– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
Follow @Koiki_Sport Follow @ALOST_Official
WASHINGTON — The Indiana Pacers were, expectedly, booed off the floor by their opponent’s fans. What occurred in the near-full 48 minutes that led up to it were pretty unexpected, especially since those boos after the game came because the Pacers, who were scoring for fun all night, decided to stop running up the score against the hometown team.
Tyrese Haliburton led nine Indiana players who scored in double figures with 29 points as the Pacers set a franchise record for points in a game with their 162-109 victory over the Washington Wizards inside Capital One Arena on Thursday evening. Myles Turner added 17 points for Indiana, who also scored the most points of any team in an NBA game this season.
Less than 24 hours prior, the Pacers fell in heartbreaking fashion to the Los Angeles Lakers in Indianapolis when LeBron James tipped in a Luka Doncic miss at the buzzer for a one-point win. There was no doubt that the Pacers, who owned a five-game winning streak before that defeat, would be motivated by instant turnaround to atone for that defeat, which left the Wizards, the team with the worst record in the league, in the unenviable position to be sacrificial lambs.
The slaughter did not take too long to materialize, with the Pacers scoring 83 points by halftime, then taking a 125-88 lead after the end of the third quarter. In those first three frames, Indiana was 22-for-34 from three-point range.
All 14 Pacers who played in the game scored at least three points and made at least one shot from the field.
Rookie Alex Sarr led the Wizards with 22 points, while Jordan Poole had 18 points with four three-pointers made on eight attempts.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Thursday evening’s game, with photos taken by DC-area photographer Terry Mayo Jr. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 28 pictures in total.
Follow @Koiki_Sport Follow @ALOST_Official
