INDIANAPOLIS: Paul George scored a game-high 23 points and Lance Stephenson produced his first NBA career “triple-double” to lead the unbeaten Indiana Pacers over Memphis 95-79 yesterday.
Stephenson scored 13 points, passed off a personal-best 12 assists and grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds for Indiana, which improved to 8-0, the best start in team history and the last unbeaten record in the NBA this season.
Spaniard Marc Gasol led the Grizzlies with 15 points and Zach Randolph added 12 for Memphis, which fell to 3-4 after being out-rebounded 45-32 in a matchup of clubs that reached the NBA playoff semi-finals last season.
The Pacers kept Memphis to 27 percent shooting in the first quarter on the way to a 23-16 lead. The Grizzlies closed the second quarter with an 11-6 run to pull within 46-39 at half-time, but came no closer in the second half. Indiana is the first NBA club to start the season with eight wins in a row since the Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Hornets did so in 2010.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Lakers point guard Steve Nash will undergo an epidural yesterday to ease the pain of a chronic back injury and be sidelined about two weeks, his team said yesterday.
The news came as the Milwaukee Bucks revealed a key loss of their own, with center Larry Sanders to miss six weeks after surgery Monday to repair a torn right thumb ligament.
Nash, a 39-year-old Canadian who twice won the NBA Most Valuable Player award for a season, sat out the entire second half of the Lakers’ 113-90 loss Saturday to Minnesota on Saturday. AFP
