The Sports Xchange
Oct 18, 2017
INDIANAPOLIS -- Victor Oladipo scored 22 points to lead eight Pacers in double figures, and Indiana earned a 140-131 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday night in the season opener for both teams.
Oladipo, a former Indiana University standout, was making his regular-season debut after coming to Indiana from Oklahoma City with Domantas Sabonis in the Paul George trade. Sabonis scored 16 points. The Pacers' Myles Turner had 21 points, 14 rebounds and four blocked shots.
D'Angelo Russell was high for Brooklyn with 30 points on 12-of-22 shooting. Trevor Booker added 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Darren Collison, who scored 21 points, hit a driving layup with 59 seconds left to put the Pacers up 134-128. Turner hit two free throws to push the lead to 136-128 with 55.1 seconds to go.
Brooklyn's Jeremy Lin, who scored 18 points, was hurt with 4:53 remaining and needed help to get off the court. He was taken to the locker room with an apparent right knee injury.
Oladipo did most of his damage in the first half by scoring 19 points as the Indiana held a 65-63 lead at intermission. There were 10 lead changes and teams were tied eight times.
Indiana expanded the lead to 106-98 after three quarters by shooting 68 percent in the third quarter. The Nets had the edge at the free throw line in the third quarter, making 15 of 17 while Pacers were 4 of 5 from the foul line.
The Nets shot 47.9 percent for the game while the Pacers hit 52 percent.
The Pacers' largest lead was 57-48 with 4:16 left in the second quarter. Brooklyn erased that with 9-0 run to tie at 57 with 2:28 to go.
Brooklyn committed 13 first-half turnovers, seven more than the Pacers.
Russell was high for the Nets with 16 points in the first half.
Russell scored eight points, including two 3-pointers, to give the Nets a 30-29 edge in a first quarter that saw five lead changes. Oladipo scored 12 in the opening quarter for the Pacers.
NOTES: F Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, beginning his third season, is the longest tenured member of the Nets. ... The Nets lost its sixth consecutive season opener and fell for the fourth time in a row to the Pacers. ... The Pacers have 10 new players on their roster while the Nets have six. ... Pacers C Ike Anigbogu, the team's second-round pick from UCLA, was listed as questionable with right knee rehabilitation and did not play. Pacers F T.J. Leaf, a first-round pick from UCLA, was scoreless in 10 minutes in his debut ... The teams' next meeting is Dec. 17 in Brooklyn.