Indiana Pacers keep card up their sleeve, defeat Orlando Magic

Not having Victor Oladipo or Domantas Sabonis proved no problem for the Indiana Pacers as they beat down the Orlando Magic in an impressive road victory

The Indiana Pacers are now Bojan Bogdanovic‘s team now. Accept it. The Orlando Magic were forced to accept the fact they weren’t defending their home court on Friday when Bogey and a less than healthy Indiana team came to town.

Missing your best player makes beating any team a tougher task, but missing two of them makes pulling off a road win anything but easy. But without Victor Oladipo or Domantas Sabonis, the Pacers did just that.

Bojan Bogdanovic’s consistency this season is keeping Indiana on pace while Oladipo is down and their star free agent signing continues to underperform. His 26 points — 21 of which came in the first half — set the tone for the game. Bojan put down a perfect 10 points in the first quarter on 4 of 4 shooting from the floor (and a free throw) as the Magic kept close.

But after the hype of playing at home wanned for the Magic and the Pacers bench unit pushed the lead into double digits in the second quarter. While the starters were resting, the reserves went 6 for 10 from the field and kept Orlando away from any easy baskets. The Magic went 7 for 20 from the floor as the Pacers took a 12 point lead into the half.

The second half felt more like a formality than anything else as the Pacers only briefly let the lead dip into single digits in the third quarter before letting Orlando know this wasn’t their night.

Bojan Bogdanovic 2.0

One reason Bojan Bogdanovic is more consistent this season — though perception warped reality last season — is the fact he’s actually taking fewer 3-pointers. But it isn’t just that he is taking fewer of them, he is committing to finishing the play. He cut his passes on drives nearly in half and the added confidence in himself led to a 5 percent increase in his field goal percentage.

Sometimes the NBA isn’t as simple as “Do a thing you do well more” but in this case, part of his added scoring threat comes from being more likely to drive and shoot. And by forcing opponents to back off him a little, his 3-point shooting is up 10 percent. He’s creating his own space.

The Pacers bench mob

The Pacers should beat the Orlando Magic in most cases, but without two of their better players, they need the bench to step up more than usual. They did just that against the Magic and outscored their counterpart 49-32. They out-rebounded, out-shot, and simply outplayed their counterparts despite adding two players into the mix.

Kyle O’Quinn and T.J. Leaf saw more time with Sabonis fighting food poisoning, and both made a positive impact. O’Quinn put down a double-double (12 points and 10 rebounds) while Leaf put up a respectable line of 8 points and 6 rebounds. In O’Quinn’s case, he did exactly what the Pacers asked him to do when they signed him: Be ready to play meaningful minutes with little to no warning. O’Quinn is clearly a consummate professional.

Please start using the bench more in blowouts, Nate

There are legitimate and illegitimate critiques of Nate McMillan, but one that stands the test of time is his hesitance to unload the bench as games get out of hand. While it hardly seemed like the starters were being worn out, there really was no reason that the deep bench didn’t enter the game sooner.

It wasn’t until there were fewer than four minutes left that Alize Johnson and Edmond Sumner entered the game. While I don’t think a minute or two in a few blowouts is going to change the course of Indiana Pacers history, it would be nice to find out if Indiana’s rookies and sophomores could handle NBA minutes in some fashion.

The Indiana Pacers take on the Sacramento Kings at home tonight. They will try to get revenge for last Saturday’s loss.