Cavs survive another rally, go up 2-0
Kyrie Irving scored 37 points, Kevin Love added 27 and 11 rebounds, and the Cavaliers survived another late rally by the Pacers in Game 2 to earn a 117-111 win Monday night in Cleveland and take a 2-0 lead in the series.
Game 3 is Thursday night in Indianapolis. The Cavaliers are 12-0 when starting 2-0 in the postseason.
After squeaking out the opener by a point, LeBron James and Co. showed more intensity on defense, more swagger in general and won their 10th straight first-round game over the last three seasons. The Cavaliers vowed they would play better after their near-disaster in Game 1 and backed up their talk, delivering the kind of performance that was routine last season but very rare in 2017.
However, they nearly blew an 18-point lead in the fourth quarter as the Pacers got within four before the Cavaliers closed it out at the line.
James added 25 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists but had eight of the Cavaliers’ 19 turnovers.
Paul George scored 32 points and Jeff Teague had 23 for the Pacers, who ran off 13 straight points after trailing 109-91 with 6 minutes, 9 seconds remaining. George hit a 3-pointer with 20 seconds left to draw the Pacers within 113-109, but they would get no closer.
Leonard finished 9-for-14 from the field and went 19-for-19 on free throws. Tony Parker added 15 points for the Spurs, who had three others score in double figures.
The Spurs led for all but 13 seconds in winning their 10th consecutive postseason game over the Grizzlies.
Mike Conley scored 24 points, Zach Randolph had 18 and Marc Gasol added 12 for the Grizzlies, who host Game 3 on Thursday.