When the Hawks fell apart down the stretch of Game 6 and saw the Pacers use a 16-4 run to close it out and send the series back to Indiana for a Game 7, they had to know their chances of advancing at that point were extremely slim.
Those chances were there at home, but a lack of execution late was unlikely to turn into precision basketball on the road. The Pacers used a strong start by Roy Hibbert and some stifling second-quarter defense to take control, and led by as many 18 points before settling on a 92-80 victory that will send them to a second round matchup against the Wizards.
As for the Hawks, they weren’t supposed to make it this far. But while they used matchups to their advantage for the bulk of the series, they simply didn’t have the veteran presence — either on the floor or from the coaching staff on the bench — to guide the team through the treacherous waters of trying to upend a number one seed.
Hibbert had been missing in action for the entire series, but got going early in this one by scoring eight points in the game’s first eight minutes. Whether Atlanta changed its defensive strategy because of Hibbert’s prior ineffectiveness is unclear, but he was catching the ball in deep post position and was getting his shots to fall.
The offensive resurgence helped him engage on the defensive end. Hibbert finished with 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting in almost 31 minutes of action, to go along with seven rebounds and five blocked shots, and Indiana will hold out hope that this performance energizes Hibbert for the bigger challenges that await as the team continues to advance.
In addition to Hibbert, Paul George continued to regain his All-Star form, and finished with a game-high 30 points on 11-of-23 shooting, to go along with 11 rebounds. Lance Stephenson played at a frenetic pace defensively, and was under control for the most part in adding 19 points and 14 rebounds of his own.
For Atlanta to have a shot in this one, they would have needed a superhuman performance out of someone, and simply didn’t get it. Only Kyle Korver shot the ball at a respectable clip, while players like Paul Millsap, Jeff Teague and Mike Scott were dismal in terms of their shooting percentage, and as a team, the Hawks attempted 22 more shots than the Pacers, but converted five fewer of those attempts.
Indiana didn’t blow the Hawks out of the building, but controlled the game from the second quarter on while for the most part showcasing their league-best defense. The Pacers will need every bit of that in the next round against the Wizards, a team that on paper presents another very interesting matchup for the East’s top-seeded team to try and manage.
