Pacers falter down the stretch yet again as Brook Lopez bulldozes them into submission.
The Good: The Pacers bridged the halves with a terrible stretch of basketball, turning a 13-point lead into a 1-point deficit. After an an angry Frank Vogel time out, Indiana came out with a renewed vigor on the defensive end. Aggressive George Hill made an appearance. Indy got a few steals and fast break buckets. And most of all, outstanding ball movement (ironically highlighted by the Pacers bigs, Ian Mahinmi and Myles Turner) sparked the Pacers to a 16-4 run that looked like it was going to put them ahead for good.
Unfortunately for the Pacers, Brook Lopez led the Nets on a 34-11 run to end the game. There will be plenty of blame to go around, but Lopez was simply unstoppable. Ian Mahinmi and Jordan Hill took turns getting bulldozed, and Lopez was quick to find Bojan Bogdanovic on the rare occasions that the Pacers attempted to double team him.
The Bad: After really working the ball well in the third quarter, the Pacers’ offense stalled in the fourth. The Nets made a few nice adjustments against the Paul George/George Hill pick and roll, but in general, the Pacers simply stopped moving the ball the way they had for the first three quarters.
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MVP: Brook Lopez. Seriously, you can’t say enough about that guy. The Nets have been a laughing stock for much of this season, but Lopez keeps chugging along, posting double-doubles and making teams pay for not double-teaming him. Lopez touched the ball on every single possession down the stretch and the Pacers simply had no answer.
LVP: The Pacers have now lost nineteen games in which they’ve led in the fourth quarter, tied with the Nuggets for most in the league.
X-Factor: Donald Sloan had himself a nice little game in a bit of a revenge matchup against his former squad. His and-one over Rodney Stuckey started the Nets run in the fourth quarter and his floater with three minutes left kept the momentum going.