Pacers annihilate hapless Wizards
Pacers crush the Wizards - AP Photo Darron Cummings" width="249">Roy Hibbert and the Pacers crush the Wizards - AP Photo Darron Cummings
The Wizards are a jump-shooting team that isn’t good at shooting jump shots. Also, Antawn Jamison can’t come back soon enough.
The Indiana Pacers, regarded by most as one of the weakest teams in the Eastern Conference, destroyed and humiliated the Washington Wizards tonight in Conseco Fieldhouse, 102-86. The Pacers led virtually the entire game and led by large margins for most of it. The Wizards were awful, shooting 39% from the field, 31% on threes and 58% from the free throw line. The Pacers shot almost as poorly, but they committed only 11 turnovers to Washington’s 19. In fact, the Wizards had more turnovers [19] than assists [16].
Gilbert Arenas seemed to have something better to do tonight, taking only 10 shots and 4 free throws [hitting 50% on both] despite playing more than 35 minutes. His -24 on/off court ratio was the worst in the game. Caron Butler scored 24 points, but shot only 8 of 21 and had a -22 on/off ratio. Butler did grab 12 rebounds. Brendan Haywood scored only 9 points, but was a monster on the boards, pulling down 19 off the rims and he blocked 4 shots. Andray Blatche has totally reverted to his prior [and probably truest] form, scoring 1 point and missing all 5 of his shots. The only production off the bench came from Randy Foye, who scored 16 points on 14 shots.
The Pacers out-scored the Wizards 23 to 6 on the fast break and the Wizards offense never looked natural. The passing and moving just weren’t there and possessions frequently bogged down into isolation plays or guys dribbling into traffic and getting stripped of the ball. After the game, coach Flip Saunders said the players wasted too many possessions trying to create something by themselves — and he does not believe they are capable of doing that [apart from Gil.] The evidence suggests Saunders is correct.
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