It’s hard to imagine a game so radically different from the one the same two teams had played 48 hours before.
Friday night, the Cavaliers looked like the dominant 64-win East leaders they were this season, cruising to a 22-point win behind 43 points from Donovan Mitchell, who played like a guy deserving of First Team All-NBA.
Sunday Indiana was dominant squad, taking command from the opening tip, getting up by double-digits with 5:15 left in the first (and the game never got closer than that), led by 41 at the half, stretched that lead out to 44 at one point, and turned the second half into essentially 24 minutes of garbage time.