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IC Cold Links: Pacers Go Back To Drawing Board After Loss To Kings

By Tom Lewis

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The Indiana Pacers' brutal late-night loss to the Sacramento Kings was even more painful this morning as I was sitting in the car pool line at 7:20 a.m. still shaking my head at the sleep loss I endured to watch that loss.

I'm still wondering how that zone defense ripped the spine out of the Pacers offensive attack. Well, attack may be a poor word choice since players were looking to teammates to knock down shots, hardly begging for the ball to step up and make a shot. Really, the Pacers just needed to make one or two more shots with three minutes to go and they probably would've hung on for the win.

Vogel going small and shuffling lineups didn't help since the Pacers obviously weren't comfortable with those adjustments. Roy Hibbert and David West weren't on the floor at the same time in the final 5:30 of the game which made it easier for the Kings to stay in that zone and chase the Pacers around the perimeter.

Plus, while the Kings shot horribly throughout the game, the four factors of winning showed up since the Pacers were on the wrong end of the other three factors. When you consider turnovers, free throw rate and offensive rebound rate often go to the aggressor, the Kings locked up those areas and deserved to win with better overall effort for the full 48 minutes of the game.

Back to the drawing board and the Pacers better start by drawing up a way to attack the zone. Might be seeing that strategy again.

Check out the links after the jump.

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