Half-effort leaves Cleveland Cavaliers at complete loss against Indiana Pacers

Another poor second half dooms the Cavaliers to their second straight loss at home, where they are now 1-4.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Coach Byron Scott stepped in front of the media after the Cavaliers' 99-85 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night at The Q.

"In the second half I thought we ran out of gas, for whatever reason," he said.

Then he corrected himself.

"I don't think we ran out of gas," he said. "I think we stopped playing."

That was quite an indictment, but he'll get no argument from the 20,562 fans in attendance, many of whom headed for the exits after the Pacers opened the fourth quarter with a 14-6 run that broke open what had been a close game.

It was the team's second straight loss at home, where they are now 1-4, and it was very much a repeat of Wednesday's loss to New Jersey.

"We have to figure out what's going on in the second half, because we have to come out with a lot more energy and effort than we did tonight," Scott said.

Especially since the Cavs were without starting point guard Mo Williams and starting center Anderson Varejao, who missed the game with groin and rib injuries, respectively. But who was missing wasn't nearly as important as what was missing. The shorthanded Cavs needed to crank up their defense and focus on offense to make up for the missing colleagues. They did neither.

Danny Granger scored 34 points, and Mike Dunleavy added 20 as the Pacers, playing the second night of a back-to-back, improved to 4-4. While it seemed like they hit every shot, they really were 19-of-35, and the Pacers as a team were 36-of-79 (45.6 percent).

"It was tough," said Antawn Jamison, who led the Cavs with 19 points and nine rebounds. "We did a pretty good job for 20 or 21 seconds on the shot clock, but they were shooting the ball with two or three seconds left on the shot clock and they were big shots -- 3-pointers and so forth.

"We knew coming into the game they're a team that can be cold at times, but when they get hot they're very dangerous."

Conversely, the Cavs didn't give themselves a chance on offense. Their ball movement was terrible, which is partly why they made just 10 of 36 shots in the second half (27.8 percent) and had nine turnovers.

Their rebounding wasn't good either. The starting point guard, Ramon Sessions, had as many rebounds -- five -- as starting center Ryan Hollins and starting power forward J.J. Hickson combined. The starting shooting guard, Anthony Parker, had as many rebounds -- eight -- as the starting front line combined.

"The one thing that really hurt us was that we stopped trusting each other on the offensive end," Scott said. "We stopped moving the ball. The one thing I keep telling them is that every time we seem to move the ball four or five passes and move our bodies, we get pretty much any shot we want.

"In the second half, we went to guys trying to do it on their own. That's not going to help us win basketball games."

Point well taken for a team that slipped to 4-5.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: mschmitt@plaind.com, 216-999-4668