Tonight, the Indiana Pacers played closer to the team they expected themselves to be, holding the Washington Wizards at arm’s length all night to snap their four game skid and hopefully find something more sustainable in this win. The Pacers not only had better overall effort than they did in their loss to Miami, but they were also a bit more focused in the strategic sense, opening up Domantas Sabonis for one of his biggest nights of the year.
After a shaky start offensively, the Pacers came to life in the latter stages of the first quarter, using an 8-0 run to go up by seven, and for good on back-to-back buckets from Jeremy Lamb and three points (and an assist) from Malcolm Brogdon.