Stuck on Stuckey: Pacers backcourt too much as Magic fall in Indy
Rodney Stuckey came off the bench to score 34 points, 25 of which came in the first half as the Magic were obliterated by the Pacers.
118. 100. 86. 38. Final
The Orlando Magic boast an exciting young backcourt, but the Indiana Pacers are not the team to get into a shooting contest with. Not tonight, at least.
Long-time Detroit Pistons guard Rodney Stuckey came in off the bench for the Pacers at the six-minute mark of the first quarter. and he spent the rest of the night destroying Orlando.
Indiana dismantled Orlando 118-86 in a game which firmly shifted in the Pacers favor in the second quarter and never reversed.
In the first quarter, Orlando got off to a nice start riding the offense of Tobias Harris and Victor Oladipo and led 21-14 at the mid-quarter mark. But Indiana Pacers guard Rodney Stuckey came in and connected on his first three shots to score eight points in three minutes and pull the Pacers to within three after just a few minutes on the court.
And the Eastern Washington product was just getting started.
By the end of that first quarter, he had put up six shots and connected on all of them — including three triples and an additional free throw for 16 points as the Pacers pulled within two. The Magic had led by as many as seven early in the quarter, but would not see another lead the entire night.
Nikola Vucevic managed to get things going in the second quarter to help quell a 10-2 Pacers run by feeding Willie Green for a three and knocking down his second field goal, but there would be more Rodney Stuckey to come. Even with Tobias Harris having an excellent offensive game, there was just too much Pacers shooting to overcome.
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The Pacers hit their 10th three by the 2:47 mark of the second quarter to take a 59-45 lead and the Pacers led by 12 at the intermission. Indiana assisted on 17 of its 21 first half field goals while Orlando shot just 42.6 percent as a team.
The story really comes down to a tale of shooting, though.
By the 2-minute mark of the third quarter, the Pacers’ three-guard rotation of C.J. Watson, George Hill and Rodney Stuckey had combined for 52 points on 60 percent shooting while the Magic’s best three backcourt players in Elfrid Payton, Oladipo and Green had just 22 points on 33 percent marksmanship.
The Pacers would extend their lead to 17 in the third quarter and just kept rolling in the fourth. Stuckey would check out at the 5:15 mark to a loud standing ovation in appreciation of his 34 points on 13-of-19 shooting. 25 of his season-high came in the first half.
By the time Stuckey retired for the evening, Indiana led by 27 with the remaining half quarter nothing but a formality. The Pacers broadcast showed the fans sign-tally of Pacers’ three-pointers had run out of room.
That simple digression in the broadcast just kind of told the story for the Magic.
Notes:
- Tobias Harris had a solid game and was really the only Magic player with anything going offensively. It was hardly enough with his teammates misfiring on shots that ordinarily fall, but the fact he was able to shine on a night when everyone else was playing poorly is a good sign.
- Dewayne Dedmon appeared to be off to a monster night after scoring six points, blocking a shot and grabbing four rebounds through the first six-minutes of the game. But he saw just 17 minutes and really did not much of note after his early half quarter of brilliance. He and Vucevic were the only Magic players with a positive plus/minus.
- Elfrid Payton and Victor Oladipo do a great job of playing passing lanes, but not so much fighting around screens. Sometimes it takes guards a while to get a handle on how to run through double and triple screens and the Pacers had absolutely no problem getting Stuckey open the entire night. Nineteen field goals is a lot of shots to get off when the Magic already knew he was cooking.
- The Magic shot just 36 percent from the field. Even taking care of the ball (just 10 turnovers) and staying tough on the glass (negative-4, despite all the misses for the Magic and the few misses for the Pacers) is not going to keep a team in the game when so many shots are being clanked and airballed. The bench shot 7 of 35 from the field, which ya know, is 20 percent.