8 points, 9 seconds
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Post-Game Grades: George Hill’s Heroics, Game-Winner Key Pacers Win Over Wizards

By Jared Wade

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The Good: The Indiana Pacers offense. After a wretched, 14-point first quarter, the Pacers scored 28 points or more in each of the next three. Not including the first quarter, they shot 34-for-69 (49.3%), including 8-for-21 (33.3%) from behind the arc. Had they made their free throws (18-for-28 on the night), they might not have even needed any late-second heroics.

The Bad: The defense. Yet another Pacers opponent eclipsed the 100-point mark and the Pacers just couldn’t stop fouling (38 free throws for the Wiz). They did at least defend the arc well for once though (just 5-for-14 for Washington).

MVP: George Hill. He scored 29 points, including 10 of the Pacers final 15 points, without making a single 3-pointer. He executed Frank Vogel’s play perfectly on the final position, baiting the Wizards into a dummy screen and roll before taking off for the rim and finishing to turn a tie game into a Pacers victory.

LVP: Roy Hibbert was 0-for-6 in 17 minutes and didn’t play in the fourth quarter.

X Factor: Turnovers. The Pacers committed 6 in the third quarter as the Wizards got confidence, easy fast-break points (15 of them) and started to pull away. But when Indiana didn’t turn it over a single time in the fourth, they got more good looks at the hoop, scored 33 points in 12 minutes, and were able to mount a swell little comeback victory after being down as many as 10 halfway through the period.

Indiana Pacers103Final
Recap | Box Score		101Washington Wizards
David West, PF 29 MIN | 5-9 FG | 0-2 FT | 11 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 10 PTS | +13 +/-David West may be too old or too worn down to have major game-long impact anymore. But he was good down the stretch, hitting both his shots in the fourth, including a huge runner late, and moved the ball well.
Solomon Hill, SF 32 MIN | 3-8 FG | 5-6 FT | 6 REB | 3 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 13 PTS | +8 +/-Had 8 quick points in the third quarter, and given how amazingly John Wall started playing right after that … those points were critical. If he hadn’t hit those 2 3-pointers and been aggressive going to the hoop, who know if Indiana would have withstood the Wall onslaught (27 second-half points) to remain in striking distance. Then again, there were plenty of warts as well.
Roy Hibbert, C 17 MIN | 0-6 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 0 PTS | +1 +/-Yuck.
George Hill, PG 43 MIN | 12-24 FG | 5-5 FT | 7 REB | 9 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 4 TO | 29 PTS | +6 +/-IUPU-walkoff.
C.J. Miles, SG 31 MIN | 5-10 FG | 3-4 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 16 PTS | +11 +/-Hitting them 3s, doing that work.
Luis Scola, PF 11 MIN | 0-2 FG | 2-4 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 2 PTS | -14 +/-Slumping. Lionel Messi, who was in attendance along with the Argentine national football team, couldn’t have been impressed.
Lavoy Allen, PF 24 MIN | 4-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 6 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 0 TO | 8 PTS | +8 +/-Filled in for Hibbert and played well enough that there was no reason to go away from Lavoy. His best outing in months.
Damjan Rudez, SF 20 MIN | 4-9 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 11 PTS | -13 +/-Damo doing damage from deep.
Ian Mahinmi, C 15 MIN | 1-1 FG | 1-4 FT | 3 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 3 PTS | -6 +/-Didn’t seem to impact the game much.
C.J. Watson, PG 19 MIN | 4-11 FG | 2-3 FT | 2 REB | 2 AST | 3 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 11 PTS | -4 +/-Well done.

 

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