Pacers used their “Smash Mouth” front court to beat down Pistons.
The Indiana Pacers were on their second night of a back-to-back Saturday evening, but it didn’t matter as they controlled the game from the opening tip. The Pacers never trailed in a game that only featured one tie score (2-2) and used its size to its advantage over Detroit’s smaller power forwards.
The Good: Handling Drummond. Andre Drummond pulled down his league-leading 43rd double-double Saturday night, but the Pacers neutralized him in a big way. Indiana’s bigs were able to find room near the hoop all night and the entire squad did a great job of “gang-rebounding” all night as they limited Drummond to only 13 boards. Perhaps most exciting: Indiana defended Drummond straight up for the entire evening and fans everywhere were able to avoid the free throw parade. If anything, Indiana may have tried too hard to avoid hacking Drummond, as Ian Mahinmi objected three consecutive times to what he thought were bad calls.
The Bad: Anthony Tolliver and Darrun Hilliard (?) knocked down seven triples, six in the second half, to make the game more interesting than it ever should have been. The Pacers were unable to contain Detroit’s point guards in the late third quarter and were forced to scramble around defensively far too often.
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The Ugly: Andre Drummond missed a free throw two feet to the right.
MVP: Despite battling foul trouble for much of the night, Paul George was brutally efficient, scoring 30 points in 30 minutes on only 13 shots. These matchups between George and Marcus Morris have turned into chippy affairs, but George has so far gotten the better of his opponent and once again led his team to victory tonight. On two occasions, PG took advantage of his elite body control and earned trips to the line off of 3-pt attempts en-route to taking fifteen free throws (he made fourteen of them). George also pulled down eight rebounds and dished out three assists including an important pocket pass to Jordan Hill that all but iced the game.
LVP: Ersan Ilyasova. The Turkish veteran was literally played off the floor by 19-year-old Myles Turner. Turner abused Ilyasova several times on both ends of the floor in the first half. Stan Van Gundy had to go away from Ilyasova altogether in the second half. He finished with only 4 points in 18 minutes of action.
X-Factor: Indiana’s bigs. Myles Turner, Ian Mahinmi, Jordan Hill, and Lavoy Allen combined for 37 points and 21 rebounds, but the numbers don’t accurately reflect the entire story. The Pacers just seemed bigger and tougher than the Pistons for most of the night as they were able to assert their will in what Paul George would refer to as “Indiana Basketball.” After tinkering around with spread lineups in November, it seems that Indiana may have settled back in with its old “Smash Mouth” security blanket.