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 Then he patted his head to signal Paul George's 3-pointer came after
the shot clock.
Finally he twirled his index finger toward the officials to signal
they should review the play.
"I was giving so many signals," Love joked. "I felt like a
third-base coach out there."
Ultimately, he was correct. George's 3-pointer was taken away and
the Cleveland Cavaliers ended a two-game losing streak with a 100-96
victory against the Pacers.
George's 3-pointer appeared to tie the game at 89 with 4:46 left,
but officials agreed to review the play at the next timeout.
That didn't come until 2:27 remained. By then, the Pacers went into
the timeout leading by four. They came out of it clinging to a
one-point lead and suddenly were trailing when LeBron James scored
off the inbounds play to give the Cavs the lead.
"That was a game changer right there," Love said. "That was a huge
difference for us."
James scored 33 points after taking a day off and Tristan Thompson
came off the bench to provide a big basket and block, both in the
final minute, after the Cavs had lost three of their last four.
Thompson was pulled from the starting lineup prior to the game in
favor of Timofey Mozgov. He replaced Love in the final minute for
defensive purposes, then scored the go-ahead basket off a James
drive to give the Cavaliers a 96-94 lead with 39 seconds left.
His block at the rim of guard George Hill's drive moments later
preserved the victory. Thompson, who has bounced between the
starting lineup and a reserve role all season, said he cherished the
block over the basket.
"Defense wins big games," Thompson said. "If they need me to come
off the bench or start, whatever it takes to win, my role doesn't
change."
Guard Kyrie Irving had 22 points and six assists, including four
free throws in the final eight seconds to clinch the win.
Love had 13 points, eight rebounds and six assists. It was a
difficult few days for the Cavs, who blew a nine-point lead in the
final six minutes to lose Friday at Toronto.
They were blown out Sunday by the Washington Wizards while James
rested.
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"When our backs are against the wall, that's when we tend to play
harder," coach Tyronn Lue said. "It's annoying, but when you have a
team like we have with great individual players, they can turn it on
at any point in time. Sometimes it can come back and bite you."
Guard Monta Ellis scored 28 points for the Pacers, while George had
23 points, eight rebounds and six assists. The two combined to score
28 of the Pacers' 30 points in the third quarter.
George wasn't sure whether his big 3-pointer would be overturned,
but Pacers coach Frank Vogel was not surprised.
"It didn't need to be explained at all," Vogel said. "They made the
right call. We knew it was coming off. I knew it was coming off."
The Cavs have won all three games between these two teams this
season, but it hasn't been easy. They gutted out a four-point win in
Cleveland in early November, needed overtime to win at Indiana and
trailed by four with seven minutes left Monday.
"Obviously they're ahead of us, but I do feel like we're pretty
evenly matched with anybody in the East," Vogel said. "We can play
with this team. We know we can. We just haven't finished."
Even George, who was critical of his team's toughness following
Sunday's home loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, seemed a bit more
pleased after this loss.
"We played together. We took it to this team," George said. "We
played aggressive. It's another game where we were up and for
whatever reason, we couldn't finish."
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