Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Pacers Lovesick after this loss

The visiting Pacers lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves 104-91 Wednesday night. The Pacers are now 41-13 while the Timberwolves are 26-28.
The Big Plays
In one sense you could say it was the first points of the game because after Kevin Love hit a 3-pointer for the first points of the game, the Timberwolves led the entire way. The Timberwolves eventually built the lead to 42-22 by midway through the second quarter and the Pacers were playing catch up all night. One other key possession did come early in the fourth quarter. The Pacers had cut the Timberwolves' lead to five, and Minnesota scored to get it back to seven. Then the Pacers' Paul George made a completely careless turnover when trying to flip the ball behind his back to a wide open Chris Copeland for what would have been a 3-point attempt that could have cut it back to four. But the ball went out of bounds and that was pretty much the game.
The Ups
Paul George had 35 points in Wednesday loss.
1) Well George did have a good shooting game scoring 35 points on 11 of 22 from field, so that was important. As I've said before, the Pacers needs him to be a significant offensive player in order for them to win. But for one of the few times this season, this will be the only up in this game.
The Downs
1) The Timberwolves were without their second and third best players in center Nicola Pekovic and guard Kevin Martin. So, basically the defensive mission here was just to not let Kevin Love, Minnesota's best player, beat you. So, the Pacers went out and allowed Love to score 42 points on 14 of 22 shooting, including 5 of 10 from three point range. Love also grabbed 16 rebounds in this one. Love is a deserving all-star player, but when he's without two other significant offensively skilled teammates, it makes the defensive plan here fairly simple. Yes, Love did hit some difficult shots, but he had way too many open looks, too.
2) One of the Pacers trademarks this year has been to not allow fast break points. That was a big issue in this game as the Timberwolves had 18 fast break points in this one. They were partly fueled by the Pacers having 21 turnovers, but sometimes it was simply a matter of just getting outhustled on the break. Yes, it's true the Pacers were on the second night of a back to back and the Timberwolves were not, but you still can't allow that many fast breaks happen in a game.
3) With Pekovic out, one of the Pacers big advantages in this game, you would think, would be to go center Roy Hibbert on offense. Instead, Hibbert finished with four points and five rebounds and got just five shots on the night. Yes, the Pacers like to talk about and sometimes play a smash mouth style. But lately they haven't always executed it and Wednesday night was one of those nights that they did not.
4) And finally, while George did have a big scoring game, he also had seven turnovers. Maybe it's part of his evolution as a player, learning how to play when he gets more attention from defenses. But it's a bit discouraging too when he makes a turnover like the careless flip pass intended for Copeland. Yes, there are a lot of reasons to like George as a player. But this is a reminder that he is still young and developing, too.
Afterthoughts
This wasn't a game that the Pacers should have won from the sense that they had a lead and let it slip away. But it was certainly a game they could have won. When the opponent has guys like Dante Cunningham, Ronny Turiaf and Luc Mbah A Moute each play more than 24 minutes in a game, you need to take advantage of that, second night of a back to back or not. Yes, the Timberwolves do have some talent, but it was disappointing that this game didn't at least go down to the wire.
Next Up
The Pacers are off until Saturday when they visit the Milwaukee Bucks in an 8:30 p.m. game. The Bucks have struggled mightily this season, and have an NBA-worst 10-43 mark heading into Thursday's game against Denver. The Bucks are led by guard Brandon Knight at 16 points and five assists a game, O.J. Mayo at 12 points, John Henson at 11.8 points and eight rebounds, Khris Middleton at 11.5 points and forwards Caron Butler and Ersan Illyasova and guard Gary Neal each at 10 points. However, they're most exciting player is rookie small forward Giannis Antetokunmpo, who is averaging seven points and is just 19 years old. He's one of those guys who is still learning and not getting a ton of minutes yet, but that you can clearly see has talent to be an outstanding player in the league. The Bucks are averaging just 92.5 points a game while allowing just over 101 a game. The Pacers defeated the Bucks 104-77 back on Nov. 15 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

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