Following their brutal In-Season Tournament finals loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Indiana Pacers got back on track on Monday night, taking down the lowly Detroit Pistons.
Indiana handed Detroit their 20th loss in a row, shattering any hopes of avoiding that dreaded mark, earning a 131-123 bounce-back victory over Cade Cunningham and company.
While they lost to the Lakers in the finals, the Pacers have now technically won four games in a row in the regular season, as the final did not count toward that total.
So, though a win was probably expected against this Pistons squad, it was still a nice victory. Let’s take a look at two studs and one dud from the game, grading their performances along the way.
Stud - Buddy Hield/Aaron Nesmith
Myles Turner should probably have this spot. He put up an impressive 23 points, eight rebounds, and three blocks, but we’re going to roll with the Pacers’ two three-point shooters.
Turner had a rough night against the Lakers, so his bounce-back was nice, but Indiana’s offense also struggled mightily, so to see these two find their footing from distance was great.
After shooting a combined 3-of-14 from deep against the Lakers, Buddy Hield and Aaron Nesmith combined to go 7-of-11 against the Pistons, helping lead the Pacers to a much-needed win.
It was nice to see the offense return to form, though the Pacers couldn’t have hand-selected a better opponent for a bounce-back game than the Pistons.
Regardless, shooters have hot and cold nights throughout the course of the season, so it was a good sign to see Hield and Nesmith turn things around so quickly.
Grade: B+