The Good: Best Indiana Pacers win of the year? That win over the Chicago Bulls in the United Center might be better, but this was so needed. Sure, even the Pacers are supposed to beat the woeful New York Knicks — and this one seemed like a must-win — but doing it like this? Getting up by 34 at one point? Yeah, that has to make this team regain some confidence.

The Bad: Giving up 29 points to a team this bad in the opening quarter isn’t a good look. But it’s such a small sin compared to how they played for the duration of the 48 minutes. Criticizing this would be like getting mad at a kid who shows up to class five minutes late then scores a 100 on the test.

MVP: Roy Hibbert. He had two power dunks — chinup on the rim stuff — right before half time then stayed in Beast Mode to score 8 quick points in the third. It was all Indiana needed to open the floodgates and run the Knicks out of the building.

LVP: Null set.

X Factor: Turnovers. As in, the lack of them. Indiana finished the game with 11 due to some sloppy play in garbage time, but the Pacers only had 6 turnovers through the first three quarters.

New York Knicks 82 Final

Recap | Box Score

103

Indiana Pacers

David West, PF 27 MIN | 3-8 FG | 4-4 FT | 6 REB | 6 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 10 PTS | +16 +/- Didn’t seem to have a huge impact on the game, but made some nice post feeds and may have flirted with a triple double had he played even one second in the fourth quarter.

Solomon Hill, SF 33 MIN | 4-9 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 4 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 10 PTS | +12 +/- Looked confident shooting from distance and made one great spin move in the post for a bucket.

Roy Hibbert, C 24 MIN | 9-11 FG | 0-0 FT | 10 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 2 TO | 18 PTS | +18 +/- One of his top games of the year for sure. Got AFTER it.

Rodney Stuckey, PG 32 MIN | 8-13 FG | 5-5 FT | 5 REB | 3 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 22 PTS | +21 +/- Great.

C.J. Watson, PG 36 MIN | 3-9 FG | 0-0 FT | 6 REB | 5 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 7 PTS | +8 +/- Not a ton of points, but overall felt like one of his better games in a while. Getting healthier?

Lavoy Allen, PF 9 MIN | 4-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 8 PTS | +12 +/- Monster second quarter, particularly on the offensive glass to keep possessions alive and allow the Pacers to take control of the game even when the first chances weren’t falling. But he hurt his knee and didn’t return in the second half.

Damjan Rudez, SF 19 MIN | 2-4 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 5 PTS | -1 +/- Looked good.

Ian Mahinmi, C 24 MIN | 4-6 FG | 0-5 FT | 10 REB | 0 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 3 TO | 8 PTS | +3 +/- Helluva line in 24 minutes.

George Hill, PG 12 MIN | 2-5 FG | 4-4 FT | 2 REB | 3 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 8 PTS | +13 +/- This is a different team when he plays, and the fact that he didn’t have to play his maximum-allowed 20 minutes (due to the blowout) should help ensure his recovery stays on track.

C.J. Miles, SG 13 MIN | 2-6 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 5 PTS | +10 +/- Nasty dunk.