NBA Play-In Tournament: Eastern Conference Round One Results

Tuesday’s night double-header ended up being a double-waste.

Here are the results of night one of the NBA Play-In Tournament:

Hornets-Pacers, 117-144

The Indiana Pacers extend their playoff lives by stomping the Charlotte Hornets in a non-competitive affair. Hornets never led and the Pacers were up as many as 39-points in the game.

Domantas Sabonis was an assist away from a triple-double finishing with 14 points, 21 rebounds, and nine assists. Malcolm Brogdon ended up giving it a go with his hamstring injury and chipped in with 16 points but the real heroes of the game were Doug McDermott and Oshea Brissett. Dougie got the Pacers out to a quick lead after hitting his first three three-pointers and scoring 16 of his 21 points in the first quarter. Brissett also was on fire early that ended up stretching this lead out to 24 at half-time.

"Everybody got going," said Malcolm Brogdon about the Pacers hot start. "It's the best when all your teammates get to score and have fun. I thought we had fun tonight and that was the best part.”

This loss for the Hornets is a direct reflection of head coach James Borrego whose team showed no fight at any point in the game. There were a lot of hands up and stares from miscues on defense that led to open shots and cuts all night. He watched as his team continued to jack three-pointers in back-to-back positions with little to no ball movement. It was a bad scene all around. ROTY candidate LaMelo Ball had the worst plus/minus on the court at -35 and looked bad on defense which might end up hurting his award chances. They will end this season on a six-game slide.

It’ll be interesting to see what direction the Hornets go from here. They have a talented young roster and will have some cap room when guys like Zeller get off the books. Borrego hasn’t shown himself to be a top-tier coach in the league and instead of drawing out the process it might be time to go get a new coach to take this team to the next level. Also, Stephen A. Smith on First Take made waves when he said that some in Charlotte believed that Gordon Hayward could’ve given it a go for the Play-In but decided to sit out with his injury so let’s see if there’s smoke to that fire in that story.

Wizards-Celtics

It was a struggle for the Wizards tonight but they still have a chance in the Playoffs despite losing to the Celtics tonight. Tatum’s 50-point performance just gives the C’s more time in the Playoffs before their eventual demise to the Nets.

Kemba was a welcoming sight to see for the gang green chipping in with his 29 points.

The story of this game was the poor shooting from the team, most importantly the two superstars Russ and Beal. Wizards went 3-21 from deep as a whole in tonight’s game.

"We couldn't find it. We couldn't find the basket," coach Scott Brooks said. "We haven't shot well all year long but we're not a 3-for-21 shooting team."

They get a chance at redemption against the Pacers but they are going to need better shooting from Russ. Brad is limited right now coming back from his hamstring injury so the Wizards will need to depend on a monster game from their point guard who had an All-NBA season. They also have to defend better too. They let the C’s get off to a 22-4 run to start the third quarter after leading by two at halftime which blew this game open. Tatum scored 23 of his 50 points in the third and there was nothing the Wizards could do to stop him.

Wizards host Pacers Thursday night which will be for the final seed in the playoffs.