Doesn't make up for last night's choke against the Orlando Magic, but a 119-80 blowout win over the Nuggets, who clobbered them in Denver, isn't a bad consolation.
The Nuggets were already missing sparkplug Nate Robinson for the rest of the season with a torn ACL, and they recently lost Ty Lawson to a broken rib. But the Pacers weren't going to take them lightly after what happened last night, so they turned it up from the get go, clamped down on D and cruised to a 21-point halftime lead which they extended to 29 by the end of the third.
David West did most of his damage early and finished with yet another strong performance, scoring a team high 25 points on 11-13 shooting. Roy Hibbert broke out of a slump and looked much more like an All-Star against the smaller Nugget lineup and finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds 7 offensive) to go with 4 blocks on 50% shooting from the floor. Paul George, Lance Stephenson, George Hill and Luis Scola all finished in double digits as well as the Pacers shot nearly 58% from the field and held the Nuggets to just 31.5% shooting. Apart from the 14 turnovers, many of which were careless, the Pacers had a pretty good night.
At 40-11, they continue to hold a 4-game lead over the Miami Heat for the best record in the East and remain ahead of OKC by percentage points for the top record in the league. They have one more home game on Wednesday against the Dallas Mavericks before All-Star Weekend. It'll be good to go into the break 41-11.
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