INDIANAPOLIS– Who says that the Pacers couldn’t win without Victor Oladipo? Yes, they struggled to find their way after their All-Star shooting guard went down losing four straight. However, they’ve found their strength in each other as they’ve now won four straight after blasting the Los Angeles Clippers 116-92.
The Clippers came into the joint with a make shift team after all of the movement from the trade deadline. Doc Rivers said before the game that he didn’t even know how many players he actually had. So you already knew that it was going to be a problem for Doc’s crew in Indiana. The Pacers simply moved some money around by acquiring two salaries and getting rid of them and a second round pick. The details are irrelevant.
Both Indiana and LA got out of the car and went at it in the middle of the street trading body blows. Everything was fast paced with boyz getting up and down the floor. Then all of a sudden Bojan Bogdanovic went up for a Yoke that brought the house down for the And 1 to put the Pacers up 14-12 with 7:41 left in the first quarter.
Then a darn bat came out of nowhere and stopped the game at the 6:29 mark of the first quarter. Boyz were trying to hit it and knock it down but it was too smooth and kept it movin’. It flew around the court for a few minutes and went back to the crib. Let’s finish playing ball y’all.
Even with a make shift team the Clippers were putting in work going up 23-18. Patrick Beverly was ripping boyz like he always does but neither one of these teams were playing a lick a defense initially.
LA was up 25-24 and shooting 100 percent from the field (11-11) and from behind the arc (3-3) at the 4:04 mark. NUTS!!!
By the end of the first quarter Indiana was up 36-31 shooting 67 percent from field and from behind the arc. The Clippers were shooting 82 percent from the field and 60 percent from three. Something had to give right?
Well…as boyz got into the second quarter they were still trading baskets with Myles Turner knocking down big shots from downtown. However, when I bit into my hog dog with 4:30 left the Pacers had pulled the rabbit out of the hat and was up 60-46 off of two straight three-pointers by Bojan Bogdanovic. Something was giving at that point.
Slowly but surely Indiana kept extending it’s lead by shooting the lights outta the joint and their ball movement was NUTS!!! At the break the Pacers were up 71-53 with three players in double figures at the midway point. Bogdanovic had 15 of his 29 points, Thaddeus Young scored all 14 of his points and Myles Turner had 12 of his 17 points.
Indiana picked up where they’d left off with Myles Turner on fire shooting the three and blocking out the sun if need be. Before my nachos could get cold they were up 84-61. Then the bat came back to looking for his Colt 45 and a bag of Funyuns at the 5:14 mark of the third quarter. At the end of three the Pacers were up 98-73.
Nate sat his big guns at the end of three but allowed Bojan Bogdanovic to get some additional target practice as he led the Pacers with 29 points.
When asked about putting an emphasis on finding a leader after losing Victor his response was, “Thad has always been our leader all season long. Both he and Victor, he has certainly stepped up.” Here’s the entire clip of what he had to say.