INDIANAPOLIS — The struggling Pacers, the losers of their previous three games and the last seven of eight finally broke what seemed to be a bad curse on Monday night. As the Detroit Pistons showed simply looking to get into the playoffs, Indiana outworked them to get the “W” 111-102.
With seven players finishing in double figures Nate McMillan’s squad remains tied for the fourth spot in the East with Boston who they’ll play on Friday. The Celtics own the tie breaker at this point because they’ve got a 2-1 edge over the Pacers.
On Monday night Indiana’s bigs got loose with Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis combining for a total of 35 points and 18 rebounds to neutralize Andre Drummond’s 18 points and 17 rebounds. Turner finished with 17 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 5 blocks while Sabonis hit them up for 18 points and 12 rebounds! That’s NUTS!!!
Both Thaddeus Young and Bojan Bogdanovic each led the Pacers with 19 points as Tyreke Evans dropped off 13 for good measure. Doug McDermott finished with 11 and Darren Collison contributed 10.
After the game Nate McMillan had this to say, “We played our game. We did a good job of taking the ball, rebounding the basketball, getting out in transition. We played our game.”
There is no rest for the weary because the Blue and Gold will do this all over again on Wednesday as they visit the Pistons in Detroit.