Blazers @ IND Game Preview (12/13/14):
Them: 7-16, 4th in NBA Central Division
Our Last game: L @ CHI 115-106, 12/12/14.
ESPN said:
LaMarcus Aldridge scored 21 of his 35 points in the first quarter, his 10 field goals in the period matching a Trail Blazers record set by Darius Miles in 2005. But he was held to two points in the final quarter.
Damian Lillard also had a season-high 35, making seven 3-pointers and scoring 18 in the fourth. That gave Portland two teammates with at least 35 for the first time since 1988, but not a victory.
"The bottom line is we didn't play well enough to win the game," Lillard said.
Portland had won seven straight before losing 90-82 in Minnesota. The Blazers were held to their fewest points of the season and had their worst shooting night (.388) in that one, but went 43-of-88 from the field in Chicago.
"It is disappointing to waste a good shooting night like this," Portland coach Terry Stotts said.
Their Last game: L @ TOR, 106-94
ESPN said:
Solomon Hill scored 16, C.J. Watson and Rodney Stuckey each had 13 and David West 12 for the Pacers, whose seven-game losing streak is their longest since an eight-game skid from Dec. 18-30, 2009.
Indiana's Luis Scola opened the fourth with a pair of free throws, bringing the Pacers to within six at 80-74. Toronto answered with a 9-0 run, including seven straight points from Vazquez, to lead 89-74 at 9:52, ending Indiana's hopes of recording its first win since Nov. 28 against Orlando.
"They went on a tear and seemingly scored every time down for about four or five minutes," Pacers coach Frank Vogel said.
Trying to improve his team's poor starts, Vogel changed his starting lineup, inserting Watson at point guard and C.J. Miles at small forward and moving Stuckey from point guard to shooting guard. Before the game, Vogel said the starting five was in need of "a jolt."
Indiana's starters came in averaging 54 points per game -- 28th in the NBA. They scored 49 against Toronto.
West hit the opening shot of the game but the Pacers missed their next eight attempts before a 3 by Watson more than five minutes later. Indiana made only seven of 24 attempts in the first and trailed 28-20 after one.
The Pacers have trailed after the first quarter 16 times in 23 games this season. They're 3-13 when falling behind after one.
"We're getting off to slow starts and it's killing us," Stuckey said.
Indiana couldn't even keep its new-look lineup together throughout the game. Miles bruised his left knee in the first and left for good after playing three minutes in the second. Tests revealed no damage, and Miles said he hopes to play when the Pacers host Portland on Saturday night.
Changes to their roster: It’s hard to know where the Pacers will end up this season, but we can at least say this with a fair amount of certainty: no team loses its two best players and gets better. Having lost Lance Stephenson to free agency and Paul George to a freak leg injury, Indiana will start the season without 40 percent of its starting lineup, and what remains doesn’t exactly elicit a ton of confidence for a return to the postseason. The mercurial Roy Hibbert is now the team’s best player, but his inconsistency is pretty well-documented. George Hill, David West and a cast of so-so bench players won’t be enough to survive what looks to be an absolutely barbaric Central Division this year. The Pacers have been a feel-good story for a few years now, an easy group of guys to like, but they probably won’t even make the playoffs this year.
The Pacers are hard-capped at $80.8 million after using their $5.3 million Mid-Level Exception on C.J. Miles and Damjam Rudez. Indiana used their Bi-Annual Exception last season on C.J. Watson, so it isn’t available this season – although the team gained a $5.3 million Disabled Player Exception for Paul George (expiring 3/10/15). The bigger issue for the Pacers is avoiding the luxury tax altogether. With Scola, the team’s payroll is already at $73.3 million — $3.5 million under the tax threshold. Indiana also has a $4.3 million trade exception for Danny Granger (expiring 2/20/15) but that may too go unused with the tax in mind.
Injury Updates: CJ McCollum, Out (finger). Will Barton (day-to-day)
Paul George 2014-08-01 right leg surgery is out indefinitely (out)
George Hill 2014-10-27 bruised left knee/torn ligament in quadricep is out indefinitely (out)
Ian Mahinmi 2014-12-06 torn left plantar fascia is expected to miss 6-8 weeks (out)
C.J. Miles 2014-12-12 bruised left knee left Friday's game against Toronto (probable)
Matchups:
PG: Damian Lillard v. CJ Watson (9.6ppg, 4.4apg, 2.6rpg)
SG: Wesley Matthews v. Rodney Stuckey (12.4ppg, 2.4rpg, 2.3apg)
SF: Nic Batum v. CJ Miles (9.1ppg, 2.1rpg)
PF: LaMarcus Aldridge v. David West (14.0ppg, 6.0rpg)
C: Robin Lopez v. Roy Hibbert (13.2ppg, 8.0rpg)
Give-a-Rip (City) Factor—a.k.a. why you should watch: To see how much the 2-game losing streak on the 2nd of a Back-to-Back and 4th-in-5 nights to a team that played us hard a week ago. To see if Coach has solved the IND defense. To see if Nic can get out of his shooting slump (he made a few shots after starting 0-6 yesterday). To see if Dame and LMA stay hot after dropping 35 each against CHI.
Current Power Rankings:
RipCityTwo (PtldPlatypus): (27) The only 2 guard on their roster is Rodney Stuckey. And that's probably their fifth biggest problem.
ESPN: (23) The Pacers have been through enough in 2014. Gonna try as hard as I can not to chide 'em too much for backing out of a deal with our guy Gal Mekel because they thought securing him a new visa would take days, only for New Orleans to sort out a new visa for Mekel in 24 hours.
Covers.com (22) The Pacers are another team covering at a 60 percent clip so far (9-2 ATS road record). But they've lost five in a row straight up and as bad as the East may be, I do not see this as a playoff team.
NBA.com (23) Pace: 94.1 (26), OffRtg: 97.5 (27), DefRtg: 102.3 (9), NetRtg: -4.8 (22)
Lance Stephenson has had issues adjusting in Charlotte, but the guy who replaced him in Indiana might be a bigger free agency disappointment. C.J. Miles' effective field goal percentage has fallen from 54 percent last season to 32 percent this year, by far the biggest drop-off in the league. Indy has lost four straight, scoring just 93 points per 100 possessions..
Link to Grandpa Blaze's Prediction Game
Link to MediocreMan's Over/Under game
Links to other team’s site(s):
http://www.nba.com/pacers/ Pacers’ NBA page
NBA.com game preview
Final Thoughts: I find it hard to think that POR will end up with a 3-game losing streak on this trip against the E-League and MIN. IND has lost 6 in a row and haven’t really been close with many of them. Anytime a coach makes wholesale changes to his starting lineup, you know you’re dealing with some desperation. Still, we haven’t seen POR step on the necks of anyone since Denver a month ago. Scary game, and I’d love to have some homerism and predict another blowout, but I can’t say when the team’s going to show up or not, and when Coach will go to energy on the bench or not.
Blazers 105
IND 96
- VS –
BLAZERS' GAME NOTES 
