That was an ugly game. I guess it was to be expected. The Indiana Pacers along with the Memphis Grizzlies embody toughness and grit. The Pacers have prided themselves on defense as well and have athletic wings to help with the scoring. The Pacers have been dealing with injuries all season; particularly star Paul George who is expected to be out for the season no matter how many times he says he wants to try to play by the end.
The Portland Trail Blazers ground their way to a 88-82 victory over the Pacers Thursday night at the Moda Center. The Blazers improve to 15-4 on the season and the Pacers fall to 7-12.
What a disgusting game. The Pacers, in general, want to force the game to finish in the mid-80s every time. Give credit to Indiana. They continue to play hard even with suffering so many devastating injuries to their key players as well as losing Lance Stephenson to Charlotte. If a person looks at the scoring split by quarters, the highest margin of outscoring a team in a quarter was three. Furthermore, the stats show that this game got physical, but the fouls were not rampant as one would think. Indiana had 19, while Portland had 16.
Portland only shot 19% from three all game going 4-for-21. First off, I would say around five or six three-pointers were on target, but rolled out. I say that the Pacers played good defense, and they did for the most part. But, I think the main issue was the Portland could not buy a single bucket. Unless it was a dunk, it felt like the ball was going to find a way to come out. Portland only shot 40% from the field all night. They would go on mini runs, but they never felt like runs. An 8-0 run would take two or three minutes. Plus, there was this feeling that Portland was having to fight a lot harder than they needed to. Considering that the basket was unkind to Portland’s offense, if some of those high-percentage looks went in, this would have been a game done in the third quarter.
Normally, I like to point out that there was a defining quarter that turned the game around for a certain team. Looking at the spread, there really was not a defining quarter. Both teams either outscored each other by two or three in each quarter.
Let’s break this down by halves. In the first half, Portland shot 37% from the field and 10% from three. Damian Lillard and Wesley Matthews combined to go 0-for-5 from three. The highest scorer for Portland in the first half was Lillard who had 10 points on 4-for-8 shooting. LaMarcus Aldridge, after hitting his first shot, had a heck of a time the rest of the way. He finished with seven points on 3-for-9 shooting, 1-for-1 from three with eight rebounds and two assists in the first half. Funny stat, Aldridge was Portland’s best three-point shooter this game making both of his attempts.
Portland was using defense and rebounding to stay in the game. Now, Portland had some advantage because Indiana’s scoring options were limited. A team can only depend on David West, Roy Hibbert and Solomon Hill so much before the well runs dry. Plus, most of the plays they ran either crawled to a halt when Hibbert handled the ball or the play would end with a player shooting a mid-range shot. There were two kinds of shots, corner three-pointers and mid-range attempts. Eventually, the Pacers would fall behind at some point, right? Well, they did, but they stuck around longer than I expected with that strategy. They shot 36% from the field in the first half led by Luis Scola who went 3-for-5 with eight points.
In the second half, the offenses for both teams “cranked” up. Both teams shot an identical 43% from the field. The biggest difference was the FT line. Portland went 11-for-15 in the second half, while Indiana went just 3-for-6. Portland’s highest scorer in the second half was Lillard who had 13 points on 3-for-7 shooting, 1-for-3 from three, but converted 6-of-9 from the line. The missed FTs from Lillard have become a story as of late. Lillard is normally and still is a lights-out FT shooter, but recently he has split a lot of trips to the line. Again, LA had a rough time shooting, but had 11 points on 4-for-12 shooting, 1-for-1 from three in the second half.
Indiana, still depending on that mid-range, hit more than I thought. West had 11 points on 5-for-7 shooting, 1-for-1 from three. Rodney Stuckey finished with 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting.
This was not a highlight game. In fact, I am not sure if there was a single highlight worth showing besides an Allen Crabbe dunk. This game did feature a Robin Lopez and West tussle that ended with one technical foul being called on West. Furthermore, Hibbert and Lopez never got into it, but were obviously jawing at each other. That involved multiple overly aggressive moves against each other both on the defensive and offensive end. Shoves, elbows, glares were all evident. Fans just wanted the game to end so these players could get off the floor before a real fight broke out.
Portland’s highest scorer was Lillard who finished with 23 points on 7-for-15 shooting, 1-for-5 from three, with eight rebounds, three assists and two steals. The steals I tell you. The steals!
Matthews finished with 12 points on 6-for-14 shooting, 0-for-5 from three. After being absolutely on fire from three, in his last two games (including this one), he has gone a combined 1-for-15 from beyond the arc. Talk about a cold shower.
Aldridge finished with 18 points on 7-for-21 shooting, 2-for-2 from three, while also providing 13 rebounds, three assists and two blocks.
Nicolas Batum, while still not shooting superbly, finished with 13 points on 5-for-13 shooting, 1-for-5 from three and also provided five rebounds, five assists, two blocks and three steals. I am okay with his low scoring if he keeps doing the rest.
Crabbe continues to impress. He finished with six points on 2-for-3 shooting, 0-for-1 from three and had two steals, one block and one rebound. Crabbe’s confidence has to be soaring. There was one sequence where he got a steal and ran down court. Knowing Lillard was trailing, he calmly passed it behind him for an extremely open three-pointer for Lillard. Lillard did not make the shot, but it showed me that Crabbe’s confidence is no longer an issue, at least for right now. He knows his spots, he knows the plays and he looks like he should be out there.
Again, this was an ugly, ugly game. However, Portland did get the job done albeit by having to bribe the basket for more points. Portland now heads out on a five game road trip. Portland has a good shot of sweeping this trip as the only tough game would be the Chicago game. But, first is the New York Knicks. Anybody else scared? I did not think so. Carmelo Anthony and the rest on that team will take on the Blazers on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. PST at Madison Square Garden. Portland should have this game well in-hand. The Knicks are still trying to figure out the complex triangle system that new head coach Derek Fisher implemented this season. If the Blazers can just up their offense slightly and play the kind of defense they did tonight, the win should be theirs. Stay tuned!