Indiana Pacers of America basketball youngster, Victor Oladipo was in top form on the opening day of the new season, as he took matters into his own hands to lift his team high, despite enduring a sluggish first half, megasportsarena.com gathered.
There were no semblances of a year out with injury and a revival in the bubble gone burst to climax last season, as Oladipo went all out on the first day of the campaign in USA’s National Basketball Association (NBA) league on Wednesday night.
He drove to the basket, made shots and ended up netting 16 of his total 22 points in the final 24 minutes to lead The Pacers past New York Knicks 121-107, much to the delight of Indiana’s new coach, Nate Bjorkgren, who collected his first career win as a gaffer.
Bjorkgren said: ”He wanted to be assertive in that second half. I thought he was very aggressive, attacking the basket more, looking to shoot it more. I liked his aggressive mentality on both ends of the floor.”
Domantas Sabonis finished with a career-high 32 points, along with 13 rebounds and five assists to help Indiana win its fourth opener in five years, while RJ Barrett finished with 26 points and Alec Burks had 22 for New York, which lost on opening night for the fourth time in five years and the first time The Knicks’ coach, Tom Thibodeau’s tenure.
Thibodeau admitted afterwards that he expected a stronger finishing punch from his team, but conceded: ”The way we played in the first half is the way we need to continue to play. We probably played 24 minutes of good basketball and to win on the road, you have to do more than that.”
However, with only a few dozen people in the Bankers Life Fieldhouse stands, the energy was lacking, but Oladipo’s opening outburst in the second half changed everything, as the two-time NBA All-Star got The Pacers’ first 11 points in the third quarter.
He then found T.J. Warren for a breakaway layup to give Pacers a 78-77 lead with 5:50 left and Indiana never trailed again, as they extended the margin to 83-77 after three, made it a double-digit game early in the fourth and pulled away midway through the fourth.
Oladipo was overly excited at the end of the game and the Nigerian-born lad was upbeat in his assertion about his aspirations for a better personal season for himself than the past two, as he roared aloud: ”I’m just going to go out there and be assertive, be aggressive. Everything else will take care of itself.”
