2013 Playoffs: Augustin keys Pacers’ offensive surge in Game 1 victory
By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Correspondent
D.J. Augustin took a pass in the right corner from Lance Stephenson, buried his fourth straight 3-pointer, and then – in a rare exhibit of sentiment from the Pacers’ low-key point guard – turned to roar at the crowd and swung his right arm across the Indiana sewn onto the front of his jersey.
Reggie Miller flashing a choke sign at Spike Lee? Not quite.
But Augustin earned his moment of celebration as the surprising author of his own footnote in this sequel to Miller’s 1990s rivalry with the New York Knicks.
Indiana’s maligned backup shot 26.4 percent in the first six games of the postseason, but he shook off a disappointing year to score seven points in just five minutes in the second. That triggered a 19-10 second-quarter run, which gave the Pacers a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the afternoon. Indiana won Game 1, 102-95, as one of the Eastern Conference’s former defining rivalries renewed itself with another bruiser.
The Pacers led by as many as 16 in the second half, and stars on both sides met with foul trouble. Yet this one essentially swung on Augustin’s 3-point explosion – which included one shot Augustin released off a curl on the right wing that made him seem like Ray Allen instead of the stationary sniper he normally is.
I just wanted to play hard, Augustin said. That’s all we’re all trying to do right now. It’s the second round of the playoffs and it could be our last if we don’t come out and play hard.
Augustin’s hard play produced 16 points on 4-of-5 3-point shooting, and it exposed one of the pivot points of this series: If Indiana’s shooters can match New York’s shooters tit for tat, as they did Sunday, there is no way the Knicks can win the game in the paint.
Especially with scoring champ Carmelo Anthony still firing blanks. Anthony wasn’t a complete dud, having put 27 points on the scoreboard, but he needed 28 shots to get them. He nearly matched the rest of his starting lineup, which mustered just 33 points; the bench did little as well until a flurry of lipstick-on-a-pig scoring in the fourth quarter, long after the Pacers had built a 16-point lead.
The visitors got a big effort from David West, who gave New York all it could handle defensively and contributed 10 points in the middle stanzas as New York put up a mere 38 points in the second and third frames. Though he finished with 20 points, the incessant threat of his size and strength advantages against smaller defenders created many more.
It was a complete team effort and I am proud of them, Indiana coach Frank Vogel said. We tried to play to our strengths.
In contrast to New York’s one-man show (Anthony attempted 13 more field goals than any teammate), the Pacers got production from all over the place. Paul George added 19 points, five rebounds and one gorgeous step-back triple; Tyler Hansbrough added eight off the bench; and Indiana got a boost from the judicious play of Roy Hibbert, who picked his spots and scored 14. Meanwhile, the Pacers’ ball movement – despite some eye-sore turnovers such as Stephenson’s post-entry pass to a looking-away West – was an ideal prescription for beating New York’s switching, rotating schemes, as their 21 assists included some finds of absolutely wide-open shooters.
Offensively guys played with great poise, Vogel said. It’ll be a contrasting style most of the series. We were getting a lot of good looks. You’ve got to have the discipline to trust the pass. If you’re going to score the ball in the playoffs in an environment like this, teams are going to take away your first or second option. Our guys did a great job of just playing the game.
New York seemed sluggish all day, but most notably in the latter half of the third quarter, when Anthony was sitting with four fouls. Two trips in particular will have them scratching their head in tomorrow’s film session: Kenyon Martin threw an unpressured pass right into the arms of Stephenson coming out of a full Knicks timeout, and less than 20 seconds later J.R. Smith aggressively drove left to draw a foul on Hibbert but came up empty on both free throws.
Facing an assortment of defenders – primarily George but also West, Sam Young and even Hansbrough – Anthony’s postseason woes continued. Bothered by a tender left shoulder, he is shooting 37.7 percent in seven playoff games and seemed to force things in Game 1 against Indiana. He also constantly grimaced at what he interpreted as an unfriendly whistle. Anthony didn’t attempt a free throw until the fourth quarter.
They outworked us, Anthony said.
We didn’t get much out of the offense, New York coach Mike Woodson said. Individual matchups are going to decide this series. We didn’t play a lot of minutes with two bigs this season, so we’ve got to figure that out. We’ve got to get better effort across the board to get out of this series.
Indiana also got a leg up by – stop me if you’ve heard this before – controlling the glass. Stephenson threw down a one-handed slam when Hibbert pulled in an offensive board, and George swished an all-alone 3 after Hansbrough retrieved his own miss. Conversely, through three quarters, Anthony and Martin were the only Knicks with an offensive rebound: one each.
The Pacers found mismatches throughout the game. Jason Kidd played off Stephenson because of his quickness; Stephenson used the space to drill a long jumper. West, heavier by 30 pounds, overpowered Iman Shumpert for an easy dunk. George, taller by four inches, rose, fired and swished a beauty over Shumpert for instant quality offense at the very end of the shot clock. It added up to 49 percent shooting.
I have to get involved, said Tyson Chandler, last season’s Defensive Player of the Year and Game 1 non-entity.
The win puts the Pacers in the driver’s seat in a series later than the first round for the first time since 2004, when they also took Game 1 in the Eastern Conference Finals against Detroit. Of course, Indiana was in a similar situation a year ago when they won Games 2 and 3 against Miami, and came up empty.
We’ve had our struggles on the road this year, said Vogel, whose team was 19-21 away from home. Every road win that we got – at Houston, at Dallas, at the Clippers – was a confidence-builder. That Game 6 win (in Atlanta) definitely built some confidence to come in here today and get a win.
Maybe the Pacers have a surprise in store. Maybe they can reproduce some of this road magic and steal another win at Madison Square Garden with Anthony and Smith too dazed to cure their ills in just a day and a half. The safer bet, though, is that New York recovers with a vengeance and makes this the long series that Spike and Reggie and Patrick Ewing would have enjoyed.
The Pacers, though, have the luxury of being greedy, all because the guy who came over from a seven-win team on a one-year deal broke out when they least expected it.
A lot of people would look ahead, Augustin said, but we still have one more game here that we’re focused on taking care of first.
