Harrison Barnes Shines in Win Over Pacers
The Indiana Pacers (6–3) were coming off a loss to the Phoenix Suns on Saturday, Jan. 9 when it took on the Sacramento Kings to start a five game West Coast trip.
The Kings came into this game 4–6. Sacramento was also coming off a loss, getting blown out at home by the Portland Trailblazers, 125–99. Marvin Bagley was the leading scorer for Sacramento with 15.
The Pacers usually start Aaron Holiday in place of the injured T.J. Warren who recently had surgery to repair a foot fracture. Instead, the team started his older brother Justin Holiday. Aaron Holiday has started this season off slowly as Justin Holiday has been one of the best shooters in the NBA this season shooting a whopping 42.9% from 3.
Pacers head coach Nate Bjorkgren ran a starting lineup of Malcolm Brogdon, Victor Oladipo, Justin Holiday, Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner in Sacramento.
Kings head coach Luke Walton started center Richaun Holmes over rookie shooting guard Tyrese Haliburton, who had started against Portland. The Kings starters against Indy were De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, Harrison Barnes, Marvin Bagley and Holmes.
The Pacers have been riddled with injuries so far this year, the main one being Warren’s foot injury. Second-year center from Georgia Goga Bitadze (grade 2 ankle sprain) and Jeremy Lamb (torn ACL) are both looking to come back after this five game road trip. Brian Bowen is out for the next two months with a partial groin tear while T.J. McConnell will also be out for this road trip as he just had a kid and is going through COVID-19 protocols.
The Kings only had one player on the injury report ahead of Monday’s game against the Pacers, DaQuan Jefferies, who suffered an ankle sprain on Dec. 30th.
The Pacers started the first quarter hot and forced Kings coach Luke Walton to take a timeout. The rest of the first quarter was a lot of back-and-forth scoring. The score at the end of the first was a tie at 30–30.
The second quarter was more of the same as both teams were scoring lights out. Neither team could record consecutive defensive stops, with Pacers small forward Doug McDermott accounting for 13 points in the quarter on five-of-six shooting. Indiana couldn’t handle Fox’s speed in the first half or the rest of the game. At halftime the score was 65–64 with De’Aaron Fox hitting a shot at the buzzer to give Sacramento the lead.
In the third quarter the Pacers jumped to a 69–66 lead but that lead didn’t last long as the Kings responded with a 23–8 scoring run. Kings had a big lead after the Pacers struggled on both offense and defense. Indiana cut the Kings’ lead down to four points to close out the quarter, ending their offensive drought. The Kings led 97–93 at the end of the quarter.
“It’s about staying locked in,” Holmes said. “This is how we feel we can play every night. This has to be the standard.”
Hield hit the 3-point dagger by picking up the loose ball and taking a wide open 3-pointer to put the Kings up by four. The Kings beat the Pacers 127–122 at home to move to 5–6 on the season.
“This was probably our best win just because it was consistent throughout,” Luke Walton said after the game. “Win or lose, this is how we have to play.”
Kings forward Harrison Barnes led all scorers with 30 points and Fox added 21. The Kings will play the Trail Blazers on Wednesday, Jan. 13 in Sacramento.
When asked about why Myles Turner wasn’t on the floor down the stretch when Indy needed defensive stops Nate Bjorkgren said “ I was trying to sneak him (Myles Turner) in as a sub during one of the challenges but you can’t do that. I should’ve put him in with about five or six minutes left but I enjoyed how that group was playing.” He was also asked about how Kings were shooting the ball well and their defense he responded with “I thought it was the overall defense they shot darn near 60% in the first half and they finished shooting 56%. I think we have to be more active on the ball and they can’t have their pinpoint passes right in their shooting pockets, kinda like how a coach would pass it but they are flying around, playing D and playing hard. The ball didn’t bounce our way, we’ll comeback and fight hard tomorrow. “It wasn’t fun with the Kings hitting shots and seeing our guys in pain.”
When asked about the Pacers defensive struggles Victor Oladipo responded with “We gotta do a better job getting stops man, we gotta sacrifice on that end. A lot of times were in a position where we have to lookout for each other and we have to talk better, we gotta be decisive and be smart, just the little things right now it’s not something major that we can’t fix, once we fix those we’ll be fine.” When he was asked about the amount of close games they’ve been in he said “I’ve learned we’re always in it no matter what, just the small things down the stretch we can correct , a few balls didn’t bounce our way unfortunately, I have to watch film, I think overall for us it’s just the small things once we do the small things on defense everything else will just fly.”
When asked about playing back to backs since they play the Warriors Tuesday he answered with “It’s tough to say you know I gotta manage my load with my knee but it’s unfortunate I would obviously love to play and help my team but at the same time I gotta make sure I’m right like I said at the beginning of the year, we’ll see for tomorrow.”
The Pacers stay out west for a game against the Stephen Curry-led Golden State Warriors on Tuesday, Jan. 12 for a back-to-back in San Francisco, California.
