Pacers close out season with clutch win in Atlanta
By Tony East
The Indiana Pacers closed out the regular season with a win in Atlanta.
The Indiana Pacers found a way to get it done one last time this season. It was a fun, up-and-down game that featured a ton of scoring, and Indiana came out on top.
135. 100. 134. 125. Final
The team was the Pacers in that it said “Indiana Pacers” on the jersey, but this game didn’t feature most of the normal players. The starters and Domantas Sabonis all sat out to rest, which meant this game featured mostly younger players alongside a few veterans. Combine that with the Hawks youth, and you have one of the fastest games of the season. It was very fun.
The Pacers trailed by 2 with just 3 seconds to go in the game. Thankfully, Edmond Sumner was able to rescue the team. after catching an inbounds pass in the corner, Sumner turned to attempt a game-winning 3. Just then, a defender came flying at him. Sumner alertly double-pumped the shot and drew a foul on the outside shot. 3 free throws later and Indiana walked out victorious.
I cannot stress how much of a riot this game was. Watching the young Pacers get an opportunity to play is usually fun, but when it is an extended opportunity AND is a high scoring game, it’s all smiles the whole way through for the observer. It’s hard to imagine a more fun way for the Pacers to close the regular season.
Oh, and for you gamblers, they hit the over tonight! Considering Victor Oladipo only played 36 games, I would call that a successful, and impressive, regular season.
Season high’s galore
Multiple Pacers took advantage of an opportunity tonight and walked out of the game with a season-high in scoring:
- Tyreke Evans
- TJ Leaf (career-high)
- Alize Johnson (career-high)
- Edmond Sumner (career-high)
- Davon Reed
It was great to see everyone contribute. I’m sure some of the younger guys are happy they made a solid final impression this season.
Shaking off the rust
Evans missed the Pacers game against the Nets with an injury and Darren Collison missed the 3 games prior. They both played in order to get some rhythm back before the postseason.
Evans has a season-high in scoring and shot 9/14 from the field. Collison only shot 1/3 but looked spunkier than he did on Sunday. It was the right move to have those guys out there. They are more playoff ready.
Goodbye, regular season
That’s all 82, folks! What a ride it was. The Pacers finished 48-34, an identical record to last year and tied for the 10th best record in franchise history (NBA portion, thanks Pat Boylan!) Now the attention turns to the Celtics and the postseason.
For the last time of the regular season, player grades:
Indiana Pacers. DARREN COLLISON. C +. DC played the 9th fewest minutes of any Pacer tonight, sitting for the whole second half. As I said, he got his spunk back despite a mediocre stat line. PG
A +. 27 points (on just 14 shots!) and 5 assists. Where has this guy been all season? Hopefully, these performances stick in the playoffs.. SG. Indiana Pacers. TYREKE EVANS
DOUG MCDERMOTT. C. 4/12 shooting overall, but it was a road game so he was 2/3 from deep. He had to play 31 minutes since Bojan was out, and he was meh.. SF. Indiana Pacers
PF. Indiana Pacers. TJ LEAF. A +. Leaf took 19 shots! And looked great! This was the best game of Leaf’s career, with 28 points and 10 rebounds. What a performance to close out his sophomore year.
B. O’Quinn got ejected for a hit to the head on Trae Young. He had 6 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists before that in just 10 minutes. He is hyper-productive when he is on the floor.. C. Indiana Pacers. KYLE O'QUINN
Indiana Pacers. CORY JOSEPH. B. 2/7 shooting for 6 points for CoJo, but look no further than Trae Young’s 6/18 shooting performance to see where Joseph’s impact lied.. PG
Most of Holiday’s impact came scoring the ball, where he had 13 points on 5/11 shooting. Didn’t show off much else.. PG. Indiana Pacers. AARON HOLIDAY. B
SG. Indiana Pacers. EDMOND SUMNER. A -. 22 points for Sumner on his career day, and he got to the line for 11 free throw attempts along the way. He was getting to the rim at will. Shot below average from the field, though.
PF. Indiana Pacers. ALIZE JOHNSON. A -. The dude has no off button. 7 points and 11 rebounds for Ze’, who was a team-high +14.
DAVON REED. B. 7 points and 4 rebounds for Reed in his first extended minutes of the season. He is a solid all-around player for a guy on a two-way contract.. SG. Indiana Pacers
Indiana Pacers 15 greatest playoff moments. dark. Next
The Pacers open the playoffs this weekend in Boston, probably on Sunday since the Boston Bruins host a game on Saturday night. It’s playoff time.