The Pacers took down the defending champion Golden State Warriors 92-81. Let’s take a look at each Pacers players performance.
The transitive property is my favorite. Thanks to it, we can now declare the Indiana Pacers the best team in the league, as they just defeated the 2017 NBA champions on the road in Oakland.
Now, of course, that isn’t actually true. The Warriors are still the 2017 NBA champions. But also important is that, while this game doesn’t actually come with an asterisk, it probably should. The Pacers played great defense, especially in the 4th quarter when they only gave up 11 points, but they were basically playing the Warriors JV squad. Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green (a bunch of nobodies, honestly) were all out, and additional injuries to Omri Casspi and two-way player Chris Boucher were just icing on the cake.
But the Pacers still won given the circumstances, and they deserved it. The defense they showed was sublime and continues a trend of great defensive games over the past month or two.
The Good: (Beating a dead horse alert) The Pacers defense. Not one Warriors player hit more than five shots, and the best shooting percentage by a Golden State starter was Zaza Pachulia. He made half of his… four field goal attempts. The Pacers were everywhere.
The Bad: Rebounding. The Warriors had 17 offensive rebounds to the Pacers eight and finished the game with 13 more total rebounds than Indiana. If the Pacers weren’t forcing so many misses, those extra possessions could have turned this game into a Golden State win.
MVP: Victor Oladipo. After struggling, and I mean really struggling, over the weekend, Vic was remarkable in this one. 9/12 from the field, 2/3 from deep, six rebounds, six assists, and two steals. His shot selection looked awesome in this game, and he brought along his impact in other areas of the game like he usually does. Put it all together, and you have an All-star performance.
LVP: I hate that I even have to give this to someone. Nobody turned the ball over more than two times, and nobody was a particular hindrance in this game. The second unit struggled to keep JaVale McGee and Kevon Looney off the glass, so I guess I’ll go with Domantas Sabonis as LVP. But he gets a pass anyway, he is coming off of an injury and had to play bigger minutes since Trevor Booker went down with an ankle injury. So there’s an asterisk, but Sabonis is the LVP*.
X-Factor: Bojan Bogdanovic. Mr. streaky himself is back to being hot, posting three great shooting games in a row. Tonight, he led the Pacers in +/- at +16. According to the game notes, the Pacers are 18-5 when Bojan makes three or more long-range bombs. Guess how many he hit tonight?
Next: You can’t take Born Ready out of Lance Stephenson
The Pacers take on the Sacramento Kings on Thursday in Sacramento. At 10 p.m. EST (yawn). These late games are a challenge, but the Pacers make it worth it.