ATLANTA – Thanks to Jeff Teague, no amount of fighting can save the once impregnable Indiana Pacers.
With rumors of infighting between players and a coach in Frank Vogel reportedly fighting to save his job, the eighth-seeded Atlanta Hawks—led once again their Indy-born point guard in Teague–toppled the crumbling Pacers, 98-85 to go up 2-1 in their Eastern Conference first-round series.
Teague led the Hawks with 22 points, 10 assists and two rebounds in 37 minutes. Atlanta also get 20 points from NBA three-point shooting ace, Kyle Korver, who went four-of-seven from long-range.
Lance Stephenson, one of the two players reportedly fighting with a teammate Evan Turner, led the Pacers with 21 points in 41 minutes. Luis Scola added 17 points, David West 16 and Paul George chipped in 12 points on 3-of-11 shooting from the field in 36 minutes.
Roy Hibbert continued to struggle scoring four points in 19 minutes while shooting 2-of-9 from the field.
Of course, it wouldn’t be the playoffs, without some controversy, as yet again, there was in the form of Teague.
With the shot clock winding down, Teague made a controversial three-pointer, appeared to have stepped out-of-bounds before throwing up the shot.
While the shot got reviewed, the officials weren’t able to review where his feet were in terms of the boundary only if was a two or three and confirmed that it was a three.
The NBA doesn’t allow for replays of out-of-bounds calls until the final two minutes of the fourth quarter, which hurt the Pacers as replays clearly showed that Teague stepped out.