ATLANTA — After losing two straight the Indiana Pacers have rattled off three straight wins including a thriller in the ATL on Wednesday night 129-121 over the Hawks. Atlanta came into the joint inspired after winning three straight games for the first time since January of 2017. They had the attitude of a winner when they tipped it off too.
However, the Pacers got crazy production and double figures from 8 of the 9 players in the rotation. They were led by Thaddeus Young’s 21 points as the other four starters did work as well. Both Bojan Bogdanovic and Victor Oladipo dropped off 16 points each as Darren Collison and Myles Turner hit them up with 11 apiece.
What was so amazing about this Pacers win was the production off of the bench that Nate McMillan got from his players. Indiana got an unbelievable 54 points off of the bench as both Tyreke Evans and Domantas Sabonis scored 19 each and Corey Joseph dropped off 14 and Doug McDermott’s 2.
The Hawks jumped out of the Impala and went on a 12-2 run to start the game. The Pacers’ only points came from two Thaddeus Young free throws as Nate McMillan needed to call a timeout to settle his boyz down. Indiana went 0 for 8 from the field to start the game and it looked dismal.
It was midway through the first quarter before the Pacers made their first field goal at the 6:54 mark. Before the folks down in the ATL could blink Indiana had made up ground and it was a three point game 14-11 Hawks. As Atlanta started to implode the Pacers continued to hunt as they took their first lead 21-20 at the 3:49 mark. By the time the opening quarter ended Indiana had taken the lead 32-31.
Myles Turner picked up two fouls in the first quarter and had to sit at the little kid’s table like the dirty city councilman in the movie Four Brothers.
Tyreke Evans came off of the bench and scored 14 points of his 19 points in his first 7 minutes on the floor. The Hawks shot the lights out of the gym in the first half shooting 52 percent from the field and 50 percent from behind the arc. Atlanta’s Kent Bazemore scored 11 of his game high 32 points in the first half.
Indiana was red hot as well shooting 52 percent from the field and 46 percent from behind the arc at the break.
Hawks outscored the Pacers 19-8 after Indiana had a 4 point lead to get to the half up 67-64. What was so crazy is that the Pacers have the No.1 scoring defense in the NBA only giving up 101 points per game and they’d given up 67 at the break. Atlanta was straight feeling themselves in this one. They went on a three-point shooting spree knocking down 17 three-pointers in this one.
However, the Pacers kept their composure forcing 6 third quarter turnovers to take a 95-88 lead to end the quarter to go on an 8-0 run.
Indiana took care of business down the stretch to hold off a hungry and inspired Hawks team to get out of the joint with the “W” to improve to 23-12. Up next the Detroit Pistons on Friday.