Christmas time is busy, and I wanted to spend time with my family, so here are some belated thoughts on the Indiana Pacers loss to the Detroit Pistons.
Christmas came and went, I was teaching my daughter to get buckets, so I’ll admit these are very much belated grades on the Indiana Pacers loss to the Detroit Pistons. However, the game showed us a few things that are worth noting for posterity’s sake.
Other than the losses to the Houston Rockets, no team had truly handed the Pacers’ own ass to them in a game. There were games that got away, but none where the other team was clearly the better team by at least a mile, even if only for one night.
This game was the type we feared more of coming into the season. One where the Pacers were exposed for what they were. One where hot shooting and an evolved Victor Oladipo couldn’t save them.
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The Good: The only good that came from this is Alex Poythress got a 22-minute audition for an NBA contract, his 4 points, 2 rebounds, assists and steal aren’t much, but as the lone Pacers with a positive +/- that night (+15!). While numbers can be tricky, but for the most part, he wasn’t playing with starters.
The Bad: The starters. While Indiana was outplayed by the Rockets, this was a game where the starters were completely unable to get into their own game. The usually reliable Thaddeus Young posted a -34 while Darren Collison was -29. That duo combined for 10 points, 3 rebounds and zero assists.
Myles Turner’s shooting was off as he went 3 of 9 (10 points) and only grabbed 3 rebounds. Andre Drummond was to blame mostly for his poor night, but the fact the guards never got in a rhythm tells me the Pistons were disruptive to the entire team. The starters had a combined seven assists.
Bojan Bogdanovic’s 4 of 10 (10 points) was OK but obviously not enough, and Oladipo’s 13 points were a season low, but perhaps a sore knee was part of the issue as he missed the next game against the Dallas Mavericks.
MVP: Andre Drummond’s 21 points and 18 rebounds are an example of that the league’s most physical centers can put hard times on the 21-year old. He usually counteracts this was his range on offense and plays better defense, but not on Tuesday.
LVP: The starters, they were brutally bad,
Next: What do you think of the new uniforms?
The Pacers lost to the Mavericks and now face the Chicago Bulls tonight.