Anthony Davis left the game early with a back injury, leaving Evans as the primary offensive weapon for the New Orleans Pelicans, and while he held up his end the rest of the team couldn’t solve the tough IN defense.
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With the game up for grabs in the 4th quarter, New Orleans failed to score a single point off the Pacers last 11 turnovers. We were too sloppy. Dwight Howard missed the game with lower back spasms and his status is up in the air for Monday’s meeting with the Pacers.
He attempted to play for a short while after getting off the floor, but was later taken to the locker room, where it was determined that he would not return. The Pacers slowly began to shoot the ball at a more efficient rate, but turnovers were continuing to be a problem.
“We just go one game to the next”, Gentry said after Saturday’s victory over the Dallas Mavericks.
Ian Mahinmi led IN with 17 points and 10 rebounds on the night, and he was joined IN double figures by Miles with 15 and George with 13. The Pacers responded with an excellent defensive effort in the second quarter, holding New Orleans to a season-low 13 point and cutting their halftime deficit to 43-38. If a Pelicans fan actually got sick from each ill-advised shot Norris Cole took, the entire Smoothie King Center may have been watching the game with Anthony Davis. “It’s hard to win a game with 25 turnovers”.
Statistics and numbers can usually provide a pretty good sense of how a game played out and why.
Evans scored 16 of the Pelicans’ 27 points in the third quarter to help New Orleans maintain a 70-68 lead entering the final period. James Harden poured in 33 points, Terrence Jones added 14 while Jason Terry had 12 points as the Rockets beat the Jazz by 103-94 on Thursday thanks to a dominant 64-50 second half display.
Gentry was pleased with his team’s 21 steals but not with its execution. “Now we’ve got to play smarter”.
RAPTORS 97, WIZARDS 88: In Washington, DeMar DeRozan scored 21 of his season-high 35 points in the second half, Kyle Lowry had 21 points and 10 assists, and Toronto overcame a season-high 23 turnovers by taking control with an 18-4 run in the third quarter.
The team can’t afford to be without its star for long, as the Pelicans stumbled out of the gate this year and got out to a poor start in the competitive Western Conference. “I guess the great thing about the National Basketball Association is, if nothing else, you have a short time and then all of a sudden you have another challenge in front of you”, Gentry said….
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Without a doubt, the player with the biggest impact is Ian Mahinmi.
