube with hands and feet.

And so don't be surprised if he lays another big number on the Pacers in Game 4, and evens the series again. And that's why the Blob thinks it knows how this is going to end up.

The Pacers are going to win in six games.

Or, the Cavaliers are going to win in seven, because if it comes to that, LeBron will do whatever he has to do to keep them from losing Game 7 at home. If he has to go for 50, he'll go for 50.

If, that is, he can get them that far.

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