Cleveland Cavaliers takeaways: Indiana Pacers are who Cavs want to be

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Cleveland Cavaliers Cedi Osman (Photo by David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images) /

The Cavs are a work in progress.

This was a good matchup for the Cavaliers in many ways. The Pacers are a team that the Cavs are trying to emulate in a lot of ways. Indiana returned to the playoffs after losing their All-Star small forward, Paul George, before last season by playing gritty defense and scoring in transition. This game showed that the Cavs do have some work to do in order to replicate the Pacers’ success.

The Cavs did a great job of running in transition against the Celtics during the first two preseason games. They didn’t have that same level of success against Indiana as they were outscored 16-3 in transition despite the Cavs pushing the pace almost every chance they had. The Pacers did a great job of stopping the ball in transition and forcing the Cavs to beat them in the halfcourt which didn’t happen.

The Cavs have some work to do if they are going to copy the blueprint the Pacers produced last season. They’re on the right path, but they still have a lot of work to do.