Victor Oladipo and the Indiana Pacers stunned the Cleveland Cavs in Game 1 on Sunday night, defeating LeBron James and co. by the final of 98-80. Oladipo in particular dominated from start to finish, scoring a game-high 32 points on 11-for-19 shooting (6-for-9 from behind the arc) in addition to six rebounds, four assists and four steals.
After the victory, Oladipo was asked about comments made by Cavs owner Dan Gilbert last summer, following the trade that sent Oladipo to Indiana. At the time, Gilbert said that Indiana "could've done better than it did" when trading away Paul George.
The 25-year old All-Star guard certainly didn't need any extra motivation heading into Cleveland to face the reigning Eastern Conference champs, but he still hasn't forgotten the comments made by Gilbert which he says, "added fuel to the fire."
"You could say it added fuel to the fire, I guess you could say," Oladipo said after Game 1, per ESPN. "But that was so long ago. It came up recently, obviously, because we were playing the Cavs in the series, but I'm aware of what he said. Can't control his opinion. All I'm focused on is myself and becoming the best Victor Oladipo possible."
"We're fully aware of LeBron. We're fully aware of his team, and we realize it's not going to be easy, but that doesn't mean we're just going to come in here and just fold. We planning on winning. That's why we came to this series. That's why we came to play this game is to win, not just to come here and just be OK. That's what we're focused on: taking it one game at a time, trying to win every game."
The Cavs and Pacers will return to the Quicken Loans Arena on Wednesday night for Game 2. That game will air on TNT at 7:00pm ET.