Game Rewind: Pacers 105, Hawks 95

One game after their last-second defeat to the Celtics, the Pacers bounced back with a comfortable road win, topping the Atlanta Hawks 105-95 on Wednesday Night.

Despite Indiana being able to empty the bench in the final minutes, the game remained within reach for Atlanta (7-24) most of the night, as the Pacers (18-14) won all three of the first quarters but only led by seven entering the fourth quarter.

It was then that the Pacers essentially ended the game, going up by 15 when Victor Oladipo — who racked up a game-high 23 points — canned a triple with 5:58 left in the game to go up by 15 points.

"The bench is coming in and giving us some energy," said Pacers head coach Nate McMillan. "They did again tonight. That's what you want to do though. You want to get stronger as the game goes on. We want to try to get away from these slow starts."

The road win featured a balanced scoring effort from the Blue & Gold, with Bojan Bogdanovic (19 points) and Myles Turner (20 points) each posting bounceback games from Monday's loss.

With the game well in hand, Oladipo was able to rest during the final five minutes.

The 10-point margin was a bit closer than the actual game, as the Hawks went on a 10-0 run to close the game in garbage time.

Early in the night, the Pacers' starting unit got off to a slow start, falling behind 13-7. Much like its previous game against the Celtics, Indiana's opponent started the game hot, with the Hawks making six of their first nine shots from the field as the hosts built an early lead.

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Late in the first quarter, Bogdanovic reeled off a personal 5-0 run, sinking a three, then stealing a pass and slamming it, triggering an Atlanta timeout. Indiana closed the first quarter leading 28-27.

In the second quarter, Lance Stephenson made his presence known, slamming one down with his left hand as Indiana's bench started to take control. Stephenson finished his night with one of his best performances of the year, notching 10 points, eight rebounds, and six assists.

Moments later, the Hawks began to chip away at their deficit, eventually tying the game at 45 on a 3-pointer from Ersan Ilyasova, triggering a timeout from Pacers head coach Nate McMillan with 3:40 remaining in the half.

Ilyasova's three ended up being the start of a 7-0 Hawks run, putting Atlanta up 49-45. But Indiana was able to close the half out strong, stringing together an 8-2 run of its own to go up 53-51 at the break.

To open the second half, Indiana's defense went into a lockdown, holding the Hawks to six points over the first 6:10 of the third quarter as the Pacers' lead approached double digits.

By the end of the third quarter, Indiana had outscored the Hawks 25-20, taking a 78-71 lead into the final frame in Atlanta.

Things got off on the right note for the Pacers in the fourth, as Joe Young connected a 3-pointer to give Indiana a 81-71 lead. Young's shot was quickly followed up with a jumper from Cory Joseph, extending Indiana's lead to 12.

From there, Indiana took full control of the game, breaking through on offense and shutting down Atlanta on defense en route to its eighth road win of the season.

"Defensively, we turned it up, and that's the reason why we did so well down the stretch," said Oladipo after the win. "We have to build on that."

The Pacers were outrebounded (42-37) and had fewer assists (27-19) than the Hawks, but shot better from the field, making 48.8 percent of their shots compared to 43.8 from Atalanta.

Victor Oladipo did damage from long range, making 3-of-5 attempts from beyond the arc.

Domantas Sabonis posted a game-best +16 plus-minus coming off the bench on Wednesday.

"In the first half we didn't play with our pace, so they scored many lay-ups. So we tried to run. In the first half, we scored four fast-break points. In the second half, we started to run a little bit better. That was definitely the key to the game." -Bojan Bogdanovic

"The kid (Bojan Bogdanovic) has been playing hard for us all season long. When he has a game like that, there's nothing you can really say. He knows exactly what needed to be done after the fact. It was good to see him bounce back and go out there and play the game he's capable of playing. We all talked to him about, 'Don't worry about it.' We're a family. We're a group that wants to show our tightness and how close we are. The guys really supported him in that situation our last game." -Nate McMillan

"Credit to Indiana. They were able to sustain their effort, sustain their play for 48 minutes. We just had a big, long stretch where at both ends of the court, we weren't as good as we need to be. We just need to be more competitive, (make) more winning plays, more together for 48 minutes. Pretty high-level basketball for 24 minutes and we weren't able to maintain that." -Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer

The Pacers took the points they were given, making 18-of-19 free throws. Myles Turner led the team, making all seven of his attempts.

The Pacers return to Bankers Life Fieldhouse to host the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday, Dec. 23 at 7:00 PM ET. Find Tickets »