Teague was similarly egregious, shooting 1-7 from the floor and offering no resistance whatsoever at the defensive end. And his foul trouble was the direct result of lazy defending. He exacerbated this by going an incredible 1-6 from the free throw line. He finished with seven points in 31 minutes, on 3-9 shooting. Wiggins, who was in foul trouble much of the night, never showed up. Whenever I single out players after games like this, people get mad at me, but it must be said that, in a game where nobody exactly covered themselves in glory, Andrew Wiggins and Jeff Teague were particularly bad. On another night they don’t shoot that well, but honestly there was not a lot of contesting happening from the Wolves defense. The Pacers finished an ungodly 67 percent from the field, and made 10-22 threes. This time, the bench unit couldn’t stem the tide, and the Pacers outscored the Wolves 56-28 over the final 19 minutes of the game. Once again the Pacers began running on the Wolves, and there was no response. The third quarter began the way the second ended, with Towns on fire and the Wolves building a five point lead.Īnd then it all fell apart. It felt like they had weathered the storm of hot shooting by the Pacers. He was punishing the rather grounded Pacers front line (without Myles Turner) in the post.

Karl-Anthony Towns, who finished with 28 points on the night, got warmed up in the second quarter, and helped the Wolves get to halftime tied at 61. Tom Thibodeau went to the bench fairly early, and the second unit, led again by Jamal Crawford and Nemanja Bjelica, brought some energy and got the Wolves back in the ball game. The starting group (with Muhammad in for Butler) seemed unprepared to play, and lacked any energy at all. The game started with Bojan Bogdanovic (finished with 19 on 9-12 shooting) toasting Shabazz Muhammad, and Victor Oladipo (28 on 11-16) getting whatever he wanted against Andrew Wiggins. Transition scores, easy pick and roll conversions, wide open jumpers.there was no resistance at all. It didn’t help that the Wolves were missing shots around the rim, especially early in the game, which unbalanced the floor and made the fast breaks easier for Indiana, but ultimately their lack of commitment to getting back and defending with any toughness was the Wolves downfall tonight.Īnd frankly, it was depressingly reminiscent of past years. All night the Pacers pushed the pace, beat the Wolves up the court, and converted easy opportunities.

Jimmy Butler’s absence is no excuse for what was an atrocious effort. Wolves interior misses exacerbating defensive transition problems.- canishoopus October 25, 2017Īnd, with the exception of the second quarter, this pretty much describes the game.

Casino energy people pacers