Kryie Irving scores 37, Cavs hold on to beat Pacers 117-111

This may be the game, or at least the kind of game, that shows George that his stardom may get wasted with a middling IN franchise. Absolutely, if the Pacers will have to win Game 2, George will have to take more shots.

LeBron James led all scorers with 32 points to go with 13 assists and six rebounds.

"He's got to learn to control himself and be in the moment", George said. But he should be better than this.

"Myself and Kyle, we kind have been brainstorming about it, how to get it to be more efficient", James said on Saturday. And the root of that is "I think we get exhausted at times". Only Chauncey Billups (36 points, 97.2 percent on April 19, 2009) and Dirk Nowitzki (36 points and 93.4 percent on April 18, 2010) were better.

ABOUT THE PACERS: The last possession of Game 1 was a hot topic of conversation after the contest, with George wondering why he didn't get the ball back after passing out of a double team. James then stood under the basket, shaking his head, mouthing the words, "No, no, no, no". Mike Conley scored 24 points to lead Memphis.

This could go on all postseason, or until the East boards up for the summer anyway. It's a tough balancing act.

There was one IN possession that illustrated what's missing with this team.

Cleveland once led by 10 in the fourth quarter, but in battled back. IN has The Big One. He contributed 11 points with three 3-pointers in 16 minutes. He has scored 30 or more points 85 times in the postseason, third all-time behind Michael Jordan (109) and Kobe Bryant (88). The rest of the Pacers scored 79.

LeBron James says the defending-champion Cavs are on the brink of putting it all together. It's not a matter of if the Cavs are going to win, but when. Hats off to them, they played well. Monday night, the Cavs committed 19 turnovers. "At that time, they were making every shot".

"Situations like that, I gotta get the last shot", he said. "We've got to play harder and be more physical in our defensive coverages". Our effort's been poor. The best part was the team keeping their composure, not going off in different directions, and just trying to do what we planned to do execution-wise at both ends.

They won't get near one anytime soon, either. And George was mincing no words when I asked him what he needed from Turner in the upcoming games. There are coaching decisions with which many may not agree, such as not fouling when up three or calling a timeout too early, but seeing a defense succeed and not changing anything despite there being a dead ball has to go down as one of the largest coaching brain farts at the end of a playoff game in recent National Basketball Association history. "We can play better and we will play better". Of course, he had lots of company there.

The easiest chance for an immediate score in a promising draft is long gone, because the Nets have to swap picks with Boston as they continuing paying for the trade that landed them Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. "Are there any answers for this team?"

"He missed", James said. "And I think we're right there on the cusp of doing that". "They started to hit shots and put pressure on us".