Initial feedback: A completely subjective and immediate response to the events of tonight's game, featuring a comment and rating, the latter on a scale of 1 to 10, on every player who saw the floor and the head coach, along with ephemera and miscellany as the author deems necessary.
Your ratings and commentary, dear reader, are welcomed in the comments to this post.
Boxscore
Players
Jeff Teague: Far from a happy homecoming. Poor offensive night and at the front of another poor team defensive performance. 3/10
Joe Johnson: In the first half's relay team effort, Johnson took the baton last. Scored 10 of his 15 first half points in the final seven minutes of the second quarter, half of those coming after Josh Smith went to the bench with three fouls. Didn't score in the second half. Was possibly worse than that fact indicates. 5/10
Josh Smith: His second and third fouls were dumb in that they didn't involve Smith making a defensive play. Giving Paul George a love-tap isn't going to make him miss a layup and it's not like you have to go looking for Tyler Hansbrough to commit on offensive foul. All the more disappointing because he was otherwise dominating the game. Took four straight jumpers after halftime, not attempting a shot in the paint in the second half until the Hawks were down 21 in the fourth quarter. 6/10
Al Horford: An awfully creditable six minutes against a true center. Five points on five shots, all of them in the paint. Then, a potentially awful injury. Incomplete
Vladimir Radmanovic: Didn't have a prayer of guarding Danny Granger. Didn't have a prayer of getting a shot to fall. 2/10
Zaza Pachulia: It shouldn't take an injury to Al Horford for Pachulia to get consistent minutes. Effort was constant, production was solid but he couldn't make a real difference. 5/10
Jannero Pargo: The last possession of the third quarter epitomized the second half for the Hawks. Pargo dribbled for 17 seconds before taking a contested jumper. Airball. 2/10
Willie Green: Pass. 3/10
Jason Collins: Saw action late in the first half due to Horford's injury. Started the second half against Roy Hibbert. Hibbert didn't do much against Collins, but the Pacers ran the Hawks out of the gym, partially on the basis of Hibbert not having to worry about Collins and being free to protect the rim. Very macho display against Lou Amundson. 2/10
Ivan Johnson: Brought some energy to the defensive end of the floor in the third quarter but is more likely to turn the ball over than make a positive play at the offensive end right now. 3/10
Jerry Stackhouse: The human victory cigar for one team or the other every time he appears. 1/10
Donald Sloan: Congratulations on your NBA debut. 2/10
The head coach
Can't be fairly blamed for three of his top eight players being injured but this is two consecutive horrible defensive performances (masked somewhat by Indiana's impotent, irrelevant fourth quarter) and the lackluster effort and execution in the third quarter was shocking. 4/10
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