A Chicken Little moment, defused

 OK,OK, O-kay. So all my fretting looks as silly as kittens on ether now.

Which only means I was right the other day when I said I was having a Chicken Little moment, thinking the Indiana Pacers might be in trouble now that the Cleveland Cavaliers had all their pieces back and consequently laminated the home-state lads by 22 in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Well, I was having a Chicken Little moment. Because that sure didn't look like falling sky Sunday evening in Gainsbridge Fieldhouse.

What it looked like was the Pacers scoring 80 points in the first half -- no, that is not a misprint -- to leave the Cavs  choking on Midwest corn pollen, or some such thing. Outscored the hapless C-towners by 26 in the second quarter. Led by 41 at halftime. Applied the coaster brake in the second half to glide home with a 20-point win, 129-109.

Oh, yeah: And now they lead the series 3-1 going back to Cleveland. 

Also, the Cavs' best player, Donovan Mitchell, injured his ankle and sat out the second half.

(Either that, or he sat out the second half because, I don't know, he felt a twinge or something and what was the point, anyway? The game was gone by then.)

Anyway, I was wrong, wrong, wrong when I predicted Game 4 was going to be knock-down, drag-out Armageddon, that the Cavs would pull out the W, and that they'd go back to Cleveland looking for a 3-2 lead in the series. What a big stupid I am.

I figured that, with Darius Garland, D'Andre Hunter and especially Evan Mobley back, we'd finally see the Cavs who won 64 games in the regular season. Well, Garland scored 21 in Game 4, but it hardly mattered. And Mobley was barely visible: 10 points, five rebounds, one steal.

Adjustments were made, in other words, after Game 3. And I'm sure adjustments to the adjustments already are being made by the Cavs this morning. It's why momentum in the playoffs is a fable out of Aesop, as noted by the Blob the other day.

However ...

However, a 3-1 lead is still a 3-1 lead.  

And even if the Cavs salvage Game 5 to stay alive, the Pacers are guaranteed to come back to Gainbridge for a close-out game.

And Chicken Little is just another dumb cluck.