Post-Game Grades: Pacers show little interest in competing, lose badly to Jazz

The Pacers jumped out to a quick six-point lead… and that was about as good as things got Wednesday night against the Utah Jazz.

The Indiana Pacers took on the Utah Jazz –10th in the Western Conference – Wednesday night at the Fieldhouse, both squads going in with three-game win streaks. Mathematics necessitated someone’s three-game win streak would come to an end.

The Pacers didn’t just lay an egg. They packaged twelve of ’em, checked ’em for cracks, and sent ’em to your local grocer.

Indiana got out to a quick 8-2 in the game’s first three minutes, but the Jazz responded with several runs of their own and took their 59 percent first-quarter shooting to a 32-20 lead. Victor Oladipo took a rough, loud fall straight onto his back, coming up clutching his elbow, which would appear to bother him throughout the remainder of the game, while Donovan Mitchell convinced all of Bankers Life he has just as much claim to 2018’s Rookie of the Year award as Ben Simmons.

The Pacers’ new acquisition, Trevor Booker, looked pretty solid early in the second quarter in his first run with the Pacers, grabbing an offensive board and aggressively backing his man down for the putback. Sadly, three minutes into the quarter, Booker’s two points were all the Pacers had to show against the NBA’s fourth-ranked squad in Defensive Rating. Utah increased the lead to 16, but the Pacers continued to chip away – despite their 0-for-8 from three first-half line – and went into the halftime break “only” down ten points.

The third quarter, too, started poorly, and the Jazz pushed the lead even higher, this time as much as 17 points. Cory Joseph managed to hit the Pacers’ first three-pointer — 28 minutes into the game. Myles Turner made several SOLID plays that ought to quiet the naysayers for at least a few minutes and Dipo stretched his steal-streak to 48 games, cutting the lead to just seven points before a few more lapses kept the Jazz up “only” ten points, again, at the end of the third.

The fourth? The Jazz got off to a 9-0 run right away.

Actually… Let’s just pretend there was no fourth quarter.

The Good: 

Myles Turner looked like a future All-Star tonight, shooting a smooth 10-for-14 from the field on his way to 24 points, 3 blocks, and the Pacers’ only positive plus-minus of the night, an incredible +2.

The Pacers managed 14 offensive bounds tonight, but considering the rest of that groaner, who cares?

The Bad: 

It was all pretty bad. But the game was lost behind that three-point arc, where the Jazz shot 11-for-31 and the Pacers upchucked a 3-for-23 showing. The Pacers turned the ball over 12 times, but it sure felt like thrice that.

Domantas Sabonis’ plus-minus was -26. Lance’s was -19 and he was truly awful, even with all of Indy behind him. I don’t wanna poo-poo on the new guy, but Trevor Booker was -16 in his first 14 minutes as a Pacer.

MVP: 

LVP: 

X-Factor: 

Next: Bojan Bogdanovic is making the Pacers a problem for the rest of the NBA

The Pacers will get a day off before taking on Miles Plumlee’s Atlanta Hawks in Indy on Friday. Tip-off is 7 p.m. ET. Let’s hope that one goes better.