The reeling Indiana Pacers suffered their third embarrassing defeat of the first round of the NBA Playoffs Monday night, losing to the Atlanta Hawks 107-97 in a game that wasn’t even that close. Kyle Korver and Mike Scott combined to hit ten three-pointers en route to pushing the Hawks’ lead to as many as 35 points, before a furious Pacers comeback made the final score somewhat respectable. But it was far from a respectable performance for the Pacers, who have now lost two home games as the #1 seed, and are facing an unexpected elimination game in Atlanta later this week.
Each Pacers’ loss seems to have one memorable moment that perfectly sums up the team’s performance during that particular game. In Game 3, it was a dumbfounded Larry Bird. In Game 5, it was Lance “Born Ready” Stephenson, who wasn’t quite “ready” to decide what to do with this layup/dunk attempt, even though he’d easily blown past the Hawks’ defense. The result was a “wedgie”, proving even when things are going right for Indy, it still somehow goes wrong. And Monday night, it was all very, very wrong.
[cjzero]
