Post-Game Grades: Pacers Suffer Unconscionable Loss to 76ers
The Good: It’s tough to glean anything positive in a loss to the Sixers, just Philadelphia’s second home win of the entire season. The Pacers wasted a vintage performance from David West, who had a chance to win the game at the end. Despite foul trouble in the front court, the Pacers out rebounded Philly 54-44, though their second-chance shots were about as successful as their first-chance shot, which is to say not very successful at all.
The Bad: This Pacers’ offensive performance was uglier than the sweater grandma got you for Christmas that you haven’t gotten around to returning yet. Indiana shot a heinous 33% from the field and missed 12 free throws. The bench, a relative bright spot of late, was outscored 22-46.
MVP: The aforementioned West, with far and away his most robust stat line in a while: 28 points, 9 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.
LVP: Chris Copeland was an absolute non-factor in this game. The only sign he played at all- an assist- was the result of his clear hesitation to even attempt a shot in the third quarter. Frank Vogel replaced him with Damo Rudez after that, which pretty much says everything you need to know about Cope’s performance.
X-Factor: Some dude named Robert Covington, who started the year with the D-League’s Rio Grand Valley Vipers and scored 12 of his 16 points from deep.
 | Indiana Pacers | 92 | FinalRecap | Box Score | 93 | Philadelphia 76ers |  |
 | David West, PF 33 MIN | 10-18 FG | 8-10 FT | 9 REB | 2 AST | 2 STL | 2 BLK | 1 TO | 28 PTS | +2Despite sitting out pretty much the entire third quarter with foul trouble, West had himself a beast of a game. |  |
Solomon Hill, SF 36 MIN | 2-11 FG | 8-9 FT | 6 REB | 2 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 12 PTS | +6Struggled to score, like everyone else, and continued to show a troubling penchant for getting swatted at the rim. He did find some other ways to contribute, a few boards, assists and steals, and shot well from the charity stripe.
Roy Hibbert, C 19 MIN | 3-8 FG | 1-1 FT | 13 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 2 BLK | 1 TO | 7 PTS | 0Battled foul trouble all game and could not get into any semblance of an offensive rhythm. His absence on the defensive end allowed Tony Wroten (as well as some other guys you haven’t heard of) to get to the rim far too often. Seeing 13 rebounds in the stat line is nice, but the team could not really do much with them.
Rodney Stuckey, PG 35 MIN | 4-8 FG | 4-7 FT | 9 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 13 PTS | +3A steady if unspectacular game for Stuckey, who struggled to make an offensive impact late in the game.
C.J. Watson, PG 30 MIN | 3-11 FG | 2-3 FT | 1 REB | 4 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 10 PTS | +1A couple of threes, including one in the last two minutes, but an otherwise quiet outing.
Lavoy Allen, PF 22 MIN | 1-7 FG | 2-2 FT | 6 REB | 1 AST | 3 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 4 PTS | +4Struggled mightily to put in the ball in the hole at his old home court- tip-ins, lay-ups, mid-ranges, didn’t matter.
Luis Scola, PF 17 MIN | 2-9 FG | 1-5 FT | 5 REB | 3 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 5 PTS | +1Scola was also no match for the lid on Philly’s rim.
Chris Copeland, SF 13 MIN | 0-4 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | -10Visibly lost faith in his shot by the second half, which is about the time Vogel lost faith in his prospect of on-court time.
Damjan Rudez, SF 9 MIN | 0-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | +1Vogel ran a set play for him when he came in to try to get some offense going in the third, which went about as well as you would expect. Contributed a couple of boards and did not fall down while playing defense.
Ian Mahinmi, C 4 MIN | 0-0 FG | 1-2 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 1 PTS | -9Foul trouble necessitated a few minutes from the Frenchman despite a lack of practice time. Hit a free throw and did not seem to injure anything, so he’s got that going for him.
Donald Sloan, PG 18 MIN | 3-7 FG | 3-3 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 9 PTS | -2A quiet game for Sloan. The Sixers interestingly put longer defenders on Sloan late, and he had trouble adjusting. In fairness, though, at that point in the game, the only real offense was to try to get it in to West.
C.J. Miles, SG 4 MIN | 1-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 3 PTS | -2Hit one three and missed another in spectacular fashion. So before fulfilling the Pacers’ one injury per game quota, this seemed to be a pretty C.J. Miles sort of outing.