Indiana Pacers Continue to Fail at Basketball
By Evan Reller
Mar 31, 2014; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana Pacers guard George Hill (3) dribbles the ball as San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker (9) defends during the second quarter at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Pat Lovell-USA TODAY Sports
The Indiana Pacers struggles continued Monday night with an embarrassing home loss to the Spurs. The fans started booing early and often as the Pacers fell 103-77.
It represented the fifth time in the past six games that the Pacers failed to score 80 points. The Pacers also lost the top seed in the Eastern Conference this evening.
The Pacers took a three-game lead against the Heat last week, and promptly dropped three straight games.
Indiana’s offense continued to fail Monday night. They shot just 37.7-percent from the field and turned the ball over 16 times. The Pacers had the lead down to single digits early in the fourth quarter, but were never able to make a serious dent.
The Spurs had an answer every time it looked like the Pacers might make a run.
Paul George led the team with 16 points. He also had six rebounds, five assists, and three steals. He ended up trying to do too much late in the game and finished with five turnovers.
Roy Hibbert, who called his teammates out for being selfish this weekend, hoisted up a 15-foot jumper contested by Tim Duncan with 15-seconds left on the shot clock. A shot like that early in the game when the score is still reasonably close, that seems awfully selfish to me. That’s not even a shot Hibbert hits at a high percentage when he’s wide open.
Hibbert finished the game with 15 points and seven rebounds.
Lance Stephenson was the team’s saving grace in the second and third quarter, fighting to keep the game close. He appeared to be the only starter playing with anything that resembled passion. Stephenson finished with 15 points.
The Spurs simply picked apart the Pacers at both ends of the court. Their ball movement shredded the defense and George Hill was hopelessly out-gunned by Tony Parker, who led all scorers with 22 points. The Spurs also finished the night with 15 offensive rebounds.
Indiana’s bench also failed to show up for the game. They finished with 17 points, but half of them were in garbage time. Evan Turner was so bad that he was benched in the second half. For some reason this didn’t apply to Luis Scola, who couldn’t guard anyone and was 1-for-6 from the field.
Up next, the Pacers host the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday.
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