OKC's collapse feels too familiar to Cavaliers fans after Pacers late game heroics

With increasingly difficult odds, the Indiana Pacers continue to repeat the same demoralizing late-game comebacks that sent the Cleveland Cavaliers to an early offseason.

The Cavaliers, after winning 64 regular season games, being swiftly overturned by an underdog Pacers team who never surrendered. After leading the NBA in offensive rating and three-point shooting in the first 82 games, the Cavs were pushed beyond their limits and failed to maintain that same execution against Indy.

In the first round of the playoffs, Cleveland steamrolled a Miami Heat team who had just battled through the Play-In tournament to become the first 10th-seed to earn a playoff spot. The Cavs won the series in four games, scoring 122 more points in total than Miami, the most in any NBA playoff series to date. With such a dominant performance in round one, the Cavaliers looked prepared to make a deep postseason run.

Then the Pacers came to Cleveland. After losing game one, Evan Mobley and De'Andre Hunter joined Darius Garland on the sideline with injuries for game two. Surprisingly, the underhanded Cavaliers held a lead against Indiana that game, giving hope to Cleveland faithful. In the fourth quarter, however, Indy held close until eventually coming back from down nine points in the final minute of the game. A Tyrese Haliburton buzzer-beating three over Ty Jerome suddenly sent the titan Cavs into a 0-2 series hole.

Cavaliers fans are having Pacers flashbacks in the NBA Finals

Some things in basketball cannot be explained. While statistics can tell us the end result of a storyline, the reality of those same statistics is nonetheless shocking. Analysts and commentators always discuss the "clutch gene" when looking at superstars and all-time greats. The famed Mamba Mentality founded by Kobe Bryant is often cited as the differentiator between a great player and a great playoffs superstar.

Against the 68-win Oklahoma City Thunder in game one, the Pacers came back from down 15 points to steal the first game in hostile territory. With less than three minutes left, Indiana put together a ridiculous run to hold OKC to four points in the final moments. With the shot clock off, Haliburton drove into a tough mid-range jumper and connected, giving Indiana their first lead of the night with 0.3 seconds left in regulation. Another buzzer beater for Haliburton.

Following game one, Indiana's Haliburton has put together a historic clutch run this year. The Pacers All-Star has surpassed LeBron James' clutch performances by a wide margin. In eight separate games falling behind by 15 or more points in this postseason, the Pacers hold a 5-3 record.

Originally, the Pacers' late-game heroics seemed to indicate the Cavaliers were routinely soft and unfit for playoff basketball. Former Cavs champion Channing Frye rightfully berated Cleveland on his podcast for another embarrassing playoff exit. After Indiana performed the same magic trick against the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Thunder were the final bastion of NBA normalcy in the Pacers' way.

In what is increasingly feeling like a Disney Channel underdog sports storyline, the Pacers are teaching Oklahoma City fans the same lesson Cleveland fans unhappily learned. With a battle-tested coach and a cohesive roster of athletic, sharpshooting stars and role players, the Pacers are surgically tearing apart every contender before the world's eyes.

For every statistics junkie and NBA mathematician, Indiana reminds them of the most important part of basketball. The numbers only tell the past. Basketball is a sport like poetry in motion, and rather than a science, the art of basketball is always liable to defy the odds.

The Cleveland Cavaliers learned a brutal but necessary lesson in the playoffs. No matter what numbers suggest, the Cavaliers can never take a single game for granted. The Indiana Pacers have yet to be favored in a playoff series this year, but they are never persuaded to surrender. Cavs fans should celebrate this success, as this same unpredictable victory is what allowed LeBron James to bring the first championship to Cleveland in the historic 2016 3-1 comeback.

As Oklahoma City prepares to respond to the Pacers, Cleveland Cavaliers fans should be watching. If the Thunder cannot find the solution to Indy's heroics, perhaps the Cavs can rest easy knowing their Pacers trauma is shared leaguewide. At least it's not just them to go home embarrassed and heartbroken.