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INDIANAPOLIS – Come April, hardly anyone will remember that the Pelicans were missing 5 of their top 6 scorers during a Monday February game against the Pacers.
Even though Indiana was on the road Monday, they needed to handle their business against a very depleted roster dealing with the Anthony Davis saga.
Some shaky moments were there on Monday, but the Pacers (34-19) made enough plays to end the road trip with a second straight victory.
“I thought we made plays down the stretch, which is what you have to do to win games,” Nate McMillan said after the 109-107 victory in New Orleans. “We knew this team, they’d come out and they’d scrap for 48 minutes. We told our guys it was going to be a 48-minute game. We got the stops we needed and we made some big shots. We’ve got to make shots going down the stretch and you’ve got to get shots. We were able to do both.”
Those cold-blooded shots late on Monday came via veteran point guard Darren Collison.
A 2009 first-round pick of New Orleans, Collison had some daggers for his former team, with timely jumpers in the game’s closing minutes.
On Monday, Collison led Indiana with 22 points, 6 assists and 0 turnovers.
“He’s having to carry a little bit more load since the absence of Victor,” McMillan said of Collison after Monday’s win moved the Pacers record to 34-19. “He is capable of doing that. He made some big shots (Monday) and he is the guy we’ve gone to as far as late in games, putting the ball in his hands. I thought our guys did a good job finding each other, finding guys, and they knocked down some big shots.”
The Pacers took advantage of an undermanned New Orleans frontcourt. Domantas Sabonis bounced back from one of his rougher stretches, to score 16 points and grab 13 rebounds off the bench. Myles Turner added 15 points and 9 rebounds.
Things looked bleak at the start of Monday’s game, when the Pelicans jumped out to an 11-0 lead.
The Pacers answered with a 16-2 run, and eventually led by 5 points at the end of the opening quarter.
While the Pelicans made various runs to cut that margin to one possession throughout the rest of the night, the Pacers never trailed following the first period.
Three Pacers’ Takeaways:
–DC Steps Up: There were some shaky moments in the final quarter on Monday night for the Pacers, but the veteran point guard wouldn’t let his team lose. Darren Collison was back in New Orleans, playing against the team that drafted him in the first round of the 2009 Draft. Collison looked like a guy playing with a little extra edge on Monday, finishing with 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting, 6 assists and 0 turnovers. The biggest stat of them all for Collison on Monday? He had 11 fourth-quarter points, doing his best Victor Oladipo impression with some important jumpers in the game’s closing minutes. The Pacers could not afford letting this one slip away and Collison did his part to make sure it didn’t.
–Salvage Road Trip: A split on this road trip has to be viewed at as a bit of a win after starting things off 0-2, with road losses to Washington and Orlando. The Pelicans looked more like a G-League team on Monday, with 5 of their top 6 scorers in street clothes. That only added to the importance for the Pacers to take care of business before playing a back-to-back on Tuesday against LeBron, Lance and the Lakers in Indiana. The Pacers have a really manageable schedule here leading into the All-Star break, so building some momentum with back-to-back wins, before 5 straight at home, before the off-time, offers some positive steps for Indiana.
–Trade Deadline Watch: Tuesday night against the Lakers will be the final game for the Pacers before the Thursday afternoon trade deadline. It’s kind of interesting that Indiana is in the midst of a back-to-back against the two most talked about deadline teams right now in the Pelicans and Lakers. On paper, it’s hard to see a definite move that would make sense for Kevin Pritchard and company. Is there really a move coming in the next 48 hours that all of a sudden catapults the Pacers to a team that can get homecourt in Round One of the playoffs and win a series? I’m not sure there is such a deal, especially when you need to make sure that future resources aren’t mortgaged. The Pacers were quiet last year before the deadline and it wouldn’t surprise me if they did that again this year.
Pacers Upcoming Schedule
-Lakers (Tuesday, 2/5)
-Clippers (Thursday, 2/7)
-Cavaliers (Saturday, 2/9)
-Hornets (Monday, 2/11)
-Bucks (Wednesday, 2/13)
-All-Star Break
