The Big Picture
The Pacers flirted with the bitter taste of defeat at home Friday, when the narrowly defeated the Charlotte Bobcats. This time they not only flirted with defeat, they took her on out on a nice date and treated her quite well. The Pistons jumped out to an early lead and while the Pacers challenged at times, and even had the game tied at times, they never get over the hump. The Pacers seemed to have learned a few lessons this season in the midst of victory. And maybe this lesson will hit home a little more now, as the home crowd, this one of 15,443 fans, left Bankers Life Fieldhouse disappointed for the first time this season. The Pistons led by 10 with 7:20 to go and the Pacers cut the lead to two twice in the final minutes, but couldn't come up with the key defensive stops they've been noted for making in the last two seasons.
The Ups
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| Pacers guard Lance Stephenson had 23 points, seven rebounds, and six assists, but it wasn't enough against the Pistons. |
2) The bright spot on the night was the aforementioned Scola. The power forward came off the bench to score 18 points and had several key baskets in the fourth quarter to keep the Pacers in the game, including an offensive put back on a missed free throw that cut the deficit to two. It was one of those situations where you hated to see him come out of the game, but coach Frank Vogel left him for nearly the first nine minutes of the quarter, so maybe Scola was out of gas at that point. While Scola has been a major upgrade from Tyler Hansbrough at that spot from last year, it was also good to see Scola turn into a scorer when the Pacers needed it.
3) Well, whether we like to admit it or not, the other team always has something to do with how you play. The biggest thing here about the Pistons is that coach Maurice Cheeks has turned Brandon Jennings into a real-life point guard, as opposed to what Jennings was in a Milwaukee, which was a guard who liked to shoot way too much. And while, yes, Jennings still gets his shots, he's also become aware that he's got four teammates out there who are capable as well and the Pacers inability to contain him was a major factor in the outcome of this game.
The Downs
1) Somewhere along the way, maybe it was in Portland, the Pacers kind of lost their identity a bit. Vogel has fashioned his team as a smash mouth, defensive type of squad since he took over, and the team and fans have embraced that. But starting with the loss to Portland, the Pacers have allowed opponents to score 100 or more points four times in seven games (and that's not including allowing 94 to offensively challenged Charlotte) and have lost three of those games in that span. Their inability to come up with a way to contain Jennings and Josh Smith, who scored 30 points, Monday night was a bit disturbing. The fact that Smith came out and scored the first eight points of the second half gave the Pistons the confidence they needed and planted those seeds of doubt in the Pacers' minds. Sure, Smith hit a few difficult shots, but he was allowed to get some confidence early on with some easy looks at the basket. The Pacers need to get back to making it tough on the other team's offense from the second they step on the court, not when it's too late in the second half.
2) It's no secret that point guard George Hill has been in a bit of slump for the Pacers offensively. He had just seven points Monday night, but the big thing Monday was the defense. He had trouble containing the smaller Jennings allowing the Pistons point guard to get in the paint too often to either put up a shot or make a pass to an open teammate. Hill doesn't have to be a big offensive threat every game, but the point is where the defense starts. Maybe this was a game where the Pacers would have been better served to have C.J. Watson guard Jennings in the final minutes? It's hard to say, but Hill certainly had issues with his defense in this game and that's where they really need him to set the tone.
3) There's plenty of blame to go around here, too. Even though Jennings was getting inside and getting the Pacers big guys out of position, that was still no excuse to allow the Pistons to win the rebound battle 55-40 (at one point is was at 50-30), including a whopping 20 offensive rebounds to the Pistons. The Pacers allowed 10 rebounds to Woody Harrellson of all people (OK, we know his first name is Josh, but it sounded good for second didn't it?) Anybody whose watched any basketball for any length of time knows it's hard to win games when you give up that many extra possessions to the other team. The Pistons took advantage of it too, scoring 22 second-chance points.
Afterthoughts
It was sort of a big deal here that the Pacers lost a game for the first time this season that they were certainly expected to win, especially considering the Pistons were coming off an overtime loss to Portland the night before and that the Pacers had just had two days off. The bigger deal here will be to see how they react to this loss. It won't be easy to go down to Miami, who is no doubt still stinging a bit from losing to the Pacers last week in Indianapolis. But the reaction to defeat here will be key and will tell us a lot about this Pacers team. If they go down to Miami and get blown out, well, not a good sign. Win or lose, they need to go into Miami with the same attitude that Detroit came into Indiana with, that they're going to take it to the home team. My guess is that is what we will see Wednesday night.
Next Up
The Pacers visit Miami Wednesday night in a 7 p.m. game that will be on ESPN. The Pacers have yet to lose two straight this season, so this game against the defending champs will certainly put that to the test. The Heat have an 18-6 record, so it doesn't take a mathematician to figure out the Heat will be just one game back of the Pacers with a win. It should be another good regular season battle, with the winner feeling a little better about itself, but the loser also knowing there's still plenty of season to go.
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