The blowout that could have been. The Indiana Pacers were up by as many as 27 in the 3rd quarter, but were forced to sweat it out against the Minnesota Timberwolves thanks to some superhero stuff late in the 4th from the new addition, Monta Ellis.
Every Pacers player put up at least 5 points and Paul George continued his tear towards another surefire All-Star appearance (and one game closer to Billy Knight’s record of 26+ points in 10 consecutive games).
The Good: Paul George continues his reign of terror, especially on Friday the 13th. Nice to see the boys build a monster lead they had yet to put up in any of their first 9 games. Pretty fun to see PG go head to head with Andrew Wiggins and go right at each other all night. 24 fast break points is always good to see and it seemed like they always made the right pass on the break. Mo Williams wasn’t around dropping 52 points either, which is nice.
The Bad: Minnesota was coming off a back to back against the fastest team in the NBA (Golden State Warriors) and playing it’s 4th game in 5 nights. You would like to think the Pacers would have the gas to finish this team off easily after mounting such a huge lead, but they allowed them to stick around late and make a game of it anyway. The offense just couldn’t navigate through the dead spots late in the 3rd and throughout the 4th quarter and the defense ultimately allowed Minnesota to shoot 51% from the field. Shooting 65% from the free throw line isn’t going to cut it for a team with this many great shooters either (get it together Ian…)
MVP: Monta Ellis. 24 points, 5 assists and only 2 turnovers as Vogel was smart to keep the ball in his hands late. Not to mention a Dikembe-like block in crunch time for a guy known more as a scorer than a defender his whole career.
LVP: George Hill. We are now used to seeing him consistently shoot above 50%, so making 2 for 7 is just no longer good enough for him based on his play lately. The corner 3 wasn’t as nice to him (i.e. he didn’t make them all). Played decent defense, but got burned quite a few times by Zach LaVine who went off tonight.
X-Factor: Glenn Robinson III is starting to show some serious potential. Monster three point shot to stop the bleeding in the 4th quarter, active defense/hands and seems to be one of the few bench guys who can attack the rim and get to the line (but we miss you Stuckey).