The Indiana Pacers fell to 9-10 on the season following a blowout loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night.
The Good: The offense was there. The Pacers lost this game on the defensive end. They scored 58 first half points, which is a good number, and finished the game with 109 points. Another good thing was that the Pacers fought back in the fourth quarter. They had it down to 13 at one point, which was great considering they were down by well over 20 in the third.
The Bad: After some really solid consecutive games on the defensive end, it seemed the Pacers couldn’t string together multiple stops at all tonight. They allowed 131 points, which is obviously not a good number.
MVP: Damian Lillard. Lillard torched the Pacers from inside and out and had his fingerprints all over this game. Dame finished with a double-double of 28 points and 10 assists.
LVP: Monta Ellis. Monta just couldn’t get it going and was only able to get five shots up. He also had the tough task of guarding C.J. McCollum, who scored 19 points.
X-Factor: Maurice Harkless. Harkless had another double-digit scoring outing for Portland. He knocked down threes and helped Portland blow the game open very early. Harkless finished with