CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Cavaliers were going to stop at nothing to get the ball out of Paul George's hands with the clock winding down.

The idea was to get a stop.

Cleveland got the one it needed when C.J. Miles missed a wide-open jumper at the buzzer, and the Cavaliers beat the Indiana Pacers 109-108 in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round series.

Cleveland blitzed George (29 points) and made him toss the ball to Miles, who spun around Richard Jefferson's defense but missed the 14-foot jumper.

"We wanted to get the ball out of (George's) hands, make somebody else try to beat us and live with the results," said LeBron James, who led all scorers with 32 points to go with 13 assists and six rebounds.

James' teams have an 18-game winning streak in the first round and are 45-7 lifetime.

This victory almost didn't happen.

James missed a 3-pointer with 20 seconds left to set the Pacers up for one more shot. The Cavaliers led by 12 late in the third quarter and were ahead by 10 with 9:04 remaining.

They fell behind on Jeff Teague's 3-pointer with 3:31 to go. James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love had missed the last six shots for Cleveland.

The Cavaliers also shot just 14-of-27 from the foul line, which included misses by James and J.R. Smith inside of one minute that nearly came back to haunt them.

"I addressed it after the game," Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue said. "We can play better and we will play better. We missed 13 free throws, turned the ball over and got 19 points in transition. And just cleaned up a few things.

"The playoffs are about adjustments and what you can do better. I just thought if we got to those 50/50 balls and the offensive rebounds that it'd have been a totally different game. Hats off to them, they played well. But we'll be better.

George finished with 29 points for the Pacers. His 3-pointer with 40 seconds left cut the Cavaliers' lead to within a point.

After scoring 43 points in a loss to the Cavaliers on April 2, George was clearly the primary worry for a Cleveland defense that often shadowed him with an extra defender. James and Smith rushed at him to force his pass to Miles.

"Being up one and 20 seconds on the clock that was a surprise getting trapped," George said. "Usually you try to force a turnover there early. ... Situations like that, I gotta get the last shot."

Irving scored 23 points and Love scored 15 of his 17 points in the first half for Cleveland.

Teague scored 15 points for the Pacers and Lance Stephenson came off the bench to score 16.

"We won the fourth quarter which we needed to do to close this game out," George said. "A lot of unforced turnovers and free throws we gave up. We gave up a lot of open 3s by just not being on the same page. We limit that and we walk away up 1-0. And we didn't do that."

James passed Tim Duncan (1,975 field goals) for fifth place in playoff history in buckets. He also recorded his 85th playoff game with at least 30 points, the third most in NBA history.

Game 2 is Monday in Cleveland. Including the regular season, the Cavaliers have now won four straight over the Pacers.

NOTES: Game 1 against the Pacers was the 200th playoff contest of Cavaliers F LeBron James' illustrious career. He's the ninth player to play that many postseason games. In his first on April 22, 2006, he notched a triple-double (32 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists) in a win over Washington. ... James instituted his customary postseason social media blackout just before midnight on Friday. He calls it "Zero Dark 23". ... Indiana G Jeff Teague has no limitations from rolling his ankle in Wednesday's regular-season finale. ... This is the second time the Cavaliers and Pacers have met in the postseason. Indiana knocked Cleveland from the 1998 playoffs, in the first round. ... The Pacers were bounced by James from the 2013 and 2014 Eastern finals when he was a member of the Miami Heat.