The Indiana Pacers were not up to the task on Sunday afternoon — and that may be an understatement.
The Pacers were upended by the Boston Celtics, 84-74, in Game 1 of the team's opening round series. Indiana had some serious trouble in the second half of the game, especially during the third quarter.
With the Pacers scoring a mere eight points in the third frame en route to a 29-point second half, head coach Nate McMillan believes that the absence of star shooting guard Victor Oladipo no doubt played a role in such a forgettable effort. Not only because of his absence, but also because his players' usage rates have skyrocketed in order to help fill the void left by Oladipo who will miss the entire postseason due to a lingering leg injury.
“You know, you think about that; you certainly think about that,’’ McMillan said when asked if his team is out of gas, per Bob Kravitz of The Athletic. “… Because I really felt we have guys who’ve given extra since Victor went down. We’ve probably asked for a little more from this group since we lost a key player and they’ve given it to me. … I won’t say we don’t have anything [left], but we squeezed them, we squeezed our guys a lot to get to this point. Is there anything left? Yeah, I think there is.’”
With Game 2 still on the horizon for the Pacers to potentially erase the ugly loss on the road in Boston, Nate McMillan and Co. could still even the odds at one game apiece before heading back home to the Midwest.
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