2018 NBA Playoffs: Grading each first round playoff series 

Cleveland Cavaliers vs Indiana Pacers: A++

This series was all about the LeBron James' show

LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers were stretched to the limit by an Indiana Pacers team which played out of its skin for the length of the 7-game series that went literally down to the wire. James had to pull out his best performance yet to keep the Cavaliers in the hunt for further progression in the playoffs, and he just about managed to get his team over the hump.

In a series during which none of LeBron's teammates scored 20+ in a single game, the King averaged a whopping 34.4 points, 10.1 rebounds, 7.7 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.0 blocks per game on shooting averages of 55.3/35.3/81.8. In even his lowest-scoring game, James scored 22 points, and he had 3 games scoring 45 or more points.

The Pacers outscored the Cavs by 40 points over the 7 games, but the enduring excellence of James shone through in high-leverage moments - that alone took Cleveland over the hump. Victor Oladipo won 2 games for Indiana all by himself, while the rest of the Pacers team gave Cleveland headaches galore all through the series.

The usual suspects like Kevin Love and Kyle Korver played way below par, but that was largely due to the high-quality on-ball defense played by each Pacer individually. Bojan Bogdanovic, Lance Stephenson, Thaddeus Young, Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis all chipped in for the Pacers, and they very nearly finished the deal off.

The enduring image of a series of what-ifs would surely be LeBron blocking Oladipo on a potentially game-winning layup - a call that the NBA would later admit to blowing. It was, indeed, a playoff series for the ages.