Pacers (7) vs. Cavaliers (2)

Reasons I love this series:

• I love rooting against Lebron
• I used to love PG
• Lance Stephenson

Ah yes, the Pacers and the Cavs. There are those that probably wanted the Cavs to face the Bulls to see Lebron vs. Wade but I personally wanted this series more. I feel like the Bulls don’t have anyone that can give Lebron any sort of problems where I believe the combination of Paul George, Lance, and Thaddeus Young potentially can. I don’t feel strongly that the Pacers can actually pull off the upset but I want to see Lebron work for it early. Historically, Lebron’s first round opponents have either had injuries to deal with or were just flat out bad teams but that is not the case here. We have a Pacers team pretty much at full strength, a defender with the length to bother him, and decent matchups for the other stars on the team as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get this series stretched to 6 games.

At one point Paul George was one of my favorite players. Back when the Pacers had Danny Granger and I thought that they could beat Lebron and co I was all over them and they let me down. PG still has that chip on his shoulder and basically willed this team into the playoffs. They are actually the hottest team in the East coming in, having won 5 straight while Paul George averaged over 30 points per game during this stretch. Their last loss was an overtime loss to the Cavs where George had 43 points and Lebron had 41. There will be some battles here and I have no complaints about this series kicking things off.

The reason a lot of fans are excited about this series is the Lance Stephenson factor. After spending some time bouncing around the league, Lance is back with the Pacers and happy for the first time since he left. We don’t know what Lance is going to bring to this series and that really could change everything we think we know about these teams.

Will there be another memorable moment in this one? We shall see…