Life without Danny Granger began for the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night against the Portland Trail Blazers.
Funny thing about that life:
It looked a lot like life with Granger for much of the past month.
With Dahntay Jones playing a solid game, and with the Pacers lacking big-time scoring throughout the lineup, the Pacers struggled offensively – particularly from long range – and lost to the short-handed Portland Trail Blazers, 102-91, in front of 11,487 at Conseco Fieldhouse.
“The bottom line was that we didn't win,” Jones said after scoring a team-high 19 points. “We've got to learn to finish the ball game a little better. It's back to the drawing board and get this thing turned around. Losing is not fun.”
Blazers assistant head coach Dean Demopoulos called the Blazers' victory the “essence of team,” referring to the Blazers playing without five players – including center Greg Oden – and coach Nate McMillan, who missed the game recovering after tearing an Achilles last week.
The game was the first for the Pacers (6-13) since learning earlier this week it would be without Granger for 4-to-6 weeks with a torn right plantar fascia. The Pacers since a five-game early-season winning streak have lost 10 of 11, including the last six in succession.
That ties their longest losing streak of last season.
“We didn't play consistent basketball,” Pacers coach Jim O'Brien said.“We can't play two-and-a-half quarters of good basketball and one-and-a-half quarters of sub-par basketball.”
Blazers forward LaMarcus Aldridge scored 12 of his 20 points in the first quarter. That gave Portland the early lead, Brandon Roy finished with a game-high 29 points, 10 of which came in the fourth quarter.
The Pacers' bench played a solid game, but after a jump shot by Luther Head tied it 83-83 – the lone time after the early minutes that Portland did not lead – Roy scored 10 of the Blazers' next 13 points to give Portland a 96-89 lead with 2:26 remaining.
“At the end, we took good shots,” Head said. “But when you take good shots, you must make them. We did not make them and lost. We are tired of losing. We've got to get it corrected.”
Indiana reserves scored 40 points and had 24 rebounds, with rookie forward Tyler Hansbrough – the Pacers' first-round selection in the 2009 NBA Draft – registering his first career double double: 13 points and 11 rebounds.
“I thought they played with a great deal of energy and gave us good tempo,” O'Brien said of the bench and noted of point guard A.J. Price (four points, two assists): “I thought A.J. did a real good job for us. He's played at a very high level in practice.”
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