Pacers-Kings Insider 070225

SACRAMENTO 110, INDIANA 93
Defenseless Pacers Routed By Kings

By Conrad Brunner | Feb. 25, 2007

It's no longer a statistical anomaly, or even a short-term trend.

Defense is now, officially, a major problem.

Allowing more than 100 points for the eighth time in nine games against a slumping Sacramento team without second-leading scorer Ron Artest, the Pacers were whipped 110-93 by the Kings, who were playing their third road game in four nights, Sunday in Conseco Fieldhouse.

Sacramento blew the game open with a 40-point third quarter, with guards Kevin Martin and Mike Bibby combining for the first 31, the third straight game in which the Pacers have been steamrolled in one period. The Bucks scored 36 in the second last Wednesday and Toronto scored 40 Friday. In those three periods alone, the Pacers yielded 116 points and 41-of-59 shooting (.695).

Indiana lost its second game in a row and had a three-game home winning streak snapped, falling to 29-26 overall and 18-11 at home. Sacramento snapped losing streaks of two in a row overall and four straight on the road and improved to 24-31 overall, 8-19 on the road.

PLUSES

Jermaine O'Neal scored 19 with nine rebounds and six blocked shots. Mike Dunleavy scored 18 with nine rebounds, four assists and a block, Danny Granger scored 13 off the bench and Troy Murphy had a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double. Jeff Foster was the fourth Pacers player with at least nine rebounds as they won the board 49-43.

MINUSES

Perimeter defense continues to plague the Pacers. Martin (35) and Bibby (28) combined for 68 points, including 35 in a row as the Kings turned a 50-43 deficit late in the first half into a 78-69 lead late in the third. Martin shot 8-of-23 but was 18-of-23 from the line, adding five rebounds, four assists and three steals. Bibby was 10-of-17, hitting 4-of-5 from the arc, adding six assists, four rebounds and two steals. Sacramento also got 10 points from reserve guard Francisco Garcia and 10 points and eight rebounds from Shareef Abdur-Rahim. The Kings shot .456 overall and were 7-of-16 from the arc. Indiana, meanwhile, shot .382 and committed 19 turnovers against a team that had yielded at least 100 in six straight games and was without its best defensive player.

MOMENTS

The Pacers controlled most of the first half, jumping out to an 18-12 first-quarter lead as Dunleavy was hot out of the gate. A nine-point run in the second quarter put the Pacers ahead 46-37 but Martin, who scored just two points in the game's first 22 minutes, scored six in the final two minutes of the half as the Kings cut it to 50-47 at the break.

That little flurry proved to ignite Martin as he and Bibby simply took over the game in the third quarter. The Pacers managed to hang around for most of the period, trailing 71-69 late in the period, but the Kings responded by scoring 13 in a row – nine from Martin – to push the lead to 84-69. The Pacers had a brief push in the fourth, scoring seven in a row to close to 91-81, but couldn't come up with the stops necessary to pose a serious threat.

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