The Pacers were playing without star Danny Granger, David West, George Hill and Granger's replacement Lance Stephenson. But they showed they had true depth on their team as they handled the Hawks, especially in the second and third quarters. The Pacers outscored the Hawks 32-17 in the second quarter and 27-20 in the third. Gerald Green started and led the team with nineteen points, seventeen of those points came in the second half. Roy Hibbert was next with seventeen points, followed by Orlando Johnson with fifteen, Jeff Pendergraph with fourteen, Paul George with thirteen and Tyler Hansbrough with twelve. Hibbert and Hansbrough both had double-doubles as Hibbert led Indiana with thirteen rebounds and Hansbrough had eleven. The Pacers are 44-27 on the year.
Atlanta started off the game strong, but really struggled in the second quarter. The third quarter wasn't much better and they managed to only score 37 points between the two middle quarters. They had the bench out for the fourth quarter and they played extremely well, they outscored the Pacers 31-15. Unfortunately it wasn't enough, even though the Hawks had made it 94-90 at one point near the end.
Josh Smith led the team with 20 points. Al Horford was next with thirteen points, followed by Jeff Teague who had ten and Shelvin Mack came off the bench to score ten points too. The Hawks didn't have Zaza Pachulia again due to his injury. Devin Harris also missed the game with the foot injury he suffered on Sunday at Milwaukee.
The Hawks are now 39-32 on the year. They need to win one more game to make the playoffs. Their next chance to do that will come on Wednesday night when they will take on the Raptors in Toronto. The Raptors are 26-44 on the year and have lost four straight.
Shelvin Mack takes a shot against the Indiana Pacers. Mack scored a season-high ten points off the bench for the Hawks in the loss.
Photo Courtesy of the Associated Press
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