Post-Game Grades: Pacers Steal Every Resident of Denver's Lunch Money

Indiana came out to play at home tonight on the second night of a back to back. After embarrassingly blowing a 17-point lead to the lowly Magic last night in Orlando, they weren’t about to let that go down again. This one got out of hand quickly and the Pacers diligently kept the pedal to the floor to ensure the runaway never ceased.

David West opened the floodgates and Lance Stephenson eagerly exploited the talent void in Denver’s back court by doing untoward things to the likes of Evan Fourmier and Jordan Hamilton that even the interrogators in Guantanamo thought was too much. Roy Hibbert got his verticality on and added some nice punishment down low, and George Hill decided to get some aggressiveness back into his system, perhaps, just because he was bored of watching other guys catch his passes and score so easily.

The Pacers still have one game left before the All-Star break, but this was quite the anecdote to remove the sour taste of the Magic loss. One more game, at home, against Dirk’s Mavericks on Wednesday, but this should help the team forget some of the, relative, mediocrity of late and enter the break on a high note.

The Good – Everything. Grade A, All American, Green Beret, Top Gun, Dean’s List, Hall of Fame, Church of God Shammgod-level beat down from start to finish.

The Bad – Lance Stephenson over-dribbled a few times, though never all that egregiously honestly. Really wasn’t much of anything to critique this evening. Whole team got a bit sloppy once the lead was huge.

MVP – David West. His 17 first-quarter points set the tone. Nobody on Denver was even gonna consider stopping Mr. West, who was most certainly in the building — and damn near tore it down. Highlight of the night might have been David looking over at Brian Shaw on Denver’s bench after scoring with a face like, “You better get someone else out here to check me.”

LVP – Randy Foye was a disgrace, missing 10 of his first 11 attempts. He did get banged up, so cut him a little slack, but Denver’s whole point guard situation is a mess.

X-Factor – George Hill moved the ball well and set up several early plays that started the beginning of the end for the Nuggets.

Defining Moment – I dunno. The opening tip?

Disagree? Want to discuss the grades? Get at me on twitter at @8pts9secs.

Laid waste to the whole state of Colorado. Call the cops. Call the firefighters. Call yoself a doctor.

Paul George, SF

27 MIN | 4-10 FG | 2-2 FT | 5 REB | 4 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 12 PTS | +27

Wasn’t really needed tonight, and may have had the most innocuous presence on the court he has had all season. Did force one fadeaway I recall well, a terrible, contested shot that he released with some crazy Dirk arc. It hit all net. One of those nights.

Roy Hibbert, C

26 MIN | 6-12 FG | 2-2 FT | 12 REB | 2 AST | 1 STL | 4 BLK | 2 TO | 14 PTS | +19

Protected the rim and did some damage on the other end. Along with West, Indiana’s inside strength alone seemed to be enough to make Denver back down.

George Hill, PG

25 MIN | 3-6 FG | 4-5 FT | 7 REB | 5 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 10 PTS | +25

Nice little stat line. Played good defense as well.

Lance Stephenson, SG

28 MIN | 5-8 FG | 2-2 FT | 6 REB | 3 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 12 PTS | +17

He seemed to have more of an impact than his line would suggest, but uber-efficient and filling the categories. Didn’t need to play that much and was out of the game for much of the first quarter as Indiana started the blowout.

Luis Scola, PF

14 MIN | 4-8 FG | 3-4 FT | 8 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 11 PTS | +1

Get them numbers.

Chris Copeland, SF

7 MIN | 1-4 FG | 2-2 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 4 PTS | +9

Honestly stopped watching but I’m sure his three missed 3-pointers were fun times.

Solomon Hill, SF

7 MIN | 2-2 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 4 PTS | +9

Honestly stopped watching.

Danny Granger, SF

22 MIN | 3-6 FG | 2-2 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 0 TO | 9 PTS | +15

Had a dunk. For that, you get the A.

Ian Mahinmi, C

22 MIN | 2-3 FG | 3-4 FT | 9 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 7 PTS | +20

Really good minutes out of Ian tonight. Had one bad foul (hacking a hook-shot-taking Mozgov) but everything else was quite excellent.

Donald Sloan, PG

7 MIN | 1-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 2 PTS | +9

Honestly stopped watching.

C.J. Watson, PG

16 MIN | 1-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 2 PTS | +5

Don’t remember him doing anything good or bad.

Rasual Butler, SG

12 MIN | 3-4 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 7 PTS | +10

Honestly stopped watching.

Frank Vogel

I’m not sure it was Frank who made the Nuggets’ guards play and/or be so terrible, but he’ll get all the credit I gave give for Indiana’s most lopsided win of the year.