MEMPHIS — The Indiana Pacers played their first game without their fearless leader, Victor Oladipo, who is out for the season due to a ruptured quad tendon at the right knee. They were catching Memphis on the back end of their back to back but the Pacers looked like the team playing their second consecutive game as they looked sluggish all night. Indiana never led in a 106-103 loss to the terrible Grizzles.
The Pacers showed up in Memphis and got off of the bus like they were blindfolded as they went 0-5 to start the game. At the 6:01 mark of the first quarter they’d only scored 3 points!!! I know that Victor Oladipo was out for the season and boyz were trying to absorb that hit but c’mon bruh!!! By the 4 minute mark of the opening quarter they were shooting 16 percent from the field and 0-4 from behind the arc. They couldn’t hit an elephant in the butt with a bass fiddler with magnifying glasses on.
Nate McMillan called a timeout to give them the business and they seemed to respond coming out of the timeout. At the end of the quarter Memphis led 24-19.
Did I tell you that they were playing the Grizzles? Not Golden State! The Grizzles!! The rookie Aaron Holiday came off of the bench early and that was great to see. He knocked down a three pointer as he competed against his older brother, Justin, who plays for Memphis. It was good to see the rookie come off of the bench in the first period. He’s a great young talent that we’ll get to see a lot more of now that Oladipo is out. They play difference positions but he’ll get more minutes because of the rotations.
We even saw TJ Leaf get some early minutes as he took a boy to the rack. Cats were stepping up as Aaron Holiday picked up 7 quick points off of the bench. At the 5:18 mark of the second quarter the Pacers got within 3 points down 39-36 but they still struggled to shoot the ball. They were literally shooting 36 percent from the field and 12.5 percent from behind the arc. They were even struggling from the foul line only knocking down 79 percent of their free throws.
Memphis got to the break up 53-42 as the Pacers never led in this one and Jaren Jackson Jr. was giving them the business! He scored 13 of his 20 points before the break. Don’t sleep on Justin Holiday either. He was puttin’ in work as he scored 11 of his 16 points in the opening half too.
The 42 points the Pacers scored was their lowest output at the half this season. Did I tell you that they were playing the Grizzles? Just making sure.
They came out of the break and literally traded baskets with Memphis and couldn’t get a stop. Therefore, at the 7:46 mark of the third it was 64-53. To make matters worse Thaddeus Young commits his fourth foul at the 7:12 mark of the third.
However, the Blue and Gold went on a 7-1 run to pull within 5 to trail 65-60 with 5:10 left in the third period. Finally the Pacers tied it at 67-67 on a Myles Turner old school yoke!! That means dunk for all of you that didn’t grow up in the G!!! Oh that means Gary, Indiana.
The Pacers went on a 14-3 run to tie it but the Grizzles came back to take a 9 point lead to close out the third quarter up 78-69 after going on an 11-2 run. Even though Thad Young was sitting on four fouls he continued to play hard and ole boy threw down a put back with 4:59 left to get the Pacers to within 3 trailing 85-82.
However, every time Indiana got close Memphis would knock down critical shots to extend the lead again. Before you could blink they were back up 90-82. Memphis finally just went on a tear down the stretch knocking down big shots extending their lead to 96-86 with 2:30 left. Remember that the Grizzles were on an 8 game losing streak coming into this foolishness.
It was just one of those nights. Mike Conley did work on them finishing with 21 points and 11 assists as Jaren Jackson Jr. got loose with 20. The Pacers were led by Bojan Bogdanovic’s 21 points followed by Darren Collison’s 16. Up next Golden State on Monday.