The Sports Xchange
Nov 1, 2017
CLEVELAND -- Thaddeus Young scored 26 points to lead all five Indiana Pacers starters in double figures in a 124-107 blowout of the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night.
The Cavs, the three-time defending Eastern Conference champions, are in a free fall. They have lost four straight and five of six games, including the last three by 58 points.
Darren Collison added 25 points for the Pacers, who also received 23 from Victor Oladipo, 17 from Bojan Bogdanovic and 15 from Domantas Sabonis.
Indiana (5-3) won its third straight and picked up its first victory on the second night of back-to-back games this season.
The Pacers snapped a string of nine consecutive losses in Cleveland, which dated to March 30, 2014 (counting regular season and playoffs).
LeBron James led the Cavs (3-5) with 33 points and 11 assists, though he committed a game-high eight turnovers. Derrick Rose added 19 points, and Jeff Green scored 15 off the Cleveland bench.
James is the sixth player in NBA history with 400 regular-season games of at least 30 points. Michael Jordan (562), Wilt Chamberlain (515), Karl Malone (435), Kobe Bryant (431), and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (429) are the others.
Cavs center Tristan Thompson strained his left calf late in the second quarter and did not return.
Thompson turned to run down the court after a Cavs basket and came up lame. He limped to the bench with the help of J.R. Smith with 1:41 left, and he finished the night with two points and seven rebounds.
Jae Crowder started instead of Thompson in the second half. It was Crowder, not Thompson, who started in the Cavs' frontcourt for the first three games this season.
The Pacers led 62-61 at the half, marking the sixth consecutive game in which Cleveland trailed through two quarters. The Cavs went scoreless in the final 1:40 of the second quarter, and Indiana scored six points to retake the lead.
NOTES: Pacers G Lance Stephenson was assessed a flagrant-one foul for swiping and connecting with Cavs F LeBron James' midsection in the second quarter. ... The Cavaliers swept the Pacers out of an Eastern Conference first-round series last season. ... James filed to trademark the "Nothing is Given. Everything is earned." slogan with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The filing was on behalf of the new school for disadvantaged youths in Akron, Ohio, created by James' charitable foundation set to open in fall 2018. ... James needs eight more points to become the seventh player in NBA history and the youngest ever to reach 29,000 points in his career. James turns 33 in December; Kobe Bryant scored his 29,000th point at age 33 and 109 days. ... Indiana F/C Myles Turner remains in the concussion protocol, but he will work out Thursday with the hope of returning as early as Friday in Philadelphia, coach Nate McMillan said.