Pacers 96 – Wizards 89

The Pacers got the week started off in the nation’s capital against the Washington Wizards on Monday. Indy came out of the gate hot and established a 15 point lead after just one 12 minute period of play. They were able to milk that lead through the final buzzer, shooting 49% for the night and withstanding all of the Wizards runs. This victory was certainly nothing for the Pacers to brag about. The Wizards came into the game as the only team in the NBA with a zero in the win column with all eight of their previous games ending in defeat. The struggling Roy Hibbert showed up with a season high 20 points on only 10 shots.  David West was the story of the night though. The veteran power forward dropped 30 on the Wizards, accounting for 10 of the Pacers’ 25 free throws.

Pacers 115 – Hornets 107 (OT)

Wednesday night against the New Orleans Hornets Paul George finally showed the Indy fans what all the hype has been about. Paul George put up 37 big points for the home team. But we’ve all seen high scoring outputs, but the most impressive part of his 37 was that he hit a Pacers’ record nine 3-pointers.  This broke Reggie Miller’s record of eight trey balls in single game. The Hornets were without their number one draft pick rookie Anthony Davis who sat out with an ankle injury. The Hornets may not have been winless like the futile Wizards but we would certainly expect the Pacers to beat a team with only three wins. The Hornets pushed Indy to the limit though, playing an awesome back and forth fourth quarter and forcing overtime. Hibbert didn’t have a big scoring night but compiled 11 blocked shots (another Pacers’ franchise record) on his way to his first triple-double. The Pacers have played plenty of exciting close games already this year, but this may have been the best one yet.

Spurs 104- Pacers 97

The last time that the Pacers met up with the San Antonio Spurs it was blow out, favoring the team from Texas. This time out it was a different story, but same end result. The Pacers can certainly hang their hats on the fact that they were competitive for the full 48 against one of the best teams in league. It was the usual suspect that came through for the Spurs on Friday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Tim Duncan and Tony Parker scored 22 and 33 points, respectively. Duncan also pulled down 17 boards but the Pacers won the battle of the boards 49-37, which allowed them to stay keep up with the Spurs while being outshot.

Putting all of this together gives us a pretty good feeling about the direction things may be heading. In the last edition of “Weekly Recap” we said we’d be looking for a consistent high scorer for the Pacers. The most impressive individual performance was Paul George’s 37 but David West was the most consistent performer. West averaged nearly 23 per game and shot over 58% from the field. With Granger out and Hibbert struggling from the field it looks like West and Paul George are going to bear the load. The bench has been up and down for the team. The substitutes played poorly against the Wizards, giving up portions of the lead, but played really well against the Spurs. It’s hard to tell what to expect from them, so this coming week we’re going to take a good look at the bench and see what we find. The Pacers start a road trip this week as they head out west to face the Lakers (7-7), Kings (4-9), and Warriors (8-6).

It was a lousy week for the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers managed to put together another one win, three loss week. I assume we’re all struggling with the question of whether or not this is just what we should come to expect from the team this year, or will things turn around for the fellas. Anyway, that’s a subject for another story. Let’s get into what we saw (or perhaps did NOT see) from the Pacers this past week.

Tuesday the Pacers took on the Toronto Raptors who were without their best player, guard Kyle Lowry, and also Landry Fields. This looked like an easy win for the Pacers; that is, until the opening tip-off. The Raptors led by 10 points going into the halftime intermission, limiting the home team Pacers to a measly 36 points. Indiana held Toronto to five points in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t muster the offense to complete a comeback.

I’d rather not even mention the Wednesday night’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks. Apparently a group of tall men resembling the Indiana Pacers meandered into the Bradley Center and wound up shooting hoops. The Bucks led by as many as 27 points as they cruised to victory. The game was never competitive at any point and Indiana looked worse than we have seen them in quite some time.

The Pacers bounced back on Friday when the hosted the Dallas Mavericks, welcoming Darren Collison back to Bankers Life Fieldhouse. This certainly was the best performance we have seen from the Pacers so far this season. After a very competitive first half the Pacers put together an impressive third quarter and carried the momentum into the fourth as they pulled away for a 20 point blowout. Offensively Indy hit the century mark in regulation for the first time this season. Remarkable that it took this long to get there, but at this point it’s just satisfying to see that they’re capable of such a performance.

Nobody really expected Indiana to put up much of a fight against the New York Knickerbockers on Sunday and it was pretty clear which team was superior. The Pacers didn’t just lay down like they did in Milwaukee, but the Knicks had all the answers. The offense wasn’t there or the Pacers who once again accumulated less than 80 points. Indiana kept the pace slow enough to prevent the Knicks from having a major scoring output, but All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony tallied 26 points and led his team to a 12 point victory.

Despite the big game against Dallas, the Pacers’ biggest and most apparent issue is still their lack of offensive productivity. There are now only two teams in the NBA who score less than the Indiana Pacers. On the other side of the ball the Pacers are now tops in the Association in scoring defense, allowing only 90.3 points per game. Roy Hibbert still hasn’t found his game this season. He shot 14/40 this week and repeatedly found himself in foul trouble. Shooting 35% is simply unacceptable for a center in this league, especially one who is coming off an All-Star season. It’s hard to imagine that persisting, but that was the same story last week. Sam Young is making his presence felt off of the bench as the Pacers found themselves running plays for him more and more last week. Nobody has really stepped up to replace Danny Granger as the lead guy and it seems like that might be necessary in order to find some consistency on offense. The Pacers only have three games this coming week; facing off against the Wizards, Hornets, and the Spurs. The Pacers pulled out a victory against the Wizards earlier this season and were handily defeated by the Spurs. We’ll look to see if there is anybody who puts together three impressive offensive performances in order to help establish a scoring hierarchy as opposed to an offensive free for all.