The Good: The Indiana Pacers destroyed the Miami Heat on the glass, winning the rebounding battle by a laughable 58-23. Roy Hibbert (15 boards), Solomon Hill (10), and Lavoy Allen (7) led the way. Clap for these dudes.
The Bad: Late offense. The Pacers looked scrambled, chaotic, and amateurish in the final five minutes as they tried to turn a narrow lead into a win. Fortunately, the Heat were equally buffoonish while trying to run their sets, and Indiana got a wild 3 from Donald Sloan and a driving finger roll from Chris Copeland to help seal the win.
MVP: Roy Hibbert. The big man continued his nice play, putting up a nice line and making a litany of wonderful moves. More than the buckets, he just continued to show polish with his post moves, making silky hook shots and getting great position to toss in easy layups.
LVP: Chris Bosh. The Heat star was a no show for huge stretches of the game and really never made the Pacers pay for having Hibbert out there trying to defend a spread attack. Bosh finished with 9 points on 3-for-13 shooting and only grabbed 2 boards in 33 minutes.
X-Factor: Lavoy Allen. His stats won’t impress but he was a problem on the boards and epitomized the tenacity that made this one into, as cliche as it sounds, a game that was won by the team that wanted it more.
 | Luis Scola, PF 18 MIN | 3-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 3 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 6 PTS | +8 |
Line turned out OK for his limited time, but made several blunders out there and is obviously losing his minutes — for good reason — to Lavoy Allen at this point.
Chris Copeland, SF 35 MIN | 7-17 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 2 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 3 TO | 17 PTS | +1Got his points and drove to the rack — someone hilariously — to get Indiana arguably its most important bucket of the game with under a minute left. It was reminiscent of the game winner he hit against the Bucks last year, but this was in what felt a lot more like a real NBA game. Mostly.
Solomon Hill, SF 42 MIN | 1-12 FG | 6-8 FT | 10 REB | 0 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 9 PTS | +4Yeeeeesh with that shooting. Wasn’t as awful as all that, but was sloppy and got exploited on defense at times. Still showing good signs — the confidence being most apparent — but lines like this aren’t helping anyone.
Roy Hibbert, C 34 MIN | 7-14 FG | 2-2 FT | 15 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 3 BLK | 5 TO | 16 PTS | +11Putting this Mighty Ducks squad on his back. Ridiculously nice block on a dunk attempt.
Donald Sloan, PG 34 MIN | 5-10 FG | 2-2 FT | 6 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 15 PTS | +5Getting it done and hit an ill-advised 3. But I would advise anyone to make ill-advised shots over missing good ones in the clutch any time.
Lavoy Allen, PF 29 MIN | 2-6 FG | 2-2 FT | 7 REB | 0 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 6 PTS | -4Quite a little player.
Damjan Rudez, SF 14 MIN | 1-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 2 PTS | +10Not much of a player yet.
Ian Mahinmi, C 14 MIN | 1-1 FG | 1-1 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 3 PTS | -5Ian.
A.J. Price, PG 19 MIN | 3-12 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 2 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 7 PTS | 0Not tryna go to China, for sure, but even with the misses, he brought some stability to the offense at times. Not awful for a guy who still hasn’t practiced with this team yet.