Indiana Pacers Weekly Recap for March 9th- March 15th
A great week for the Pacers as they are currently riding a four game winning streak and with the final six games of the season have a good shot at gaining some momentum for the playoffs. They got a win Monday night against Toronto, where the game almost got away from them, but George Hill in his starting role helped get the win. He put up 18 points in his first start of the season as Darren Collison had to sit with a groin injury. The Pacers swept the season series against the Raptors for the first time since 2003-2004.
Then the Pacers had their home and home series with the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday and Friday night. Wednesday night was a good, bad, and ugly game for the Pacers as the Cavs came storming back with an 18-1 run through the third and fourth quarters as the game went into overtime. But like the first meeting of these teams that went into overtime, the Pacers took control and won the game 104-98 with a 10-4 edge in scoring in OT. Just goes to show this team can turn it on when they need to, which they did Friday night.
Friday night was a good night for the Pacers as they put away the Cavs and ended up clinching a playoff berth for a second straight year. Hopefully, there will be more years of playoff basketball for this team as there’s a good core of guys here, and big things could be happening. But the game Friday night was eventually all Pacers as they were able to break open in the third quarter putting up 34 points and building a 21 point lead. The starters got to sit most of that fourth quarter and the Pacers won 102-83.
Last night’s win over the Milwaukee Bucks keeps the train moving along as the Pacers put them away 105-99. That’s a four game winning streak, and four games of scoring over a 100 points, which is a good sign. There’s been scoring from all the guys as a few of these games five or more players have scored double figures.
The Pacers right now are 8-1 this month with the lone loss coming at the hands of the Celtics, who are turning it on themselves at the right time. These last six games shape up nicely for the Pacers, but don’t want a letdown in these final games. Monday night against the Timberwolves could be a challenge, but the Pacers should be up to step up and get a win. There’s another game with Milwaukee and a couple of games with the Philadelphia 76ers, who are falling down and almost out of their playoff spot. Next week, the season finishes up with Detroit and Chicago. Now that Chicago date should be a fun game as it’s the final game of the season, and I think the Pacers want to make up for the 20 point loss previously to the Bulls. Things are moving along nicely, hopefully a great playoff run comes next.