Pacers fall flat without their starting backcourt, lose 111-102 to the visiting Washington Wizards.
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The blue and gold came out lifeless against Washington, and never looked like they were in the running to walk out of this game with a W. Without Victor Oladipo and Darren Collison, the coaching staff was forced to start defensive minded Cory Joseph and streaky Lance Stephenson.
Minus the two players that typically spur the Pacers offense forward, tonight was a time they needed Myles Turner to shine, and he responded with a resounding thud. Turner sat most of the game due to foul trouble and injuries, leaving the guys without their best offensive hubs for most of the game.
Standout performances from Joey Buckets and Bojan Bogdanovic kept the crippled group afloat, but it was pretty clear it wasn’t going to be enough. While they got the lead to single digits a few times, Indiana was never able to seize any measure of control of the game from the Wizards, and eventually ran out of gas trying to play catchup.
The Good: The Bench. Nate McMillan played only 3 guys off the bench in the 2nd half, and all of Joe Young, Al Jefferson, and Domas Sabonis delivered in spades.
The Bad: The starters outside of Bojan. Myles Turner, Thad Young, Lance Stephenson, and Cory Joseph all played an awful game.
MVP: Bojan. Season-high 29 points, including a buzzer beater and a 4 point play. Went 5-7 from deep, and one of those misses was a perfect soft airball into Thad Young’s hands.
LVP: Myles Turner. Yuck. 6 points, 5 rebounds, 5 fouls in 23 minutes. Got punked by Marcin Gortat, Tomas Satoransky, and Ian Mahinmi at various times.
X-Factor: Turnovers. Washington scored 30 points off the squads 15 turnovers and won comfortably based off that margin.
Next: To trade or not to trade
Indiana next matches up against the Pelicans on 2/7 at 8 PM.