Indiana Pacers embarrassed on their home court by Orlando Magic Sunday night
The Indiana Pacers hosted the Orlando Magic on Sunday night in a collision of two ascending teams. Both young rosters had helped their franchise get to seven wins entering the day.
The Pacers had four days off leading up to the game while the Magic were playing their fourth game of a road trip. On one hand, they had reasons to be gassed. On the other hand, the Pacers had reasons to be rusty.
The opening stretch would be telling to see which schedule quirk could have more of an impact. And after three minutes, Orlando had a 6-0 advantage. They were locked in on defense to kick things off.
Even through a Pacers timeout, the Magic expanded their lead as high as 11-0 to open the game. Indiana looked lethargic and missed their first six shots. Orlando's top-ranked defense was lethal early.
Indiana's bench came in and sped things up — T.J. McConnell, Buddy Hield, and Aaron Nesmith entered the game earlier than normal. Against the Magic's slower style, they looked effective.
But even with added juice, the blue and gold couldn't handle their opponents' size. They fell down by as many as 23 points in the first quarter and had no answers. They were getting outplayed in every way.
After one frame, the Pacers trailed 42-21. Getting doubled up after 12 minutes was the perfect representation of how poorly Indiana played early. They were 7/20 from the field after one quarter with seven turnovers, a miserable combination. Orlando, meanwhile, was 16/25.
The second quarter opened with more of the same. Indiana had two turnovers in the first two minutes of the frame, and the Magic kept scoring with ease. Attending fans began to boo.
In search of answers, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle turned to both of his first-round picks. Late in the first quarter, Ben Sheppard got some playing time, and lottery pick Jarace Walker checked in early in the second quarter. Nothing was working for the Pacers, so they were trying anything.
All of the off-the-wall ideas were ineffective. With 5:09 to go in the second quarter, the Magic took a 30-point lead. They were dominating in every way. Indiana couldn't play their style or hit a shot.
Before halftime, the Magic's lead was as high as 38, and they had a chance to get it to 40 but couldn't. At the break, they lead 78-44. It was an ugly night for the blue and gold. Bruce Brown was the top scorer for the Pacers at halftime with 11 points.
The third quarter opened with Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton finally finding a groove. He scored eight points in 51 seconds to kick off the second half, and that got Orlando's lead back under 30. There was still a ton of work to do if Indiana was going to pull off a miracle, but they got off to the right start.
The Magic answered, though, as their size was consistently too much for the Pacers. They continued to get to the rim and draw fouls in a way that made gathering momentum impossible for Indiana. Halfway through the third quarter, Orlando led 95-61.
The Pacers continued their weak play, and the Magic took their first 40-point lead with 3:30 to go in the third quarter. Nothing looked good for Indiana. With three minutes to go until the final quarter, they were shooting under 40 percent and had 12 turnovers.
When the third frame ended, the Magic led 107-78. Haliburton led the Pacers with 12 points, but they were getting crushed heading into the final period.
Carlisle sent out a reserve group to kick off the fourth. McConnell, Sheppard, Jordan Nwora, Walker, and Isaiah Jackson opened the frame in the hopes of at least cutting into the deficit.
Instead, it was the Magic who started the fourth frame off well — they went on a 7-1 run to prove that they weren't just going to roll over. Given the margin at that point, the game was as good as over.
Nwora had some nice buckets early in the fourth quarter to give the Pacers some juice, and Jackson made some impressive plays on both ends. The game was decided, but the blue and gold were putting together some decent moments late.
It was, of course, too little too late. With four minutes to go, Indiana had the lead down to 20, but that was an insurmountable number with such a small amount of time left.
In the end, the Pacers fell 128-116. They were the better team in the second half, but their embarrassing first half did them in. Nwora led the way with 19 points.
The Pacers fell to 7-5 with the loss, which may have been their worst of the season. They were great late, but the competitive portion of the game was ugly. They had a much larger margin of defeat in Boston, but that game was on the road and Haliburton didn't play.
Indiana will try to forget this game as quickly as possible and get back on track in Atlanta Tuesday night.
- Indiana Pacers and center Daniel Theis agree to contract buyout. CLICK HERE.
- Ben Sheppard scores first NBA points in front of family in Boston, off to a solid start for the Indiana Pacers. CLICK HERE.
- Oscar Tshiebwe is 'dominating' the boards in the G League for the Indiana Mad Ants. CLICK HERE.
- Indiana Pacers take down Philadelphia 76ers on the road for In-Season Tournament victory. CLICK HERE.
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