It was the most anticipated game of the Pacers’ season, but it was the Oklahoma City Thunder and Center Steven Adams who were most ready for the matchup.
For the Indiana Pacers, this isn’t the report card you would want to show your parents. After a thrilling first quarter, it was ugly for the better part of the next 30 minutes.
Both teams are two of the best teams in the NBA at deflecting passes, and neither team handled it well tossing a combined 26 turnovers. The real knockout blow wasn’t in the transition turnovers, it was on the glass. OKC grabbed ten more rebounds than Indiana including a 17-11 advantage on the offensive glass.
What was startling about this game, was the absence of that flowing offense that the Pacers had been displaying all season. And you can thank the Thunder’s brilliant defense for that. OKC smartly put the despised Paul George on Victor Oladipo, George’s length pestered Oladipo all night long and paralyzed Indiana’s top five offense.
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The Pacers also showed up defensively, but then again, the Thunder are terrible on offense (23rd in the league). They don’t move the ball and they don’t shoot well. They performed likewise in this one, unfortunately for the Pacers, Indiana tried their best to copy them. Hence OKC only shot 1.8 points off their season average, while Indy whiffed by 13.7.
A note of the main draw for the night: Paul George. The best line of the night was uttered by Quinn Buckner with 1:20 left in the 2nd: “Man, Paul is having a hard time concentrating out there.” George’s game was Jekyll and Hyde. On defense he was brilliant, holding Oladipo 5.5 points below his season average, and nearly 12 points below his Player of the Week pace. But on offense George was dreadful. 12 points on 3 of 14 shooting, and with many moments of ineptitude that delighted the Pacers’ faithful. He would likely deny it, but the crowd got to him.
The Good: The crowd was awesome. A lot of times when the fans decide to boo one player, they run out of steam around halftime. Not tonight. The Indiana crowd was on George the entire way. George and the rest of the OKC trio shot poorly a combined 10-35 from the field. Well done crowd.
The Bad: The Pacers offense flowed like low tide. If they could have taken care of the ball, or rebounded…by the way, Myles Turner needs to get under the rim and grab some rebounds. He had four, nine less that his counterpart Steven Adams, and Turner was outplayed by the Kiwi all game long.
MVP: Steven Adams, he was the best player on the floor this evening. he posted a 23 and 13, with 9 of those 13 boards coming on the offensive glass. If it wasn’t for Adams this would have been a Pacers’ blowout, even with the bad offense. But Adams was there, and the Thunder won.
LVP: That’s tough, maybe Turner. In fairness he did block 3 shots. He got worked over by Adams. And while 9 points looked like an ok amount, 6 of those came on 2 first half threes. He went to the line once in the second quarter and split the pair. So, 2 second half points, 4 rebounds and the box out ability of a turnstile, there’s your LVP. Turner should be right up there with Oladipo as the best Pacer, he is better than this.
X-Factor: Lance Stephenson was a blast to watch, with 9 points and 8 rebounds. His loooooong two to beat the first quarter buzzer is why you love Lance.
Next: Indy mayor shouts out Victor Oladipo at NBA press conference
All this said, Indiana is still 16-12, and 16-10 against the non-OKC’s of the world. The Pacers have still won 4 of their last 5. Up next is the 14-13 and slumping Detroit Pistons. Detroit has lost seven in a row, averaging 92.9 points per game over that stretch. The game is in Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Friday night.