Game Grades: Tired Pacers lose to motivated Toronto
By Tony East
The Pacers went into Toronto to play a road back-to-back. They looked like they were on a road back-to-back and were blown out by the Raptors.
Tired legs. It’s a challenge to play with them, and when you’re playing against the best team in the conference, it is a challenge to win. The Pacers found out the hard way.
73. 100. Final. 92. 81
The Raptors were at their peak inspiration. They were playing at home in front of their home crowd and had a lot on the line. They could have wrapped up the number one overall seed in the Eastern Conference and picked up an Atlantic Division title win a victory, and they got it done.
The Pacers, meanwhile, looked like they were playing their second game in as many nights. Their leading scorer, Glenn Robinson III, only had 12 points and nobody played more than 26 minutes. It was an uphill battle the whole way, and Indiana never once had the lead. It was a cakewalk for Toronto.
The Good: This game did not matter much for the Pacers. It is fait accompli that the Sixers and Cavs, and their easy schedules, will get the 3 and 4 seeds. Thus, the Pacers are locked into the five spot. That made this loss fairly meaningless, outside of the Pacers now being ineligible for 50 wins.
The Bad: The offense. 29.9 percent shooting is, uh, not great Bob. There was a recent road trip and this game was on a back-to-back, the squad gets a pass. They are exhausted.
MVP: Serge Ibaka. He was getting open looks from the perimeter all night for Toronto, and he sunk 5/7 from three-point range. He finished with 25 points and was a +25, fueling the Raptors to victory.
LVP: The schedule. It’s not any players fault that they have been traveling so much recently, and it negatively affected their play tonight. To pick any one player, I would pick Myles Turner. He couldn’t get anything going tonight.
X-Factor: Trevor Booker. He was the only positive player in +/- in the actual rotation, and his 11 points and six rebounds off the bench kept the Pacers from losing by even more.
D. 1/7 for just two points and a -12. Collison had little impact on the game tonight.. PG. Indiana Pacers. DARREN COLLISON
C. Played okay defense on DeRozan when he matched up with him, holding him to 5/17 shooting. He also extended his consecutive games with a steal streak. On offense, a season-low five points. One of Dipo’s worst performances.. SG. Indiana Pacers. VICTOR OLADIPO
Indiana Pacers. BOJAN BOGDANOVIC. D+. If Bojan’s shot isn’t falling, he is pretty useless thanks to his bad defense. His shot was not falling tonight, and thus he wasn’t very helpful.. SF
C-. Thad was Thad lite tonight. He showed up in all areas of the stat sheet like he always does – but just four points five rebounds and one assist for Young. He was underwhelming.. PF. Indiana Pacers. THADDEUS YOUNG
C. Indiana Pacers. MYLES TURNER. D-. 1/5. Only four rebounds. Two turnovers. Turner was not good in this one, and he didn’t help space the floor much, making him even less valuable than normal. That can be seen in his -27. Woof.
DOMANTAS SABONIS. D+. Like Myles, the shot wasn’t falling for Sabonis. The Raptors have solid backup bigs, so he gets a pass there. But only three rebounds is weak. Sabonis was playing unusually soft.. C. Indiana Pacers
C+. Team-high eight rebounds for Lance. He was one of the few guys who looked like he gave a damn about the game. His shot wasn’t falling, but he was giving it his all at least, and that gives him a higher grade than most everyone else.. SG. Indiana Pacers. LANCE STEPHENSON
C. CoJo played his usual good D, but when the team stinks as bad as they did tonight on offense, Joseph’s lack of shot creation ability stands out even more.. PG. Indiana Pacers. CORY JOSEPH
C. TJ Leaf played! And scored a basket! woohoo!. PF. Indiana Pacers. TJ LEAF
Indiana Pacers. AL JEFFERSON. :). Al Jefferson attempted a three-pointer. It was awesome. He also had four rebounds in eight minutes, which is nice.. C
Indiana Pacers. JOE YOUNG. C+. Played 12 minutes and was a +4. Good job, Joe Young. Hit a nice three and had two assists.. PG
Led the team in scoring (damning with faint praise) and shooting percentage. 3/5 from three-point range. Hopefully, he can keep up the outside shooting going forward.. SG. Indiana Pacers. GLENN ROBINSON III. B-
B. As previously stated, Booker was the only guy with a positive +/ – on the team in the rotation. Killed it on the glass with six rebounds and made five foul shots as well. Booker was solid enough in this game.. F. Indiana Pacers. TREVOR BOOKER
Next: USA Basketball selects Myles Turner and Victor Oladipo for 2018-20 squad
The Pacers travel to Charlotte for their last road game of the season on Sunday. The game will be at 1:00 pm.