One thing that I fear will go unnoticed if I don’t point it out right here in the first sentence before everyone loses interest and stops reading: Domantas Sabonis totally took out Lance Stephenson with a chest bump. Starting at around 1:09. I can’t tell if Stephenson flopped a little bit to make it seem like Sabonis was some sort of unstoppable power-wielding Baltic warrior, or if he really was caught off guard by the intensity of Sabonis’ thrust. In any case, good on Sabonis for helping his teammate right back up even though he was busy screaming at the crowd.
The Pacers won this game basically because the Magic couldn’t stop the Oladipo-Sabonis pick-and-roll. That big lead the Magic had kept getting smaller and smaller as Sabonis rolled to the rim over and over, abusing whichever big came in his way. Or, didn’t come in his way. I miss the three-point shooting Sabonis, but I can tolerate this pick-and-roll-oriented version.