Roy Hibbert stars as Indiana Pacers beat New Orleans Hornets 117-108 -NBA Recap
As NBA evolves through the season the competition gets tougher and games get closer and for this time the match between Indiana Pacers and New Orleans Hornets unfolded in the same thrilling way as the outcome has to be decided
in the extra time.
This epic match was marked by the career best performance of first-time All-Star player Roy Hibbert as he paced Indiana Pacers to surpass the visiting New Orleans Hornets, 117-108 after a closely contested match.
To place Pacers on a 3 game winning streak 6 players came up with double figure score, led by Hibbert as he poured in 30 and had 13 boards recording his third consecutive double-double "That's good but more importantly we won the
game”. Hibbert said. “This is one game. We must wrap it up and move on."
Paul George netted 20 points and guard Darren Collison scored 18 and had 8 rebounds. David West chipped in 16 points and Danny Granger recorded 14 and finally A.J. Price came up with 11 points in this 20th victory of
the season for Indiana.
For Hornets who are currently on a downhill journey with only 7 wins in the season so far, Trevor Ariza scored a team high 21 points and Jarrett Jack had a double-double with 19 points and 10 assists coming off the bench. Chris
Kaman netted 17 and Marco Belinelli recorded 15 as New Orleans skid to a 2 game losing streak.
Hornets were all offensive from the jump ball as they went for a 15-6 run and further stretched it to 23-14 with 4:10 in hand in 1st quarter. Kaman was on song in this segment as he netted 10 points in the opening frame.
New Orleans added 8 more and Pacers succeeded in reducing the gap by adding 10 points a by the end of frame Hornets were up 31-24.
With 7:03 left in the 2nd stanza New Orleans were in the lead with 42-36 but paced by Hibbert 5 points which were answered by a jumper from Hornets, Pacers managed to reduce the deficit to 3 points with 44-41 score.
With Hibbert on song as he netted the next 7 points single handily for Indiana while Hornets tackled that with 5 points of their own the scores came as close as 49-48 with New Orleans still leading.
They capped off the segment after scoring 7 more points and Indiana closely followed them by adding 5 more to their toll. Hibbert remained prominent in this segment as he netted 13 for Pacers. With 56-53 and Hornets in the lead
game entered into the halftime.
Indiana switched placed with the visitors early in the 3rd period as they went for an 8-3 run and claimed the 61-59 lead. After wards the game shifted back and forth and with Ariza 3-pointer Hornets managed to tie the
scores at 70 apiece with 3:14 left in the quarter.
However Pacers concluded the stanza by adding 10 more points to lead the game into the 4th quarter, New Orleans added 6 more points to their existing score by the end of 3rd period.
Hornets completely changed the scenario with a huge 11-2 run in the opening moments of the final stanza and regained their lead with 87-82 score.
With 3:09 left in the game Pacers managed to tie the score at 91 each after a layup by George and with another concurrent jumper from Hibbert and a Layup from Granger Indiana took a 95-91 lead.
Hornets came up with a freebie and jumper along with a dunk from Ayon, which was answered by a tip in from Hibbert for Pacers bringing the scores at 97-94.
Indiana Netted 3 more while Hornets tied the scores at100 after they chipped in 6 more as the time expired.
So the game entered into the extra time with scores tied and crowd on the edge of their seats.
Pacers shot the lights out as they had a 13-2 spurt with 01:45 in hand they took the decisive 113-102 lead. Hornets replied that with a 3-pointer and a freebie clearly not enough to make a difference to 113-106 lead of New Orleans.
With Granger pair of free throws and a blazing slum dunk from George Indiana scored the conclusive 117th point while Belinelli’s layup brought the 108th point for Hornets on the last second of the game.
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