Indiana Pacers trail late, get blazed by Portland Trail Blazers at home
By William Furr
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.
34. 93. 100. Final. 103
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.
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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?).
A. 17 points and 6 assists on just 14 shots is about exactly what you could hope for from Darren Collison. DC even helped hold Damian Lillard to a below average night; seeing him function at his normal level was a nice silver lining.. PG. Indiana Pacers. DARREN COLLISON
21 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists, but only shot 9-24 from the field. Oladipo really waited until the 4th quarter to show up for this game. He was very good in the 4th, but the Pacers will need him to be better if they want to improve upon last year’s team.. SG. Indiana Pacers. VICTOR OLADIPO. C+
C+. 14 points on 4-12 shooting isn’t great, but he gets a slight bump in his grade for being the only Pacer who was perfect from the line. Didn’t do much bad, was helpful for a short stretch. A “meh” Bogey night all around.. SF. Indiana Pacers. BOJAN BOGDANOVIC
B. 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 steals on 6-13 shooting. Really good Thad Young night, and he even went 1-2 from deep. He did a ton of good things, but 4 rebounds from your starting 4 hurts, and the Pacers were crushed on the glass by the Blazers tonight.. PF. Indiana Pacers. THADDEUS YOUNG
C+. 10 points, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks. Had a really nice first half before disappearing in the 2nd. It’s probably not great that Jusuf Nurkic is attempting more 3’s than the Pacers 80 million dollar stretch center.. C. Indiana Pacers. MYLES TURNER
C+. 6 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 mean block. Domas was definitely the best of the bench crew, but that’s damning with faint praise.. C. Indiana Pacers. DOMANTAS SABONIS
TYREKE EVANS. D+. 7 points, and a team worst -22 in 15 minutes. The bench’s performance might’ve been a violation of team rules.. SG. Indiana Pacers
Indiana Pacers. CORY JOSEPH. D. 2 points, 1 turnover, -20. The bunch was mostly brutal tonight; CoJo was no different.. PG
Indiana Pacers. DOUG MCDERMOTT. C. 3 fouls (of the questionable variety) and no other contributions to the box score. Or the game. When he’s not making shots, he’s not super helpful.. SF
C-. Played 4 minutes, had an offensive rebound and a turnover. On the bright side, he “led” all bench players with just a -7 +/-. Still waiting for him to get enough minutes to be good or bad, something.. PF. Indiana Pacers. TJ LEAF
Next. The Pacers week ahead: Superstars and big markets. dark
The Pacers next game is on the road on Wednesday, October 31st against the spooky New York Knicks.