Subscribe
Follow Us
The East’s top seed is out. With a 114-105 victory in Game 5 on Tuesday night, the Indiana Pacers eliminated Donovan Mitchell and the No. 1 seed Cleveland Cavaliers from the 2025 NBA playoffs, securing their second straight trip to the Eastern Conference finals. Indiana now awaits the winner of the Boston Celtics–New York Knicks series, with a Finals berth hanging in the balance.
The Cavaliers just made the wrong kind of history. They’re the first team across the NBA, MLB, NFL, or NHL to open a season with a 15-plus game unbeaten streak and still fall short of reaching the championship round in that same year.
The Cavs are the first team in MLB/NBA/NFL/NHL history to start a season with a 15+ game unbeaten streak but then be eliminated from the playoffs prior to the championship round that year. pic.twitter.com/fTMFRdIV7O
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) May 14, 2025
Cleveland’s 64-win regular season — the second-best in franchise history — ended in disappointment, as their most promising title shot without LeBron James fizzled out. Injuries and cold shooting doomed the Cavaliers in the second round.
Darius Garland struggled through a sprained toe and looked out of rhythm in Game 5, while Donovan Mitchell battled an ankle injury and only came alive late. Though Mitchell finished with a game-high 35 points, he shot just 8-of-25 from the field and leaned heavily on free throws, hitting 15-of-21.
The Pacers set the tone early in the series with back-to-back tight wins on the road, then dominated Game 4 in historic fashion — leading by 41 at halftime, matching an NBA playoff record, before coasting to a blowout victory. That momentum carried into Game 5 in Cleveland, where Indiana sealed the series. Tyrese Haliburton led the way in the clincher with 31 points, eight assists, and six rebounds.
The mighty Cavaliers falls against the Pacers
The Cavaliers breezed past the Miami Heat in the opening round, completing a sweep in what became the most lopsided series in NBA history — outscoring Miami by a staggering 122 points across four games. However, that commanding form vanished in the second round.
Indiana erased a 19-point first-half deficit and took over after halftime, completing a rare sweep of all three games at Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. It marked the first time since their 2005 first-round series against the Celtics that the Pacers won three road games in a single playoff series.
What comes next might be the most painful part — the fallout. The nonstop speculation. How much did injuries truly impact this run? (They clearly played a massive role.) But even then, why now? Was it just rotten timing that a team so methodical in pacing itself through the regular season crumbled when May arrived? Is it fair — and it likely is — to question the mental resolve of a core that’s never lacked in talent?
Do the Cavs need to shake up the roster? Can a team built around a small, defense-challenged backcourt make a legitimate push for a title? And above all, how do you make peace with such a crushing end to what once felt like a title-caliber campaign?
The fourth-seeded Pacers now turn their attention to the ongoing battle between the Celtics and Knicks. The Knicks hold a 3-1 series lead heading into Game 5 on Wednesday night in Boston.
