The Good: You have to admire the arrangement of the deck chairs.
The Bad: Pacer coach Frank Vogel said before the game that it would be very important to slow the Suns down. Didn’t happen. The 23 fastbreak points the Pacers allowed matched their season’s worst (at Washington on November 5th). During the third quarter that put the game out of reach, Phoenix scored 11 points on the break, while the Pacers could only manage 16 points over the entire 12 minutes.
Other than that, it was a whole lotta too much/too little – too much Phoenix offense against too little Pacer defense.
And, of course, injuries prevented Roy Hibbert (ankle) and Rodney Stuckey (wrist) from finishing the game. Both are listed as day to day.
MVP: In three games against the Pacers since being traded to Phoenix, Gerald Green has scored 62 total points and hit 10 of his 17 three point attempts.
LVP: Pacer Point Guards: Donald Sloan and A.J. Price combined for 14 points on 22 shots. Vogel said after the game that Phoenix took away Luis Scola’s pop game and dared the point guards to score. They didn’t, and the result 90.4 points per 100 possessions, the Pacers’ second worst offensive performance of the season.
X-Factor: Sometimes, games don’t need X-Factors. This Pacer team has proven resilient, but they remain woefully undermanned. Fast, talented teams like Phoenix are tailor-made to exploit Indiana’s weaknesses. Sadly, this one was eminently predictable.
 | Luis Scola, PF 27 MIN | 0-4 FG | 1-2 FT | 10 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 2 TO | 1 PTS | -11 |
Coming off two strong games, the Pacers desperately needed more points from Luis against the potent Suns. Frank Vogel noted after the game that Scola’s former team did focus on taking away Luis’ pick-n-pop game, and it hobbled the Pacer offense. The 10 boards are nice, but points were what Indy needed.
Chris Copeland, SF 30 MIN | 3-9 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 8 PTS | -18A+ for his first five minute. D- for his last 25. Like Scola, Copeland has to score in games against offenses this good. unlike Scola, there were no mitigating factors against Cope’s lack of production.
Solomon Hill, SF 35 MIN | 6-13 FG | 0-0 FT | 6 REB | 4 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 13 PTS | -17Spurred moments of hope with his energy.
Roy Hibbert, C 7 MIN | 0-1 FG | 2-2 FT | 2 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 0 TO | 2 PTS | -3Left after only 7 minutes of play with a sprained left ankle.
Donald Sloan, PG 29 MIN | 3-12 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 2 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 8 PTS | -10Phoenix decided to take away the pop and make the Pacer point guards prove they needed to be guarded. Neither Donald nor A.J. made the Suns pay.
Shayne Whittington, PF 7 MIN | 3-3 FG | 1-2 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 7 PTS | 0Team highs in PER (28.8), rebounds per 100 possessions (19.8), field goal percentage (.625, tied with Mahinmi),..Impossible to argue that he’s not the best player on the team. Shayne on Vogel for not starting him.
Lavoy Allen, PF 23 MIN | 4-8 FG | 0-0 FT | 7 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 2 TO | 8 PTS | -15Typical Lavoy.
Damjan Rudez, SF 16 MIN | 2-6 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 0 TO | 4 PTS | -2I’m never entirely sure what he does on the floor.
Ian Mahinmi, C 26 MIN | 5-8 FG | 2-4 FT | 10 REB | 1 AST | 3 STL | 1 BLK | 2 TO | 12 PTS | -12Made a running hook shot. Even made it look like it was what he intended.
A.J. Price, PG 21 MIN | 2-10 FG | 1-2 FT | 0 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 6 PTS | -9See Donald Sloan. When the defense dares the point guards score, and they answer by missing 17 of their 22 shots,it rarely ends well.
Rodney Stuckey, PG 20 MIN | 3-10 FG | 7-8 FT | 6 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 14 PTS | -18This is the Rodney Stuckey I remember from Detroit.
