[Post Game Thread] The Indiana Pacers (34-26) defeat the New Orleans Pelicans (35-25), 123-114.

34 comments

1. Didn’t expect to win, but Hali and Siakam executed well for them at the end.

   Part of me respects CJ for trying to do it all at the end. But dear god. I *don’t* want to play through CJ like ever in the playoffs

2. Sucks, tried our best but it was a 2nd night of a back to back and 5th game in 7 days.

3. Jonas Valanciunas plays basketball for the pelicans btw incase anyone forgot who he’s currently under contract with (Willie Green)

4. Love CJ but his hero ball shit ended the game. BI playing really well and CJ stopped passing

5. No JRE, No Matt Ryan, and plenty of Naji. Just terrible

6. One of the more aggravating games as a Pelicans fan, feels like we couldnt stop them the whole night.

7. What does Willie see in Naji? He does nothing better currently than Matt Ryan besides bringing the ball up

8. Naji Marshall…..

9. I’m happy we got back in it. Obviously these guys were exhausted. Schedule loss for sure.

   Still hate to see these stupid, low IQ decisions from Naji and Trey. Awful decision making. CJ was also hot garbage tonight.

   Get some sleep and we play again on Friday.

   Edit: I have a real problem with CJ taking more shots than BI and Z. And this is a broader issue I see. Zion will race down court to get good post position and then we just look him off. WTF are we doing? He’s our 2nd best player, give him the ball. Instead we have Trey jacking up 40 footers. Like why?

10. Jonas 0 points, Zeller DNP, and Larry not being good. There is the story for the game.

    Should have continued playing Jonas even if he wasn’t good or force the FO to get a big on the roster you can trust.

11. At least Zion made a 3. Pels effort from the start wasn’t there. Too many easy layups allowed 

12. Like I said, surprised by the fight we showed on a B2B. Still hurts as fuck knowing we couldve won it.

    Side note, we should’ve used Matt Ryan, been great past few games and has been playing good D as well.

    We get em back at home

13. Imma gonna say it, Z is a real negative on defence esp today

14. Can’t lie I hate how good some of these guys think they are (CJ included). Just pass the ball to the star players and they’ll get you a better shot. Too many wasted possessions on role players thinking they’re “HIM”.

    Also to the people that’ll dismiss the loss… if we can’t win nationally televised games then we can’t win in the playoffs.

15. I understand playing Larry over Jonas when he’s playing better, but he most definitely was not tonight, even defensively it wasn’t much. Couldn’t rebound either. I thought Jonas should have a played in the second half.

16. I’ve said all season against quick guard teams, Zion is a massive liability on defence

17. I don’t even wanna hear “Oh the team was just so tired” excuses. I’m just tired of the god damn excuses for every close game they fail to win or every failed comeback they have. Several times this game even after a piss poor start the team had chances to get back in it. Several times getting within 6 or 5 or even 4 points! And then poor execution leads to a huge break down and a 10 point hole again. Like I wouldn’t even be so bothered if it had been a 10 point hole the pels never dug out of. Seeing that line dangled down several time of “Oh? Oh! The pels are gonna come back! They’re so close!” And to see it yoinked away every time? God that’s frustrating! It’s just poor execution from coaching and players at this point. The team sucks at closing out games. The team sucks at coming back. We’re still above .500. That’s good. And there were plenty of good things about this game! The fight the players had! The sheer effort from Zion, BI, and CJ. Zion finally attempting 3s again! But if this game doesn’t just light a fire under everyone to fix…..something! Then I don’t know how far they go in playoffs.

    Edit: Downvote if ya wish. Call me “one of those fans who only wanna show up and be doom and gloom cause we lost” This is suppose to be the year the pels put it all together and really show what they have. I am so excited at seeing the pels really put it all out there and succeed! Win! Go the distance! And the same problems keep showing up all season long. The same issues with closing out or executing or coming back. The same lack of accountability. Heck apparently the team is 0-15 when going into the 4th quarter trailing! And seemingly everyone’s okay with just being okay. I get that not every game is gonna go your way. Losses happen. And I’m not saying the pels should go 82-0. But I’m just so tired of seeing the same shit happening so much this season and seemingly no changes being made.

18. Willie with the shit rotations again.

    Give all of Naji minutes to Hawkins immediately. 20+ minutes is too much for Naji, 28min is fucking unacceptable when Matt Ryan and JRE didn’t play at all and Hawkins only had 18 minutes.

19. Naji played 28 minutes. 11 more than Hawk and 28 more than Matt Ryan who’s 6-11 from 3 the last 2 games.

    CJ made some shots but I didn’t like his decision making a lot of the night. BI tried his hardest to keep the offense afloat most of the night but it wasn’t enough. Zion had a rough 1st quarter (fuck the refs) and then played better, I like that he hit a 3.

    I thought Larry was bad, maybe not as bad as Naji but still bad. Herb did his usual thing, Trey had some good moments and some bad.

    They played from such a deficit from the first quarter. Pels won the last 3 individual quarters but they put themselves too far behind early.

    Edit: How did the Pels only attempt 29 threes when Zion even shot 2 of them?

20. Very predictable game to be honest, can’t count the amount of times our players look off Zion having someone sealed or BI having a clear mismatch, sad some of our guys don’t actually know their roles

21. Zion needs to start shooting 3s. Both attempts tonight looked perfect. No point putting his body on the line non-stop if he gets hit w/o the benefit of a call.

22. I’m starting to squint real hard at this coaching staff. No way these dudes should have the amount of freedom that’s allowed. Dysfunctional offense all game and every game

23. unless he’s hot, cj should NEVER be putting up more shots than BI and Zion…

24. JV with 7 minutes in a game where we give up 14 offensive rebounds. I’d rather give up foot speed than watch all these second chance points and kill momentum.

25. BI just cant get the ball from CJ. CJ even play like a rookie, nah, rookie Jones is better than him.

26. Pacers fan here. NOLA, your Pels are a class act. Great game on tired legs…y’all just won’t quit!

27. 8-4 in February. Can’t complain honestly.

28. The guys competed. That’s a lot better than we normally get to say on primetime games. Obviously, we need to come out faster (yes, I don’t care what time we got in this AM).

    I don’t say this often, but, hey, onto the next one.

29. Trey really, really needs to figure his shooting out.

    He’s at like 35 percent from three and 42 percent from the field.

30. I appreciate the heart but goddamn these close losses have to stop. Also can Matt Ryan get some fucking burn Jesus he comes in hits buckets and then gets sent to the shadow realm. Also also back to backs can eat a dick. 8-4 for the month isn’t bad.

31. Pacers fan here, just wanted to say yall have a very likable team. BI and CJ are fun to watch! See yall in a couple days

32. Im not gonna make rash statements like naji shouldn’t get any minutes going forward. But jfc what’s the point of having a deep rotation if you refuse to dip into it when certain players are struggling? We don’t need to see hawk take all of Najis minutes or JRE put Larry in a retirement home but it would be nice going to those guys and seeing if someone can get hot and then feeding the hot hand. Maybe I’m stupid and the coaching staff has already gone over who they feel has the best matchup against a team and why and straying from that would just produce sloppy incoherent basketball but we’ve seen Larry, Naji, Hawk, JRE and Matt Ryan all have amazing games for us. What’s with the restraint to go to them when plan A isn’t working how you want it to?

33. Nice Naji minutes lol

34. This is kind of game Dyson makes a difference in a nobody notices but complains.