Post-Game Grades: Warriors Out-Play the Pacers

All in all, winning two out of three games on a West Coast road trip isn’t bad. Roy Hibbert looked superb on a few of his post moves. Ian Mahimni might be pretty good. The bench (minus Tyler Hansbrough) cut a 16-point Warriors’ lead to 5 late in the third quarter. George Hill increasingly looks like a guy who knows when to distribute and knows when to call his own number.

Those are the positives. It’s not a short list.

But overall the offense wasn’t good and a really good Golden State scoring effort exploited a defense that made a lot of mistakes. It was a sloppy, lazy performance overall and I suppose we should hope that was more related to playing the second night of a back-to-back on Pacific time in Sacramento and Oakland.

There are worse things you can say about what happened on the court tonight, especially if you want to start digging into the defensive execution or Paul George’s entire game. But mainly this just looked like one of those games where Golden State seemed a lot more interested in playing a 10:30 EST tip in Oakland, California.

Here is how each guy played individually tonight. Agree? Disagree? Express your thoughts below in the comments or yell at me (@8pts9secs) or Tim (@TimDonahue8p9s) on Twitter.

Had a few thoughtless, disgusting turnovers but was — like almost always now — the best Pacer on the court.Paul George – 29 MIN | 0-7 FG | 5 REB | 4 AST | 0 PTS

I would look up whether or not this is his first scoreless game ever as a starter but that would take more effort than he put in this evening — which I already did while Photoshopping this new grade image for him. A zero. Like his point total. He also lost Klay Thompson several times.Roy Hibbert – 32 MIN | 6-13 FG | 7 REB | 2 AST | 15 PTS

Made several really good moves on the block tonight, which could render one regular season loss meaningless if it becomes the start of a long-term trend. Blocked 5 shots.George Hill – 37 MIN | 6-12 FG | 4-4 FT | 3 AST | 19 PTS

@TimDonahue8p9s: “I will now add George Hill to the list of Pacers worth taking seriously. (David West was getting lonely.)”Lance Stephenson – 23 MIN | 3-4 FG | 4 AST | 8 PTS

I thought he played fairly well early. But then he didn’t get a single second of playing time in the fourth quarter as Vogel went with Sam Young in his place during the last-gasp comeback attempt with the starters. Odd.

The umpteenth time in the last two weeks where I never once thought, “Man, they should get Tyler more touches.” He was perhaps-not-so-coincidentally not on the floor with the other bench guys (West was) when Indiana cut a 16-point deficit to 5.Sam Young – 23 MIN | 2-6 FG | 0 REB | 1 AST | 5 PTS

I’m over watching him play basketball if we’re being honest.Gerald Green – 20 MIN | 3-5 FG | 6 REB | 1 AST | 8 PTS

His best game in a while. Didn’t muck things up too much be just standing in the way, had one really nice drive, hit some threes and grabbed one really athletic offensive board.Ian Mahinmi – 16 MIN | 2-3 FG | 6-8 FT | 4 REB | 10 PTS

Another excellent night for Ian. Played very well on both ends. Starting to look like an ideal backup center.D.J. Augustin – 11 MIN | 2-3 FG | 1 REB | 1 AST | 4 PTS

Had that one excellent pick-pocket steal. Didn’t do much to make me squeamish.