Link to Boxscore
Afflalo ( B- ) -- started off still awash in confidence and helped the offense. Gave a good effort on D vs. George, but George was hot, and pretty much unguardable when he can elbow you in the face or push you to the ground to get his shot off.
Cousins ( B ) -- played an easily dominant first half where he could count on his teammates being able to bomb in threes to take the load off him. But as the D picked up, the game got more physical, and our shooters returned to form, was not able to consistently beat the Pacers doubles and fronting. Somebody able to throw an entry pass would have helped.
Koufos ( B+ ) -- maybe didn't work as well next to cousins as in replace of him, but really solidified the middle for the second unit, and helped us maintain board dominance (43-29) even with Cousins out of the game.
Temple ( D+ ) -- we got some defensive hustle as always. but this was one of those nights when the talent wasn't up to the will. Missed all his shots, and compounded things with a number of bad passes for turnovers at critical times. You aren't going to win many with 33min 2pts 0reb 3ast and 4TO from your SG.
Collison ( A- ) -- inability to consistently keep Teague under control hurt us, but offensively has really come alive, and made hustle defensive plays as well. At the end of the game with Cuz swarmed we put the ball and game in DC's hands...and our lack of a 2nd legit scorer was exposed again as his layup in traffic never even reached the rim and ended up bouncing out of bounds.
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Barnes ( D ) -- for part of the game we got some D here that seemed to help in spite of very little productivity. Made a nifty interior over the shoulder pass too for his assist. But the random impulsive gremlin in his play struck again with a dumb late flagrant foul that helped the Pacers catch up to us. Certainly not enough productivity to make up for that.
Tolliver ( B- ) -- much better effort than the last few. His his shots, early unfortunately more than late, and actually grabbed a few rebs. Not creative enough on offense to be much help when the Pacers' defense tightened late.
Lawson ( B+ ) -- started off a little shaky, but we got a lot of good work this game out of our mini Lawson/Collison backcourt (the Pacers have no guard size unless they play George there), and Ty, with some help from koufos dropping down, was about the only bencher really creating that bench push.
Richardson ( INC ) -- came in and immediately hit a smooth corner three, but had problems keeping Ellis and the Pacers collection of twerp guards in front of him. Second half stint was lot to a tight game and an effective Afflalo.
Cauley Stein ( C- ) -- inability to play against one of the league's last true low post bruisers in Big Al limited his minutes. Game turned physical, Willie still doesn't want any of that.
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