SALT LAKE CITY — The Indiana Pacers rolled into Utah on a five game winning streak and left with four flat tires. The Utah Jazz beat the brakes, doors, transmission and back seats off of them 118-88 on Monday night as the country celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Right out of the gate the Jazz jumped on the Pacers and never looked back. They never trailed in this one and completely dominated in the paint scoring 60 points in that space finishing with a 53-30 rebounding advantage.
They shot 54 percent from the field and what they did miss they rebounded and put back in with ease. It was NUTS!!!!
Donovan Mitchell led all scorers with 25 points as Rudy Gobert jumped out of the ride and dropped 20 grabbing 14 rebounds. Former Pacers Bojan Bogdanovic added 16 for good measure.
Not only did Utah kill Indiana on the boards but they limited them to only 7 free throw attempts in which the Pacers connected on 3 of them.
Both Myles Turner and Aaron Holiday led the Pacers with 12 points each. Even though Turner finished with a career high 6 steals as the Pacers forced 21 turnovers with a season high 15 steals. The problem in the paint was too much to overcome.
Nate McMillan had this to say after the game, “They were the aggressors on both sides of the ball. When they did shoot the ball and miss, they got the rebounds.” Yep…that about sums it up playa.
Up next the Pacers go to Phoenix on Wednesday.
