Pacers 102 – Thunder 108
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Game Notes
- The Pacers got it handed to them for 42 minutes of the game. They couldn’t guard anyone or shoot. The score may have been close at times in the first half but it never really felt that way.
- They mounted a patented Pacer faux-run in the 4th to cut an 18-point deficit to 1, but anyone who has watched much Indy ball over the past three years knew that there wasn’t any way that all those made shots and defensive stops were sustainable for the final few minutes.
- AJ Price was tremendous and the only bright spot on a dismal night aside from Troy Murphy (see below). His 19 fourth-quarter points were impressive to say the least but perhaps even more promising was his willingness to simply force the issue on offense. Last year, Jarrett Jack was that guy and no one — aside from Dahntay Jones’ early-season, fool’s gold efforts early in the year — on this season’s roster has been able to replicate even a passable facsimile of that aggressiveness. Hopefully, this wasn’t just a one-night spark for the young former UConn Husky, but a preview of things to come. He doesn’t appear to be an amazingly adept penetrator but he did look like a willing one at least on his way to a career-high 23 points. And that’s more than we can say about pretty much anyone else on this team outside of Dahntay. More, please, AJ. And I like the threes, but let’s not fall in love with them either. (My joke on Twitter after he took that late ill-advised three after calling for a clear-out was “AJ Price: ‘I learned it from watching you, Danny.'”)
- Kevin Durant is really, really good. (40 points on 18 shots is insane.)
- Brandon Rush is really, really not. (3 points on 2 shots in 26 minutes is irrelevent.)
- Troy Murphy looked pretty good with 15 points on 12 shots and was active enough on the glass to grab 15 boards even though OKC only missed 36 shots in the entire game. (They coasted to 51.4% shooting as a team on 38/74 from the field and also went 26/37 from the line.)
- Danny Granger shot 28.6% (6/21) in his second game back from a torn plantar fascia after shooting 36.8% (7/19) in his first game back against Minnesota on Saturday. Not cool.
- I actually like Nick Collison quite a bit, but he looked a lot better out there on several possessions than he ever should.
- This whole Mike Dunleavy can’t score or facilitate much offense thing is beyond depressing.
- The Pacers gave up altogether way too many good three-point looks. And looks from midrange. And looks from the paint. And looks in transition. And ….
- Nothing else of even remote interest happened for the Pacers. Aside from the furious faux-comeback, this game was dreadful.