Direct Answer
The Cavaliers have gotten the better of the Pacers in their two 2025-26 regular season meetings, winning 120-116 in Indianapolis on January 6 behind Darius Garland’s 29 points and 117-108 in Cleveland on April 5 behind Donovan Mitchell’s 38. In their July 10, 2026 Summer League matchup in Las Vegas, a completely different group of Pacers players beat a completely different group of Cavaliers players, 99-93, with Rienk Mast and Taevion Kinsey leading Indiana.
If you searched “pacers vs cleveland cavaliers match player stats” and landed on three different scores from three different sites, you’re not losing your mind. This matchup happened three separate times in 2026, in three different contexts, with three mostly different rosters. Below, every meeting is broken down game by game, with the numbers that actually explain how each one was won and lost, plus the context that most recap pages leave out entirely.
Why There Are Three Different “Final Scores” Floating Around
Most competitor pages cover one game and treat it like the definitive answer. That’s the gap worth closing here. Pacers and Cavaliers crossed paths in a January road game for Cleveland, an April home game for Cleveland, and a July Summer League opener in Las Vegas. Mixing those up is the single biggest source of confusion when people search this topic, so here’s the quick reference before we go deep on each one.
| Date | Location | Result | Type | Top Scorer |
| Jan 6, 2026 | Indianapolis | CLE 120, IND 116 | Regular season | D. Garland, 29 pts |
| Apr 5, 2026 | Cleveland | CLE 117, IND 108 | Regular season | D. Mitchell, 38 pts |
| Jul 10, 2026 | Las Vegas | IND 99, CLE 93 | Summer League | R. Mast, 16 pts / 11 reb |
January 6, 2026: Garland’s Fourth-Quarter Takeover
This one was closer than the final score suggests until Cleveland’s backcourt took over down the stretch. Darius Garland scored 14 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter alone, and that late burst turned a tight game into a 13-point Cleveland run that Indiana never recovered from.
What most recaps skip is who wasn’t on the floor. Cleveland head coach Kenny Atkinson rested Donovan Mitchell that night, just hours after the team announced Max Strus would miss at least another month with a left foot injury. Cleveland still won by four points without its All-Star guard, which tells you more about that roster’s depth than the box score alone ever will.
For Indiana, this loss was the 13th straight, a franchise record for the team’s NBA era, and dropped the defending Eastern Conference champions to a league-worst 6-31. That context matters: this wasn’t a normal Pacers team having a bad night, it was a roster in the middle of a full rebuild after a Finals run the year before.
Key Stat Lines, January 6
| Player | Team | Points | Notable |
| Darius Garland | CLE | 29 | 14 pts in the 4th quarter |
| Evan Mobley | CLE | n/a | Scored late fadeaway to seal it |
| Pascal Siakam | IND | n/a | Set up Aaron Nesmith on a key layup |
| Jay Huff | IND | n/a | Hit a 24-foot three off a Nembhard assist |
April 5, 2026: Mitchell Drops 38 as a Shorthanded Pacers Team Fights Back
By April, the storylines had flipped. Cleveland was locking up playoff positioning, four games clear of Atlanta for fourth place in the East with four to play, while Indiana was down to nine available players after Pascal Siakam (ankle) and Ben Sheppard (hip) both got hurt two nights earlier in Charlotte.
Donovan Mitchell made 16 of 27 shots for 38 points, adding six rebounds and six assists in only 33 minutes, and Cleveland didn’t even need its top frontcourt to close it out. Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley, and Sam Merrill all sat that game, which says a lot about how comfortable Cleveland’s coaching staff felt with the lead.
The Pacers, missing their top five scorers, still made this competitive for stretches. Micah Potter posted a 21-point, 12-rebound double-double, Obi Toppin scored a season-high 21 points on 8 rebounds, and two-way forward Jalen Slawson had a career night with 19 points. That kind of production from replacement-level names is exactly the sort of stat-sheet story that a plain box score doesn’t explain on its own.
Full Team Shooting Comparison, April 5
| Metric | Indiana | Cleveland |
| Field goal % | 38.4% | 46.7% |
| Three-point % | 38.6% | 34.0% |
| Total rebounds | 43 | 46 |
| Offensive rebounds | n/a | 9 |
| Points in the paint | 24 | 54 |
Look closely at that table and the game explains itself. Indiana actually out-shot Cleveland from three, 38.6% to 34.0%, but got beaten by 30 points in the paint. That’s the real story of this loss: a jump-shooting team going up against a team that lives at the rim, and the rim winning.
July 10, 2026 Summer League: A Completely Different Cast of Names
Here’s the part almost every competitor page glosses over or gets confused with the regular season games: this was Las Vegas Summer League, played at Cox Pavilion, and neither Donovan Mitchell nor Pascal Siakam suited up. If you’re researching this game specifically, you’re looking at rookies, two-way players, and fringe roster hopefuls, not the names you see on League Pass in January.
Indiana won this one 99-93, and the box score is genuinely interesting on its own merits. The Pacers trailed after one quarter, 14-11, then flipped the game with a 32-27 second quarter and controlled the pace from there. Rienk Mast anchored the paint with 16 points and 11 rebounds, and Taevion Kinsey came off the bench to shoot 4-of-6 from three for 16 points in just 16 minutes.
Standout Performances, July 10 Summer League
| Player | Team | PTS | REB | AST | FG | 3PT |
| Rienk Mast | IND | 16 | 11 | 3 | 6-12 | 1-6 |
| Jalen Slawson | IND | 15 | 6 | 5 | 4-15 | 2-9 |
| Taevion Kinsey | IND | 16 | 1 | 1 | 4-6 | 4-6 |
| Nae’Qwan Tomlin | CLE | 20 | 6 | 4 | 8-14 | 2-4 |
| Meleek Thomas | CLE | 20 | 5 | 3 | 7-15 | 2-5 |
One detail worth flagging for anyone tracking prospects: Indiana shot better from the field (43% to 39%) and dramatically better at the free throw line (68% on 17-25 attempts against Cleveland’s 11-13), and that free throw gap alone was nearly the entire margin of victory. Free throw discipline gets overlooked in Summer League recaps constantly, but it’s often the difference in games where half the roster is still learning NBA spacing.
How to Actually Read These Box Scores Like a Scout
Raw point totals are the least useful number on a stat sheet if you’re trying to understand why a team actually won. A few habits make these Pacers vs Cavaliers box scores far more useful:
- Check plus/minus before points. In the July Summer League game, Taevion Kinsey’s +11 in only 16 minutes told you more about his impact than his 16 points did on their own.
- Compare paint points to three-point makes. The April game is the clearest example on this page: Indiana won the three-point battle and still lost by 9 because Cleveland out-scored them 54-24 inside.
- Look at who didn’t play. Cleveland won the January game without Mitchell and the April game without Allen, Mobley, and Merrill. That’s a depth story, not a box score story.
- Free throw attempts matter more than free throw makes. Indiana’s 25 attempts to Cleveland’s 13 in the Summer League game shows which team was attacking the basket, not just which team finished cleaner.
Head-to-Head Trends Worth Watching
Stack all three games next to each other and a pattern shows up that no single-game recap can surface:
- Cleveland’s roster wins with size and rim pressure. Both regular season meetings were decided in the paint, not from three-point range.
- Indiana’s bench production has been the story in every meeting so far, whether it’s Potter and Toppin in April or Kinsey and Slawson in July.
- Injuries reshaped both regular season results. Neither game featured both teams at full strength, which is worth remembering before treating either score as a true talent gap.
- The Summer League roster gives an early look at Indiana’s depth pipeline (Mast, Lipsey, Smith, Kinsey) heading into training camp, separate entirely from the veteran group.
If you’re tracking this rivalry for fantasy research, betting context, or just following both franchises, the smart move is treating the regular season series and the Summer League result as two completely separate data sets. They answer different questions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Donovan Mitchell play in the Pacers vs Cavaliers Summer League game?
No. The July 10, 2026 Summer League game in Las Vegas featured Cleveland’s development roster, including Nae’Qwan Tomlin and Meleek Thomas, not the team’s regular rotation players.
Who had the best all-around stat line for Indiana against Cleveland this season?
Micah Potter’s 21-point, 12-rebound double-double in the April 5 loss is the strongest single-game line among Indiana’s regular roster, though Rienk Mast matched that scoring total with 11 boards in the Summer League win.
How many times did the Pacers and Cavaliers play in 2026?
Three times total: a regular season game on January 6 in Indianapolis, a regular season game on April 5 in Cleveland, and a Summer League game on July 10 in Las Vegas.
Where can I find the official box score for these games?
NBA.com, ESPN, and CBS Sports all carry the full box scores for each game listed above, including shot charts and play-by-play logs for the two regular season meetings.
Conclusion
The Pacers vs Cleveland Cavaliers match player stats tell three very different stories depending on which game you examine. Cleveland controlled both regular-season meetings with strong performances from Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell, while Indiana responded with an impressive Summer League victory led by its young talent. Looking beyond the final score and studying player statistics, shooting efficiency, rebounding, and team depth provides a much clearer picture of each matchup. Whether you’re analyzing recent performances, tracking player development, or researching head-to-head trends, these stats offer valuable insight into how both teams have competed throughout the 2025–26 season.
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