The Indiana Pacers appeared to be on their way to a surprise upset of the Cleveland Cavaliers when they took a 2-1 series lead, including a monster 17-point come-from-behind win in Game 3 of the NBA first-round playoff series. However, something happened after that and LeBron James went into Beast Mode. As ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith said, there are only two players in the NBA who can take a team and just place them on their back and will them to victory in such a dominating manner -- LeBron James and Russell Westbrook -- and both men did that on Wednesday night to keep their playoff hopes alive.

However, there is at least one member of the Pacers team that felt the win was undeserved and he had a strong message for LeBron after the game.

Pacers send LeBron a strong message

The Cleveland Cavaliers were tied with the Indiana Pacers, 95-95, with seconds left. Victor Oladipo went for a shot to put his Pacers in the lead but LeBron James leaped into the way and slapped the ball down. While the block was impressive, most experts concluded that it was goaltending. Another person who contends that it was goaltending was Oladipo, who complained about it after that game.

According to Amico Hoops, Victor Oladipo sent a strong message to LeBron James. After complaining about getting his shot blocked, Oladipo made a comment about the Indiana Pacers evening up the series in Game 5.

Oladipo said that the series wasn't over with and a team has to win four games to move on.

"We'll see what happens in Game 6," Oladipo said.

LeBron James responds to the controversy

Here is the biggest takeaway from the goaltending complaints.

As Stephen A. Smith said on ESPN, the missed goaltending call didn't mean anything when it came to the final result of the game. Before that bad call, there was another call where LeBron James had the ball bounced out of his hand and it hit the baseline but the refs called it a turnover.

Despite that, there was one other reason that Victor Oladipo's complaints about the goaltend meant nothing at the end.

If the referees had called the goaltend and awarded the Indiana Pacers two points -- they still would have lost. LeBron hit the game-winner at the end and it was a three-point shot. Even with the goaltending, the Cleveland Cavaliers would have won the game 98-97 instead of 98-95.

As far as LeBron James is concerned, the entire complaint is baseless. In an interview after the game, LeBron said he didn't think it was goaltending at all. For the record, the NBA decided that it was a missed goaltending call -- which once again, had no effect on the outcome of the game.
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