Indiana Pacers versus Toronto Raptors Postgame Grades

It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t even OK looking. You’d need some strong beer goggles to think this was an attractive game. Neither team played well. The Pacers played super bad, and the Raptors played supe bad. Just one letter short of how abysmal the Pacers played. For these here game grades, I will continue the November/Thanksgiving theme, but it won’t be happy like those cute little Turkeys. I think tonight we’ll go with PILGRIMS. Let’s get this over with.

Grades

OFFENSE

1 PILGRIM

They scored 72 points people. SEVENTY-TWO!! That’s not even above average for college. Nothing was going right for the Pacers tonight. They shot a measly 32% from the field, and only 33% from beyond the arc. Turnovers have plagued this team all year, but not tonight. They kept the ball, but still sucked. They sucked. I have no other words.

DEFENSE

4 PILGRIMS

Contrary to the offensive output, the defense was stellar. Giving up 74 points is great. SEVENTY-FOUR!! They held the Raptors to 36% shooting, and out-rebounded them (which every team in the league should do). 8 blocks and 7 steals aint too shabby, either. Maybe this defense is a sign of things to come. That’d be cool, eh, fellas? Let’s hope that every team the Pacers play is coming off a triple overtime game.

STARTERS

1 PILGRIM

No starter had a “good” game. It took George Hill 20 shots to get 18 points, and he made ZERO jump shots. Are you kidding me? He’s a shooter for Chrissakes. Paul George and David West shot a combined 6/26 from the field. Roy Hibbert continued the disappearing act he’s mastered since the beginning of the season, and was replaced in the closing minutes. Can we even call Lance Stephenson a starter? I mean, he’ll be replaced in 2 games anyway by the next small forward on the depth chart.

BENCH

2 PILGRIMS

Tyler Hansbrough did quite well for himself. Sure, he missed every shot he took, but he got to the line and hustled. He almost single handedly got the Pacers back in the game by taking charges. Beyond him, there’s not much to sneeze at. The rest of the bunch shot 33% and did nothing of note. D.J. Augustin only got 11 minutes, and is dangerously close to getting dropped from my deep league fantasy team. THIS CLOSE, Augustin!

OVERALL

1 PILGRIM

I feel like I just wasted 2 and a half hours of my life. Those 150 minutes are gone. Forever. And what do I have to show for it? I now know that Jose Calderon is better than the entire Pacers team. I now know that the man who stole a maximum contract from this team didn’t even enter the game in the crucial minutes at the end of the game. I now know that Paul George and George Hill are not good enough to be the best players on an above average NBA team. From the looks of it, many many of my post game grade sesh’s are gonna end with this, I need a beer.