Indiana Pacers Throttle the Detroit Pistons, Drive Away in the 2nd Half
By William Furr
100. Final. 84. 64. 105
The Indiana Pacers clamp down on defense in the 2nd half, giving up 26 total points to the Pistons and winning comfortably behind superstar Lavoy Allen.
The Good: The Pacers won their 6th straight game, on the 2nd night of a back to back, comfortably against a physical Pistons team fighting for playoff positioning.
The Bad: Hard to find much bad from this game. Monta Ellis was 1-6 from the field, but he still had a much better game than he has recently and looked good moving the ball and attacking the basket. Monta had some of it.
MVP: Gotta give it to Lavoy Allen. Starting for the injured Thaddeus Young (after barely playing in months), Lavoy did a bit of everything and wound up with 18 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and a block.
Lavoy Allen delivered a memorable performance on his birthday. Will @JJFSINDIANA take him up on his offer to celebrate tonight? #GoPacers pic.twitter.com/VOUJONQgid
— Bally Sports Indiana (@BallySportsIN) February 5, 2017
LVP: None. Can’t give one out tonight. All the Pacers rotation players played well.
X-Factor: Turnovers. The Pacers finished with only 6, the Pistons had 20. Both of these teams played Friday night, one of them looked like it.
A. 21 points, 9-14 shooting, 3-6 from deep. Did Paul George things on defense, shot it well, played under control.. Small Forward. Indiana Pacers. PAUL GEORGE
JEFF TEAGUE. B. 13 points on 5-13 shooting, 7 assists. Was 0-3 from deep, but played fine. If this is Jeff Teague’s “off” night now, the Pacers will take that in a heartbeat.. Point Guard. Indiana Pacers
13 points on 5-12 shooting, 1-3 from deep, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block. Turner faced Brook Lopez and Andre Drummond on back to back nights and didn’t look any worse for the wear. Couldn’t stop Drummond, but played hard and did his best to frustrate him.. Center. Indiana Pacers. MYLES TURNER. B+
Indiana Pacers. C.J. MILES. A-. 13 points on 5-9 shooting, 2-5 from deep. That’s what the Pacers need from the shooting guard spot.. Shooting Guard
A. 18 points on 8-15 shooting, 11 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 block. Lavoy brought in his birthday with a bang, his best game of the year.. Power Forward. Indiana Pacers. LAVOY ALLEN
B. 4 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal. That’ll do nicely. Small Forward. Indiana Pacers. GLENN ROBINSON III
MONTA ELLIS. B-. 3 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal. Was only 1-6 shooting, but looked like Monta Ellis for the first time in what feels like forever. Attacked the basket, had a beautiful dump off assist to Al Jeff, and generally looked healthy and active.. Shooting Guard. Indiana Pacers
B+. 13 points on 6-9 shooting in 14 minutes. Was the only Pacer to finish with a negative +/-, at -2, but looked comfortable against the Pistons 2nd unit.. Center. Indiana Pacers. AL JEFFERSON
C+. 5 points, 2 assists and a rebound. Didn’t do much to help the team, but didn’t obviously hurt things either.. Point Guard. Indiana Pacers. AARON BROOKS
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