What can I say? The Hawks were too good for the Pacers, again, even without Joe Johnson.
It’s hard to win a game when both Hibbert and Granger go 3-14 (Granger had 8 free throws to give him 16, but Roy had none to give him 6). As a team they shot 37% in one of their worst offensive outings of the season. The Hawks blew the game wide open in the second quarter and the Pacers never recovered.
Disappointing, yes. But the Hawks are a good team and the Pacers are still finding their feet. I guess it was the way the Pacers lost that was more disappointing. Perhaps it’s a good thing that Pacers fans still expect them to win and are disappointed when they lose?
The team falls back to 11-11 for the season and chances are they will fall behind 0.500 soon with a tough road game against the streaking Bulls (who have won 5 straight) — then games against the Lakers, New Orleans, Memphis, and two rough ones against the Celtics.
I keep saying this, but this is really the make or break point of the season — again! The Pacers are in a position to make the playoffs, but whether they can be a 0.500 team this season remains to be seen. They are ranked highly in a lot of statistical categories which define good teams, but they still can’t pull out close games and still have off nights too often, like we just saw against the Hawks.
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