CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Through five games of this evenly matched first-round series, the Cleveland Cavaliers had plenty of reasons to crow about their suddenly respectable defense.

But in their first opportunity to close out this matchup, advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals and avoid an anything-can-happen Game 7, all those poor habits from the regular season, the countless problems that created the league's second-worst defense, came back to haunt the Cavaliers in one disastrous performance against the Indiana Pacers.

The sloppy offense and abundance of live-ball turnovers contributed to the issue, no doubt. But the transition defense was laughable.

Instead of sprinting back, playing with the required intensity to match the magnitude of the moment, the Cavaliers often jogged the other way or failed to get over halfcourt at all.

In this clip below, LeBron James, who is tough to blame in this series considering how much of a burden he has to carry, was the culprit. Even with Bojan Bogdanovic at the time of the miscue, James ended up as the third player back while Bogdanovic got a dunk. Even Tristan Thompson made more of an effort to chase down the play from behind.

The Cavs simply seemed a step or two slow at every turn. The spunky Pacers, who want to push the pace constantly, scored a whopping 35 fast-break points -- only two fewer in total than the previous three games, two of which were Cleveland victories.

Those run-outs helped Indiana All-Star Victor Oladipo, quiet in games 3-5, get better looks and find an early rhythm.

"We turned the ball over early that gave them confidence offensively and we took some bad shots that got them out in transition," head coach Tyronn Lue said. "I thought (Oladipo) played faster. I thought he really pushed the ball in transition. I thought he capitalized on our turnovers and poor shot selection early on and that kind of got him going early. We've just got to do a better job, we've got to get back, get floor balance, don't turn the basketball over so we can let them play against our half-court defense."

Well, that half-court defense wasn't much better. The Cavs seemed to exhaust themselves trying to trap Oladipo from the outset. He handled that extra attention much better, finishing with 28 points on 11-of-19 (57.8 percent) from the field and 6-of-8 (75 percent) from 3-point range. He added 10 assists to cap his first career playoff triple-double.

The Pacers also made a smart adjustment, using Darren Collison and Lance Stephenson to initiate offense more frequently while playing Oladipo off the ball.

While JR Smith has done a respectable job harassing Oladipo since taking that assignment following his Game 1 explosion, Smith has always been an inconsistent off-the-ball defender. This allowed Oladipo to come off screens, using his speed and quickness to either attack the rim or get a clean look with his jumper.

It also helped the Pacers prey on Cleveland's spotty pick-and-roll defense, often attacking Kevin Love -- something Indiana seemed to figure out in the second half of Game 5.

Without a true rim protector and usually playing with a smaller lineup, the Cavaliers gave up a handful of uncontested shots around the rim once again Friday night. The Pacers scored 58 points in the paint on 29-of-46 (63 percent) shooting and finished with 15 second-chance points.

Domantas Sabonis, who was often the roller on those sets, scored 19 points on 9-of-11 (81.8 percent) from the field, including 7-of-8 (87.5 percent) in the restricted area. With him on the court, Indiana outscored Cleveland by 28 points.

But it wasn't just Sabonis. On 51 possessions in this series, the roller is scoring 1.37 points per possession.

It's that kind of pick-and-roll defense that led to never-ending regular season struggles. The championship habits were never built and eventually that was bound to catch up to them.

It happened in Game 6, as the Pacers scored 121 points on 49-of-87 (56.3 percent) from the field and 15-of-30 (50 percent) from beyond the arc.

That brings us to Cleveland's other problem area on defense: Guarding the 3-point line.

The Cavs ranked 22nd defending the arc, allowing opponents to shoot 36.8 percent while giving up the third-most triples. Oftentimes it stemmed from a lack of quality defenders at the point of attack, forcing help, which led to kick-outs for open shots.

On Friday night, those same looks the Pacers had been getting earlier in this series started to drop. Collison, the other guy the Cavs were worried about going into the series, canned three from long range, matching his total from the first five games combined.

"We got to defend," James said after the game. "We got to guard the 3-point line. They shot 15-for-30 today and you're not going to ever win a basketball game allowing a team to shoot that well from the 3-point line."

Friday night was shades of Game 1, as so many of Lue's concerns came to the forefront at the worst possible time.

Heading into this series, he spoke about taking care of the basketball to keep Indiana from getting easy fast-break baskets. He stressed the need to get back in transition while making the Pacers' primary ball handlers -- Oladipo, Stephenson, Collison and Cory Joseph -- play in a crowd. Lue also talked about being the more physical, aggressive team while keeping the Pacers from controlling the boards.

In the games leading up to Friday night's massacre, the Cavs were able to do those things well enough on the defensive end, only allowing Indiana to reach the 100-point mark once all series.

It all changed in Game 6. The Cavaliers didn't follow their series blueprint. Instead, they reverted back to their old habits -- poor fundamentals and communication, as the Pacers unmasked Cleveland's many defensive flaws to force Game 7.