INDIANAPOLIS, IN — The Indiana Pacers have struggled in two categories so far this season; rebounding and shooting free throws. Well playas…they were terrible at both on Monday night as the Portland Trailblazers came calling. By the time the smoke cleared Indiana had fallen short 103-93 primarily because they couldn’t rebound or shoot free throws. They finished the night being out-rebounded 50-35 and they shot a miserable 65 percent from the foul line in a losing effort.
The first quarter was a complete battle Royale with the Pacers limiting the Trailblazers to 33 percent shooting from the field and 16 percent from behind the arc at the 2 minute mark of the opening quarter. Portland jumped out of the ride ready to play some defense too. They held Indiana to 33 percent shooting and kept them from shooting a single three-pointer up to that point.
Both of Portland’s bigs, Leonard (3) and Turkic (2) got into foul trouble early causing them to sit midway through the first quarter. Even ole Damian Lillard picked up two fouls early. However, that didn’t keep them from being up 23-16 at the end of the first quarter.
After a sluggish first quarter the Pacers came out of the bushes on a boy late in the second period. They were down by as many as 13 points and fought their way back into it within the final 3 minutes of the half to go up 49-45 at the break. They went from not being able to find a three-point shot at all to knocking down 5 of 10 by the break.
However, they did struggle in the very department that Nate McMillan told me they needed to work on before the game, rebounding. By the break Portland was up in that department 28-19 and it got worse from there.
Not only did the Pacers get beat up on the boards but they were destroyed in the area of bench scoring. Portland outscored the Pacers bushes 54-15. For y’all that don’t know the bushes is the bench.
Oladipo led the Pacers with 21 points as Darren Collison dropped off a smooth 17. Thaddeus Young put up 16 while Bojan Bogdanovic finished with 14.
Former Boilermaker Caleb Swanigan finally gets some playing time and puts up a solid double-double as he put up 11 points and 10 rebounds in his first trip off of the bench.
The Pacers need to tighten it up in the rebounding, free throw and bench scoring department. Up next New York at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. Stop me when I start lyin’!