points, Roy Hibbert tied a career high with 19 and the Indiana Pacers dropped
the New Jersey Nets to 0-11 with a 91-83 victory Tuesday night.
Dahntay Jones added 17 points for the Pacers, who
extended their winning streak to five and can continue their turnaround from an
0-3 start Wednesday when they host another struggling team, the New York Knicks.
Chris Douglas-Roberts scored a career-high 27 points and
Brook Lopez added 26 points and 16 rebounds for the Nets, who head to Milwaukee
on Wednesday, still a long way from the record 17-game opening skids owned by
the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Clippers.
The Nets have been hit with a rash of injuries that again
left them with the league minimum eight players in uniform. They contained an
Indiana club that rang up 113 points against Boston on Saturday, but the NBA's
second-lowest scoring team again didn't have nearly enough firepower.
The Pacers have their own injury problems, playing
without Mike Dunleavy Jr. and Troy Murphy, but got some good news when T.J. Ford
returned to the starting lineup after back spasms made him a reserve on
Saturday.
Ford hit a jumper with 1:28 to go after the Nets had
trimmed the lead to seven.
Indiana opened both halves with 9-0 runs but wasted
numerous chances to turn it into a blowout, making only 12 field goals across
the middle two quarters and leading by only six with under three minutes remaining.
Playing without three starters, the Nets usually have
managed to stay competitive before ultimately falling short. Their 81-80 loss in
Miami on Saturday was probably the toughest, with Dwyane Wade hitting a
3-pointer with 0.1 seconds left to win it not long after Quentin Richardson had
banked in a tying 3.
"That one hurt more because I felt so [darn] bad for
those guys," coach Lawrence Frank said before the game.
Hoping to end the skid, the Nets asked their fans to
show support with a "10 is enough!" plan, giving each season-ticket holder two
tickets to bring additional fans. But there didn't seem to be any extra fans,
and now there are still no wins.
Leading by eight at halftime, the Pacers quickly ran off
nine straight points to open a 63-46 lead on Hibbert's follow dunk with 9:18
remaining in the third quarter. But their offense stalled from there, with the
Nets using a 14-2 spurt to cut it to 65-60 before Indiana scored the final two
points of the period on free throws.
Showing no letdown after the Boston victory, Indiana
scored the first nine points and opened a 16-point lead after Solomon Jones'
three-point play with 3:11 left in the first quarter. The Pacers led 31-21 after
Earl Watson's jumper as time expired.
Indiana pushed the lead back to 14 in the second
quarter, but shot only 32 percent in the period as New Jersey cut it to 54-46 at
halftime.
Notes
The latest to join the Nets' injury list was F
Eduardo Najera, who was out with a sore lower back. … Indiana had scored at
least 100 points in every game during its winning streak. … Douglas-Roberts
also had a career high with 12 rebounds.