At one point in the third quarter, Victor Oladipo rose up over LeBron James and attempted to throw down a game-defining posterization. The shot missed, and the ball went flying back out towards half court, but everyone’s eyes widened at the mere audacity to attempt something like that.
Victor Oladipo bounced back with a bang in Game 6, right when the Pacers needed him
Oladipo sparked Indiana’s Friday blowout over the Cavaliers, just like he has all season.
Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports
And then, a couple minutes later, Oladipo tried it again.
There’s probably no sequence that describes Oladipo’s Game 6 on Friday, and how it related to the rest of his series coming into the night. Especially in Games 3 through 5, Oladipo has struggled heavily, a huge reason why the Cavaliers had taken a 3-2 series lead and had a chance to close out the series on the role. He struggled against Cleveland’s aggressive trapping defense, and his teammates didn’t do enough to break the Cavaliers out of it.
In Game 6, Oladipo returned with a fury — 28 points on 11-of-19 shooting, 13 rebounds, 10 assists, four steals, and six made triples. It felt like his entire evening was dunks and made threes. There was zero doubt that Oladipo was the catalyst behind Indiana’s dominant 121-87 win.
“I got out of my own way,” Oladipo said on the TV broadcast after the game.
There were a few small adjustments. Oladipo stepped into three-pointers a bit more aggressively, but he also did that while taking fewer screens. With Cleveland aggressively double teaming him, and Oladipo’s teammates failing to make enough plays in those 4-on-3 situations, the Pacers just let Oladipo beat slower Cavaliers defenders in isolation.
It was badly needed. After his 2-of-15 shooting in Game 5, Oladipo’s shooting for the series was down to 37 percent from the field. He was still leading the team in scoring, but he hadn’t been the dynamic leader that Indiana had relied on all season. The Pacers were 0-7 this season with Oladipo on the floor, and at times during this series, it essentially looked like that.
Incredibly, this all sets up a Game 7 on Sunday, giving the Pacers one game to knock out LeBron James in the first round. Cleveland has been horrid outside of their global superstar, and of course that has played right into Indiana’s hands.
If the same Oladipo shows up on Sunday in the way he did Friday, then you have to like the Pacers’ chances.
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