CLEVELAND _ The Cavaliers turned the page and welcomed playoff basketball back to Quicken Loans Arena on Saturday.
The four-game losing streak to conclude the regular season is in the past, and LeBron James and friends are moving forward with intentions of defending their NBA championship.
The Cavs' first-round foe, the Indiana Pacers, made the Cavs sweat in the final moments until C.J. Miles missed a jumper at the buzzer and the Cavs escaped with a 109-108 victory in Game 1 of their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series in front of a sellout crowd of 20,562 fans.
"We wanted to get the ball out of his [Paul George's] hands and make somebody else try to beat us," James said. "You live with the results. ... He is one of the most dangerous guys on the court on both sides."
James ended up being the most dangerous player on the court, leading the Cavs with 32 points, 13 assists and six rebounds.
Kyrie Irving contributed 23 points and six assists and Kevin Love finished with 17 points and four rebounds.
"[We had] a lot of easy missed free throws as well as layups that could have swayed the game and given us the cushion that we needed, but we just have a resilient group," Irving said. "We believe in one another and it was a good first playoff win of a new journey _ the 2017 playoffs."
George paced Indiana with 29 points, seven assists and five rebounds, and Lance Stephenson totaled 16 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
James and J.R. Smith double-teamed George to force him to pass the ball to Miles, who was closely defended by Richard Jefferson as he missed.
"We got a good look, you just have to knock the shot down," Pacers coach Nate McMillan said. "I do feel like we let one slip away."
James played the role of facilitator in the first quarter, and then added shot-maker to his game the final three quarters as he made step-back 3-pointers, slam dunks and jumpers.
Love came out firing early, making three shots from the field and two free throws to give him 10 points in a first quarter that ended with the Cavs ahead 34-29. Irving had eight points and four assists in the quarter, and James had four points and three assists.
James joined in on the scoring in the second quarter as the Cavs' lead reached 66-59 at halftime. Irving and Love both scored 15 points in the first half, and James was at 14 points, eight assists and four rebounds.
The Cavs maintained their lead in the third quarter with James, Irving and Love leading the charge. A James steal and dunk gave the Cavs their largest lead at 90-78 with 2:11 remaining in the third quarter.
The Pacers trailed 92-84 at the start of the fourth quarter, but remained in striking distance with Jeff Teague, George and Stephenson leading the way. Teague buried a 3-pointer with 3:31 to go to give the Pacers a 105-103 lead, but the Cavs countered with a James dunk and an Irving jumper to regain a 107-105 edge. Smith and James each made a free throw before George swished a 3-pointer with 40.5 seconds to go to make it 109-108.
"We can play better and we will play better," Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said. "We missed 13 free throws, turned the ball over [11 times] and they got 19 points [off those mistakes]. ... The playoffs are about adjustments and what you can do better. I just think that if we got those 50-50 balls and the offensive rebounds, that it would have been a totally different game. Hats off to [the Pacers]. They played well, but we will be better."
The Cavs also got 11 points from Channing Frye and eight points and 13 rebounds from Tristan Thompson.
"Kyrie got two big [defensive] stops at the end," Thompson said. "We are going to need that. This is a team that is not going to give up. We were up by 12, but they kept pushing. They made plays. Lance made shots and Paul George made one hell of a 3 at the top [of the arc]. This is a team that will play a full 48 [minutes]."
Teague scored 15 points, and Monta Ellis and Myles Turner both chipped in 11 points.
"We have been poised and calm in those [past five] games, going back to the last game we played here in Cleveland [that the Cavs won 135-130 in two overtimes on April 2]," McMillan said. "We responded and gave ourselves a chance to win, but we came up short."
Love acknowledged that he and his teammates can "play a lot better," but that he is "definitely happy with the win."
Game 2 is Monday night at Quicken Loans Arena.
