The Indiana Pacers found a way to make the second night of a back-to-back worse than the first, falling hard to the Chicago Bulls to start the season 1-2.
The Good: … It’s October, I guess? Also, Paul George and Myles Turner don’t suck at least. That’s all, folks.
The Bad: It’s early, but there is already a lot of uncertainty in Nate McMillan’s rotations, the trade of Hill to Teague and the signing of Al Jefferson. The bench might be worse than last season. There were a few guys that didn’t look like they deserved minutes; there were a few other guys that looked like they shouldn’t be NBA players.
Any night that every player on the active roster gets to play is either a really good night or really bad night. This was a bad one.
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MVP: Doug McDermott led the charge for the bench unit of the Bulls, scoring 23 points in 18 minutes and shooting 5-6 from deep. His contribution was the main reason the Pacers’ bench got bounced and why they couldn’t forget about the three-point line against a Bulls time that is otherwise pretty vacant of shooters.
LVP: Jeff Teague. There are actually a bunch of players that could fit the bill for the Pacers, but Teague took his awful night against the Nets and found a way to top it tonight, putting up 0 points on 0-7 shooting. Fun Fact: George Hill didn’t have a 0-point game in either of the past two seasons.
X-Factor: Bench play. The Pacers’ all-reliever lineup headed into the second quarter down only four points, and by the time George got back into the game they were down by 19. That pretty much decided the outcome. Unless McMillan can figure out a rotation that works, rotational guys step up or Rodney Stuckey and Aaron Brooks can pull off way more than any of us could hope for, don’t expect this to change.
Next: The 7 Biggest Questions for the Indiana Pacers
The Pacers host the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Bankers Life Fieldhouse