Why the Indiana Pacers Won Seven Straight, And Why They Can Win Tonight
By Ben Gibson
Lavoy Allen Makes The Pacers a Better Team
That’s right. Lavoy Allen, the man you left for dead when the Indiana Pacers were struggling to start the season.
In these seven games, Indiana has a 12.4 net rating when he is on the court. He started in two of the games for an injured Thaddeus Young and surprised us on his birthday with 18 points and 11 rebounds in the win over Detroit.
Allen is a hustle player who grinds and simply makes his team better. He has fit into the rotation, both as a starter and from the bench.
He is averaging 6.4 points and 4.3 rebounds a game while shooting 54.5% from the floor during this streak. As always, his contributions go beyond the box score. The team rebounds better with him on the floor even when he isn’t piling up stats
Allen is a hustle player who grinds and simply makes his team better. He has fit into the rotation, both as a starter and from the bench.
This all came after not seeing consistent playing time since November.
In a story by the Indianapolis Star’s Jordan J. Wilson, both coach Nate McMillan and Paul George spoke to the fact that Allen meshed with the lineup immediately despite the lack of minutes in recent months.
"“I really trust him out there,” Pacers coach Nate McMillan said after the 105-84 victory, “and tonight, stepping in to start in a back-to-back situation, he was probably the MVP tonight.” No one could disagree. Allen played 32 minutes — double what he played combined in the first 10 games of January, when he lost his rotation spot to Kevin Seraphin — and meshed immediately with the starting unit. When the Pacers lacked energy in the second game of a back-to-back, Allen brought it and didn’t try doing too much or too little. Defensively, he worked well inside with Myles Turner against the Pistons’ bigs. He made a few mistakes, turning the ball over twice, but he also had two steals. “As much as we missed Thad (Young) out there with that unit, it felt as if we’d played with Lavoy with that group all season,” George said. “He came and plugged right away, and it’s great with that unit, with us. That’s really what we needed, with Thaddeus being gone, is an energy guy. And Lavoy provided that for us.”"
All of this is surprising if you remember how poorly he played to start the season, but less surprising when you see he lead the team in +/- last season.
Continue to enjoy the Lavoy Allen Experience.