Indiana Pacers: 3 stars in NBA play-in win over Hornets
By Duncan Smith
Second star for the Indiana Pacers: Malcolm Brogdon
Malcolm Brogdon has been a driving force for the Indiana Pacers this season, and he showed why against the Hornets on Tuesday night. He caught Hornets defenders sleeping for easy assists on two different BLOB plays and simply operated on a different level from the opposition in a game that both teams absolutely had to win.
He finished the game with 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting and eight assists. In a peculiar statistical twist, he was the only player in the game to play more than seven minutes (he played 21) and get zero rebounds. Surely if he had to play heavy minutes in a closer game, he would have grabbed one or two given his average of 5.3 per game in the regular season.
With the Pacers set to play the Washington Wizards on Thursday for the right to move into the NBA playoffs, even more will be asked of Brogdon. While the Hornet backcourt of Terry Rozier and Rookie of the Year favorite LaMelo Ball is formidable enough, the Wizards have Russell Westbrook and Bradley Beal.
Indiana faces a grueling path to get into the playoffs, especially to do so without Caris LeVert, but step one was taken on Tuesday against Charlotte.