The Indiana Pacers came back from being down 17 points, but couldn’t finish off the Utah Jazz on a night where Paul George scored 48 points.
Career high’s and emotional low’s left and right tonight. The Indiana Pacers just couldn’t close out the Utah Jazz despite leading by 5 in the last minute of regulation. Paul George goes off for a career-high 48 points, Rodney Stuckey has a season high 23, but it was unfortunately wasted on a night when the inability to finish was ultimately their undoing. All in all it was a decent 2-2 west coast road trip, but it certainly feels like the Pacers let one get away tonight.
The Good: Great comeback. The Pacers found themselves down by as many as 17 in the 3rd quarter when Raul Neto of all people caught fire and it seemed they would go quietly into the night. Then Paul George and Rodney Stuckey got angry. Good to see the offense keep humming with another 100+ point performance, their 8th consecutive game to hit the century mark.
The Bad: Second chance points doomed the Pacers again as they couldn’t box out on the defensive glass, giving the Jazz 19 offensive rebounds and 37 free throw attempts. The defense couldn’t figure out the pick and roll with Derrick Favors, resulting in mulitple fouls and/or easy baskets almost every time down the floor. You have to know not to foul under 20 seconds and leading by 3 when the play takes place right under the basket. Absolutely no excuse for that one Frank.
More from 8 Points, 9 Seconds
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- Handing out early-season grades for Pacers’ Bruce Brown, Obi Toppin
- 3 positives, 2 negatives in Pacers In-Season Tournament win vs. Cavaliers
- 2 positives, 3 negatives from first week of Indiana Pacers basketball
- Should Isaiah Jackson’s days with Indiana Pacers be numbered?
MVP: Paul George. Good to see him bounce back from his outlier performance in Portland with a new career high and a renewed swagger. You start to feel bad for the poor sap who is forced to guard him in games like this. He’s officially moving forward on his quest for world domination.
LVP: Lavoy Allen. Outworked and outhustled once again. He wins the award for mental mistake of the game as well when he fouled Derrick Favors under the hoop on the unfortunate and-1 opportunity that ultimately sent the Jazz to overtime.
X-Factor: Rodney Stuckey. The second unit started to get out of the way and just let Stuck go to work once he got hot. His killer instinct and bull rush mentality are simply keeping this team in games when things start to look bleak.