8 points, 9 seconds
Fansided

Post-Game Grades: Rough fourth quarter leads to Pacers loss in Portland

By Kagan Kiesel

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While things were looking up for the Indiana Pacers late in the third quarter, a 12 point fourth sees the Portland Trail Blazers sweep the season series.

100. 34. 86. 100. Final

(Sighs).

This game actually started out quite well (for the most part). The Pacers put up a solid 28 points in the first quarter, 9 of which coming from probable All-Star Victor Oladipo. While the first quarter did end on CJ McCollum’s buzzer beater as time expired, it also contained some great Pacer plays like this GROWN MAN REBOUND from Thaddeus Young.

Now the second quarter was more of the same. The Pacers tossed up 19 points, and Lance Stephenson even played five minutes of quarter, despite being questionable due to potential food poisoning. Indiana went into half down by five, but it was a gap that the boys in blue could certainly close…and they did.

The Pacers had a three point lead going into (literally) the last 5 seconds of the quarter, when Al Jefferson rebounded the ball, subsequently turned it over to Shabazz Napier, who then drained a buzzer beater 3 to end the third:

This play began a 14-0 run by the Trail Blazers, which extended over four minutes into the fourth quarter. Indiana ended up scoring 12 points the whole fourth quarter as opposed to Portland’s 26. Oladipo had 7, DC had 3, and Thad Young had 2. It was a disappointing ending to an otherwise close and competitive game.

To add insult to injury, this loss is the latest chapter in a drought that has lasted over ten years, as the Pacers have not won in Portland since November 28th, 2007.

The Good: The Pacers were able to shut down stud point guard Damian Lillard for the better portion of the game. While he did still score 26 points, 13 of those came during Indiana’s lackluster fourth quarter.

The Bad: REBOUNDING. Portland had four players get 8 or more rebounds versus Indiana’s two, and the Pacers ended up losing the rebounding battle 46 to 57.

MVP: Thad Young and Darren Collison were both great. DC hit 5 of his 6 three point attempts, ended shooting 64.3% from the field, and dropped 3 dimes. Thaddeus Young added 10 points to the cause as well as 14 rebounds, being the only Pacer player with a double-double tonight.

LVP: I’m tempted to give Lance Stephenson my LVP, since he finished with zero points on 0 for 6 shooting whilst playing over 10 minutes. However, since he did play while battling illness, I’ll give him a pass. In that case, CoJo takes the LVP tonight. In 26 minutes, Joseph was 1 for 4 shooting, with 2 points and 2 assists. Also, he missed both of his free throw attempts. Not the most productive night we could have hoped for.

X-Factor: Honestly, I don’t even know. I’ll just leave this nasty block Oladipo had on Jusuf Nurkic here:

A-. A few more assists would have been nice, but we can’t be too greedy when someone was shooting as well as DC was tonight.. PG. Indiana Pacers. DARREN COLLISON

Oladipo was 9 for 25 tonight, and 1 for 9 from three-point range, totaling 23 points. However, he was doing everything he could to get Indiana back in the game, and had a couple of explosive plays on both sides of the ball along the way.. SG. Indiana Pacers. VICTOR OLADIPO. B+

C. The Croatian international had a pretty “meh” night, as he had 8 points and 4 boards on 30% shooting.. SF. Indiana Pacers. BOJAN BOGDANOVIC

A. Thad was a stud tonight. Getting Indiana’s only double-double, he brought a level of physicality in Indiana’s front-court that was not showcased otherwise.. PF. Indiana Pacers. THADDEUS YOUNG

In a game where he appeared to be overmatched at some points, Sabonis was still able to nab 10 boards and score 9 points. It was decent performance in a game where Indiana needed all the help they could get on the rebounding front.. C. Indiana Pacers. DOMANTAS SABONIS. B

Lance played 10 minutes tonight, went 0 for 6 from the field, 0 for 2 from the line, and had 1 assist and 2 rebounds. However, I will cut him a little slack since he was battling food poisoning throughout the night.. SG. Indiana Pacers. LANCE STEPHENSON. D+

D-. Only 2 points and 2 assists in 26 minutes for CoJo. I would give him an “F”, but per usual, he showed a lot of hustle and effort on defense in a game where he was matched up with two prolific scorers in CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard.. PG. Indiana Pacers. CORY JOSEPH

Indiana Pacers. TJ LEAF. D+. The 2017 first-round pick had 2 points and 2 rebounds in almost 11 minutes. He also had a team low +/- of -15, so that’s that.. PF

C+. In almost 14 minutes, Big Al had 7 points, 4 boards, and even swatted 1 shot. Despite him having committed the turnover that shifted the momentum of the game (in the wrong direction), it would be completely unfair and quite frankly incorrect to pin this loss solely on him. Big Al did his thing out there.. C. Indiana Pacers. AL JEFFERSON

JOE YOUNG. C-. The former Oregon Duck played just under 10 minutes tonight, and scored 2 points, had 1 rebound, and turned the ball over once. Despite this, I still hope to see Joey Buckets be given more chances in the future.. PG. Indiana Pacers

N/A. The ex-Kentucky Wildcat played only 45 seconds tonight, and had nothing on the stat sheet.. SF. Indiana Pacers. ALEX POYTHRESS

N/A. Along with Poythress, Anigbogu played only 45 seconds tonight, and had no stats.. C. Indiana Pacers. IKE ANIGBOGU

Next: Victor Oladipo vs DeMar DeRozan

Indiana’s next game is in Los Angeles, where they battle the Lakers on January 19th, at 10:30 pm EST.

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