The Indiana Pacers lost to the Portland Trail Blazers again. The starters played well, the bench, however, was outscored 54-15.
The Indiana Pacers squared off against a familiar foe tonight, the one and only Deja Vu. Stop me when you’ve heard this before: Despite the best efforts of their starting lineup, the Pacers came up short against the Portland Trailblazers on the back of a truly awful performance from the bench.
In a contest that was back and forth through most the game (Starters in Pacers lead, starters out: Pacers fall behind), the blue and gold fell short at home. The Blazers were in foul trouble very early on, and given the Pacers woes from the line, that might as well have been a tactical advantage.
Oladipo put up a good 4th quarter and the starters made a valiant effort of it, but in the end, it wasn’t enough. In a game where every Pacers starter finished at least +2 (and was higher before a few late buckets in garbage-ish time) and every bench player was -7 or worse, the scales tipped just a bit too far for a team built on comebacks to come back.
The Good: The starters outperformed the Blazers across the board. Dame and C.J. McCollum were held to below average performances, and the combination of Jusuf Nurkic and Meyers Leonard picked up 5 fouls in the first 5 minutes.
More from 8 Points, 9 Seconds
- 2 Studs, 1 dud from gut-wrenching Indiana Pacers loss to Charlotte Hornets
- Handing out early-season grades for Pacers’ Bruce Brown, Obi Toppin
- 3 positives, 2 negatives in Pacers In-Season Tournament win vs. Cavaliers
- 2 positives, 3 negatives from first week of Indiana Pacers basketball
- Should Isaiah Jackson’s days with Indiana Pacers be numbered?
This would’ve mattered far more if the Pacers were making their free throws: alas, this was not the case.
The Bad: The bench. (Shout out to runner-up: Getting crushed on the glass!) The Pacers bench was bad, and sinks to unfathomable levels if you take out the minutes that Sabonis played with the starters.
The starters could’ve — and should’ve — won this game, but the bench could do absolutely nothing.
LVP: Cory Joseph. Yikes. As the nominal point guard off the bench, Joseph will take criticism when they underperform, fair or not. The criticism tonight was fair, though. Joseph did very little in his time on the court, certainly not enough.
X-Factor: Zach Collins. The Pacers went right through Nurkic and little used Meyers Leonard, but Collins and the rest of the Blazers bench stole this game. (Honorable mention: Evan freaking Turner. Where’s Lance Stephenson when you need Evan Turner removed from Banker’s Life Fieldhouse?).
The Pacers next game is on the road on Wednesday, October 31st against the spooky New York Knicks.