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Victor Oladipo leads Pacers rout of LeBron James Cavaliers
News & Trends •
j.r. smith had 15 points off the cavaliers bench while myles turner had 16 points and bojan bogdanovic added 15 for indiana1 victor oladipo scored a game-high 32 points to power the indiana pacers over lebron james cleveland cavaliers 98-80 on sunday in the opening game of their first-round nba playoff series1 james had won 21 first-round playoff games in a row until the rout having never before lost the opener in a first-round nba post-season series1 james seeking his ninth career trip to the nba finals and fourth league title had not dropped a first-round playoff game since the new york knicks beat miami in the fourth game of the 2012 opening round a minor setback on the heats title run a career first for james1 james said falling behind in a series just motivates him to step up his game1 im down 0-1 in the first found. i was down 3-1 in the finals. so im the last guy to ask about what im gonna be like the next couple days james said1 the pacers jumped ahead 33-14 after the first quarter and led by as much as 23 in holding off the cavs who came no closer than seven points the rest of the way1 you cant ease into the playoffs said cavs coach tyronn lue. i thought indiana came in and they attacked us1 james had a triple double in a losing cause with 24 points 10 rebounds and 12 assists. the rest of clevelands starters only managed 25 points kevin love with 17 rebounds but only nine points1 stay calm stay composed play the game i have all year long oladipo said of the key to his overwhelming day. this was a great team win1 the cavaliers had their lowest-scoring first period of the season and only five baskets with six turnovers in the opening quarter drawing boos as they walked off at half-time trailing 59-381 the boston celtics nearly fell victim to another eastern conference opening upset bid before edging visiting milwaukee 113-107 in overtime1 al horford scored 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for boston while terry rozier starting in place of injured kyrie irving added 23 points. marcus morris scored 21 off the bench while jaylen brown netted 20 and jayson tatum contributed 19 points and 10 rebounds for the celtics1 weve been down a lot a lot of injuries and weve always found a way horford said. morris made some big shots tatum down the stretch terry thats what were all about. we just find a way1 greek star giannis antetokounmpo led the bucks with 35 points 13 rebounds and seven assists and gave the celtics headaches until fouling out in overtime1 hes a great player horford said. he knows how to finish around the rim. he has great touch. we tried to contain him as best we could1 khris middleton added 31 points hitting five-of-seven three-pointers with eight rebounds and six assists in a losing cause1 the bucks who have not won a nba playoff series since 2001 have been losers in seven consecutive first-round playoff series1