Reply With QuoteThe annual choke job begins...
By Johnnie Clay - Pacers Insider.
February 17, 2004 - 12:30 AM
Call it whatever you want...laziness, unmotivated, unfocused. Either way you look at it, the result was still the same...a loss.
The Indiana Pacers, fresh off a tremendous first half of the season, resembled the team that started off the pre-season, flat and out of sync, falling to the New Orleans Hornets this evening, 89-75 at Conseco Fieldhouse.
The night began on the wrote note for the Pacers, as guard Ron Artest was benched because he missed Monday night's practice. Artest missed his commercial flight back from Los Angeles Monday and arrived in Indianapolis after practice concluded.
Al Harrington started in his place and provided the only real highlight of the night as his 44-foot three-pointer narrowed the Pacers deficit to just eight points, 53-47 at halftime.
The Pacers only trailed by five points, 27-22 at the end of the first quarter, but they couldn't get any closer as an 17-4 run by the Hornets early in the second quarter essentially put the game out of reach.
The Hornets came out aggressively in the second half, scoring the first six points of the quarter to rebuild a 14-point lead, after that, the Pacers got no closer than 10 the rest of the night.
The key stat of the night was rebounds, where the Hornets literally destroyed the Pacers, 56-38.
That glaring stat, along with 17 turnovers, and a dismal 33% shooting, told all that you needed to know about how it went tonight.
“Give New Orleans the credit, they played a dominant game. Physically they pounded us." Rick Carlisle said afterwards.
"Statistically when you give up20 offensive rebounds for 22 points you’re going to struggle. They had us on our heels all night. I’m not going to blame the break; New Orleans is coming off the break too. Distractions don’t help the situation; but you can’ t blame this on one guy. We all own it. We’re going to have to get the wheels back on the wagon. The team we play next played the same type of game against us three weeks ago and dominated us at their place.”
"The situation being that we did not play well. We had a lot of missed opportunities." Jermaine O'Neal said. "They crashed the boards and overall, played very well. We are not concerned about losing one game because there are many games left and we are a good basketball team and will meet the challenges as we go down the road.”
O'Neal's 17 points and 7 rebounds led the Pacers. Only two other Pacers scored in double-figures, (Reggie Miller with 12 and Ron Artest with 13) in an all around lack-luster night. Artest went to the free-throw line an amazing 16 times, hitting on 11 of them.
The Pacers now have a few days to lick their wounds before heading out on the road Friday night against the Washington Wizards. The trip brings back a bitter taste to the Pacers and their fans. It was almost a month ago (Jan 14th) that the Pacers were taken apart by the Wizards 107-96. If there is a "sliver-lining" to all of this "doom and gloom" it's this...the last time the Pacers lost a game, they went on a three-game winning streak. Lets hope this time, "history DOES repeat."
Game Time Friday is at 7pm (EST).
The annual choke job begins...
that is what they get for drinking at the All-Star game!!
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