Pacers Remain undefeated, Cruise past Milwaukee

The Indiana Pacers are having one heck of a start to the season. They beat the injury- plagued Milawaukee Bucks on Friday, with a whopping score of 104-77. For a few days more, the Pacers remain the only undefeated team in the League with a 9-0 record. They are the first team to have a 9-0 start since the 02-03 Dallas Mavericks. One more win, and they will become only the 14th team in history to have 10-0 record. Right now, they are the 5th team ever to have a 9-0 start while also keeping all of their opponents under 100 points. It’s pretty impressive- and the Pacers don’t appear to have any plans of slowing down.

The Bucks, on the other hand, are now 2-6. Their game against the Pacers was their lowest scoring game of the season. But to be fair, the Bucks were playing without several key players. Caron Butler, Carlos Delfino, Ersan Ilyasova and Larry Sanders are all on injury reserve. Guard OJ Mayo did his best to lead the team, scoring 20 points with 3 rebounds. But it wasn’t near enough. After about 8 minutes of gameplay, The Pacers took a strong lead and never let up.

Roy Hibbert was undeniably the star of the game, scoring 24 points, with 8 blocks and 10 rebounds. He was an absolute monster in the paint- swatting down shots on defense, and posting up to consistently put up numbers on offense. He made all but two of his shots. Over a span of 15 minutes in the second quarter, Hibbert scored 14 points, got seven rebounds and five blocks.

It was Hibbert’s game, but the entire Pacers team played great. After a slow first half, Paul George went on to score 22 points. SG Lance Stephenson had 11 points with four rebounds, and got his first triple double of his career.

Together, the Pacers successfully proved why they have the #1 top rated defense in the league.

How long will the Pacers be able to maintain this streak? Their next game is against Chicago, which they already beat on the 6th. But with Rose in better shape, the Bulls could prove to be a more formidable opponent.

But one thing is for sure: The Pacers won’t be overlooked or underrated again- not for a while. This is a team that has Championship aspirations. We will have to stay tuned to see if they can make it happen.