Game Rewind
The Pacers entered Saturday’s contest in high spirits, winners of four of their last five despite a rash of injuries and coming off two days of rest after Wednesday’s buzzer-beating win over Charlotte.
But Saturday night ended on a sour note for Indiana. The Pacers (5-8) lost two more players to injury in a 106-83 loss to the Phoenix Suns (9-5).
All-Star center Roy Hibbert limped off the court with a sprained left ankle a little over five minutes into Saturday’s game. After being diagnosed with a mild sprain, Hibbert returned to the floor for 1:34 in the second quarter before leaving the game for good.
Guard Rodney Stuckey, who returned to the lineup on Wednesday after missing seven games with a sore foot, had a team-high 14 points and six rebounds before he tumbled over a cameraman on the north baseline with 6:45 remaining. Stuckey headed to the locker room with a sprained left wrist.
Pacers head coach Frank Vogel said both Hibbert and Stuckey are day-to-day and questionable for Monday's game at Dallas. Stuckey had an x-ray, which came back negative. The Pacers were already without five players entering Saturday, four of whom (Paul George, George Hill, C.J. Watson, and David West) have yet to play this season.
Gerald Green, who played for Indiana in the 2012-13 season before being traded to Phoenix for Luis Scola the following summer, scored 23 points to lead the Suns to their fourth straight victory.
Green was instant offense off the bench for Phoenix in the first half, scoring his team’s last 12 points of the first quarter. Green’s 3-pointer with 1.9 seconds left in the first quarter gave Phoenix the lead for good. He finished the first half with 18 points in just under nine minutes, hitting 4-of-7 3-pointers.
"That’s the way I’ve been playing since I got traded," Green said. "I’m still doing the same stuff, the only difference now is that I play. I never played when I was here. I have something to prove every night."
The Suns led by as many as 12 points in the second quarter. The Blue-and-Gold used a 9-2 run to climb within four points with 1:56 left in the half, but Phoenix quickly pushed the lead back to double digits early in the third quarter. They stretched the margin to as many as 25 points en route to a comfortable victory.
The Pacers shot a season-low 37 percent from the field and committed 14 turnovers on the night. Phoenix, meanwhile, made 12 of their 31 attempts from 3-point range. Both figures were the most by an Indiana opponent so far this season.
"We had to play a great game to beat them and we didn’t play a great game," Vogel said. "A lot of guys didn't have good nights, and obviously losing Roy, losing Rodney, all that combined to (be) too much to overcome."
In addition to Stuckey’s 14 points, Solomon Hill added 13 while Ian Mahinmi had a season-high 12 and 10 rebounds in the loss.
Green led five Suns players in double figures. Isaiah Thomas added 16 points, Markieff Morris had 13, and both Goran Dragic and Anthony Tolliver had 11.
The Pacers now head to Texas for two straight games, beginning with Monday’s contest against the Dallas Mavericks.
Inside the Numbers
The Pacers had a season-high 51 bench points, as Stuckey and Mahinmi both scored in double figures. Mahinmi's 12 points were his most since scoring 12 against Atlanta on Feb. 5, 2013. It was the Frenchman's first double-double since he had 12 points and 10 boards for Dallas against Golden State on Dec. 7, 2010. Rookie Shayne Whittington also scored a season-high seven points on 3-for-3 shooting.
Phoenix's bench, meanwhile, scored 63 points, with Green, Thomas, and Tolliver all reaching double figures. The Suns' reserves combined to shoot 50 percent from the field and make 10-of-23 attempts from 3-point range.
The Suns outscored the Pacers in transition, 23-11. It was the most fastbreak points the Pacers have allowed all season.
Phoenix won the battle of the boards, 51-47. It was just the third time this season Indiana was outrebounded by its opponent. The two teams combined for 28 offensive rebounds, with the Pacers collecting 15.
You Can Quote Me On That
"I don’t feel bad for us, one guy is out, we go out and try to win with the guys we have in uniform." -Vogel on the Pacers' injuries
"He’s our force inside. They would rather play small, so when we have to go small, it’s kind of into their hands. When he comes out, we kind of play the pace that they want to. They’re a very hard team to stop when they’re hitting on all cylinders." -Solomon Hill on losing Hibbert
"When I’m on the floor, I like to establish my game defensively first. It’s what I do, and the offense comes...I don’t feel (any) pressure as far as scoring if Roy goes down. I’m going to play my game and take open shots." -Mahinmi
"Any time I can get some minutes, I’m going to go as hard as I can. That’s the nature of being a rookie, or a basketball player in general. I felt pretty good. Defensively, I still need a little work but I’m still getting used to the game." -Whittington
"We expected a fight. It was a really good first half, but in the third quarter we really played well. We got at it out there defensively in the second half and that made the difference." -Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek
"I think it changed their pace of play a lot. They like to go inside with him a lot, do a lot of bang-like play. When they lost him, they really had no one that they could rely on to do that." -Suns forward P.J. Tucker on Hibbert's injury
Stat of the Game
The Pacers shot just 23.8 percent from the field in the second half. The Blue-and-Gold made just 13 of 42 shots after halftime, including 2-of-11 from 3-point range.
Noteworthy
- With the victory, Phoenix has won four of their last five games at Bankers Life Fieldhouse and eight of their last 10 in Indiana since the 2005-06 season.
- The Suns lead the all-time series with the Pacers, 46-34.
- Before exiting the game, Hibbert picked up one block, giving him 902 for his career. The "Big Dawg" is just two blocks behind Dale Davis for fourth all-time in Pacers history.
Up Next
The Pacers visit the Dallas Mavericks on Monday, Nov. 24 at 8:30 p.m. ET.