David West Defined The “Blue Collar, Gold Swagger” Era of the Indiana Pacers by Ben Gibson

Memphis Grizzlies 96 Indiana Pacers 84

The Indiana Pacers looked terrible on the tail end of a back to back, getting mauled by the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Good: It was eaten by a bear. Slowly. Painfully.

The Bad: Another slow start. A hallmark of this month so far. They’ve bounced back from a few, but it isn’t always going to happen. A 37.5% FG in the first half shades the fact that it hovered closer to 30% for most of that time. I don’t know what to say about fixing it as often there are just several bad plays that end up setting them back and then they have to fight back for most of the first half as they did. It was only a nine-point on Saturday and they cut it to one at the intermission, but they need to stop spotting their opponents leads.

Then the same demeanour carried into the second half. Sigh. Nothing good here.

MVP: Paul George, but he wins it more by default than by performance. To his credit he scored 29 points, but in a game like this it is hard to feel good about anything.

LVP: The Indiana Pacers effort, as it looked like they were resigned to taking a loss on the tail end of a back to back on the road.

This tweet from April still works.

Let's check in on the Pacers and Grizzlies… pic.twitter.com/ZodrRpZCDn — Ben Gibson (@CowboyOnPatrol) April 16, 2015

X-Factor: Jordan Hill gets another double-double. One of the few guys who shot well. Pacers fans should be happy he’s become an impact player off the bench.

PAUL GEORGE Power Forward, Indiana Pacers B 29 points? Good. Shooting 8 of 22 from the field, 4 of 12 from 3-point range? Not so good.

MONTA ELLIS Shooting Guard, Indiana Pacers B

Made half his shots, scored 13, but in the most unremarkable fashion.

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GEORGE HILL Point Guard, Indiana Pacers F George Hill has been in a funk since late November, and a 3 0f 7 shooting night (0 of 3 from deep) has extended it for at least another game. Only 8 points and that’s below his averafe of 9.2 in the last 5 games.

C.J. MILES Shooting Guard, Indiana Pacers F Not his night as he went 0 of 9 from the field.

IAN MAHINMI Center, Indiana Pacers D Foul trouble limited him to 7 points and 6 rebounds.

RODNEY STUCKEY Point Guard, Indiana Pacers C 11 points, but like Monta is barely felt like he was part of the game.

JORDAN HILL Center, Indiana Pacers B Jordan Hill’s double-double (10 points, 13 rebounds) was one of the few bright spots.

LAVOY ALLEN Power Forward, Indiana Pacers C- He appeared in the game. I think.

CHASE BUDINGER Small Forward, Indiana Pacers C Only played 8 minutes, so didn’t have much time to make an impact.

JOE YOUNG Point Guard, Indiana Pacers INC Garbage time.

GLENN ROBINSON Small Forward, Indiana Pacers INC Garbage time.