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First quarter rough start again tonight.

Started Nesmith, Smith, I Jax, Haliburton, and Hield. Down 10 after 1 quarter. Pacers look a bit better defensively and offensively but Pistons just better so far. Again second unit pulling us closer.

Second quarter much better. Quinn was probably right when he said they're a year and a half ahead of our rebuild. They have two top five picks.

I have no idea where our outside shooting went.

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Goga, Nembhard, and Duarte playing well in second unit. I like the decision to start I Jax and Smith to give us height underneath.

Pacers Forever wrote:Goga, Nembhard, and Duarte playing well in second unit. I like the decision to start I Jax and Smith to give us height underneath.

Smith at 4 instead of 5 working. Block city tonight.

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Now THAT is the level of effort missing for the most part of the first two games. Great activity on both ends. A number of guys played well, but I was happy to see Goga play as well as he did. He worked his tail off. The rebounds and blocks our guys got were huge.

My son wants them to go 0-82 but that would break confidence. Wizards and Spurs may be better than we thought they were.

Smith is a 4. He has weaknesses there but he's over powered by true 5s.

Do not understand why Brissett on bench.

Nesmith could get there.

Mathurin fits us better than Ivey.

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Indeed Tom ! Carlisle went 11 deep tonight. 3 players with double doubles being Goga, Smith, and Haliburton. Mathurin with 27 and 7 boards. Early on I’m impressed with Jalen Smith being in double figures nightly.

Haliburton did his normal but is getting better at shooting instead of passing up shots he can make.

Goga was huge tonight battling bigs for loose balls and putting back shots for easy buckets.

Jackson and Smith had a block party tonight.

Mathurin is special man. A stud scorer and learning to play aggressively grabbing rebounds.

Buddy Hield definitely struggled again. No minutes for Brissett.

Duarte played better in that he was more active. Otherwise his shot is still off and he’s struggling thru it which I hope he gets his mojo back.

I won’t say Nembhard outplayed McConnell but had more stats in 4 less minutes.

Taylor and Nesmith appear to be settling into their roles as supporting cast.

All in all Pacers had enough to beat their cellar dweller buddies.

Carlisle praised Duarte in his presser.

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Finally some force at the defensive end. Liked what Jackson and Nesmith brought there. Goga with his best game as a Pacer. Mathurin looking like league’s best rookie and Hali with a Steve Nash stat line. Starting lineup should be Hali, Mathurin, Nesmith, Smith and Jackson. Please enough with Buddy Hield.

8305 wrote:Finally some force at the defensive end. Liked what Jackson and Nesmith brought there. Goga with his best game as a Pacer. Mathurin looking like league’s best rookie and Hali with a Steve Nash stat line. Starting lineup should be Hali, Mathurin, Nesmith, Smith and Jackson. Please enough with Buddy Hield.

The best rotation doesn't always start your best five.

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Wizop wrote:

8305 wrote:Finally some force at the defensive end. Liked what Jackson and Nesmith brought there. Goga with his best game as a Pacer. Mathurin looking like league’s best rookie and Hali with a Steve Nash stat line. Starting lineup should be Hali, Mathurin, Nesmith, Smith and Jackson. Please enough with Buddy Hield.

The best rotation doesn't always start your best five.

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I agree but, your starting lineup needs to be good enough to avoid spotting the opposition by 10-20 every night. You are right Smith gets muscled by 5’s and Jackson is an undersized 5. Put the two of them together along with Nesmith and we don’t look soft anymore. Nembhard just looks like he belongs. I’m really anxious to see what these young guys look like by the end of the year.

Goga with 14-15-4

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Turns out it's Goga

We thought Jackson or maybe Smith could be our long-term 5

But turns out it's been Goga all along

Topofthekey wrote:Turns out it's Goga

We thought Jackson or maybe Smith could be our long-term 5

But turns out it's been Goga all along

Yeah we’ve been waiting so long for him to develop as we thought he was capable of.

I guess it was just his age and needed more time to adjust to the NBA game and staying healthy. He’s very young and fits into our plan nicely if he continues all season to mature.

boomershadow wrote:Goga with 14-15-4

With the attitude of an angry junk yard dog.

The dunking Georgian