The Good: It’s amazing what happens when you just make shots and don’t turn the ball over. Paul George didn’t finish with a great line, but he, Monta Ellis, and George Hill were a combined 13-for-23 (56.5%) with 34 points in the first half as the Pacers built what proved to be an insurmountable lead. Throw in some great help from the bench, and high-scoring wins where everything is clicking certainly won’t be rare this season.
The Bad: Not much really. They got murdered on the boards, but that’s gonna happen — especially with a monster like Andre Drummond on the other squad. But Detroit only managed 8 offensive rebounds in the first half and that was relatively fine, even if a few came on ugly possessions where Indy players failed to secure what should have been easy boards.
MVP: Rodney Stuckey. He scored 15 of the team’s 35 second-half points and was the key cog keeping them from sputtering when they had a bit of a lull. He finished with a team-high 23 points on 9-for-14 shooting.
LVP: C.J. Miles missed most of his shots, so sure. But none of the big key guys played particularly bad.
X-Factor: Jordan Hill. Ian Mahinmi was forced out of the game early with injury, and I thought that meant we were going to see many bad minutes from Jordy. Not at all. He was great, with his top moment so far as a Pacer coming right before the half when he grabbed a Dale Davis-looking rebound and put in a short jumper with less than a second to play. Great momentum to carry them into the half.