The Indiana Pacers return to their ABA roots, completely abandon defense in a quest to outscore the world.
The Indiana Pacers opener against the Nets featured a wide variety of things to watch, and it was certainly entertaining. Counting stats were there to be had for everyone because neither team bothered too much with the defensive end of the floor. Despite Brooklyn’s token full court press and Dan Burke’s resume, these two teams combined for 204 points through 3 quarters and never slowed down.
The much-maligned Paul George trade brought 2 players back from Oklahoma City — Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis. Those two shined bright in their Pacers debut, combining for 38 points on 13 of 19 shooting.
The Indiana Pacers fouled far too much, didn’t stop anyone, and made DeAngelo Russell look like a future hall of famer (that’s for @thekinglyryan), but walked out of the game 1-0, ensuring they’d be over .500 at least once this year.
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The Good: The Pacers offense was fun to watch. This is not something that’s been said often (read: at all) over the past several years, but they scored, they pushed, and they scored some more.
The Bad: There’s another end of the court. The Pacers gave up 131 points to a team starting Timofey Mozgov, DeMarre Carroll, and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. Eesh.
MVP: Victor Oladipo. He was very good at some points, and set the tone for the Pacers coming out of the locker room. Dumb fouls really slowed him down in this one.
LVP: T.J. Leaf. You’ll get there, rook
X-Factor: Suh-BONE-is! Learn that man’s name: Domantas Sabonis. 17 points on 7-7 shooting, 6 rebounds, looked fantastic out there with the 2nd unit. Love it.