Mo Williams pours 52 points on the Pacers, helps Timberwolves end 15-game slide

One flagrant foul. Two ejections. Three technical fouls. 12 missed free throws.

Those are all key statistics when trying to tell the story from Tuesday’s NBA game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. But there’s one that was more meaningful than the rest.

Mo Williams: career-high 52 points.

In turn, the Minnesota Timberwolves (5-32) waived goodbye to a 15-game losing streak that dated back to December 10th, 34 days in total.

Indiana lost Roy Hibbert for the final 17:47 of game time after he fell to the ground and dragged Timberwolves center Gorgui Dieng with him. The officials ruled that “unnecessary and excessive contact,” and thus he was given a Flagrant-2 foul.

That moment, now 40 games in, was the first time all season a flagrant had been whistled on any Indiana player.

The Pacers (15-25) played well enough for much of the game, and entered the fourth stanza with a six-point lead. But then, it all fell apart. They missed seven free throws, had another player ejected (David West), and were outscored 41-26 in what was an embarrassing 110-101 loss.

“The defense wasn’t good enough, we didn’t make adjustments, and we got beat,” West said.

Mo Williams had the game of his life. He scored a career-best 52 points on 19-of-33 shooting. 21 of those points came in the decisive fourth quarter. Along the way, he even managed to dish out seven assists. (It took him more than three games to score his last 52 points.)

“He definitely got a great rhythm going,” Solomon Hill said, “and anything he threw up everybody thought was going in.

“You just wonder what took so long [for us] to try to change it up. You can’t let a guy like that, on any team, get going. I think when we get going with certain guys, other teams make adjustments. I think it was a little overdue for us to make adjustments.”

Williams’ 52 points are the most ever scored by a Pacers’ individual opponent at Bankers Life Fieldhouse (opened in 1999), and is tied with Bernard King for the fourth-most points dropped on the Pacers in NBA franchise history.

George Gervin is atop the list for his 55-point performance back in 1980 at Market Square Arena.

“He was in a ridiculous zone,” Vogel said afterwards. “Sometimes a player gets hot, gets in a ridiculous zone. We tried multiple defenders on him. We tried sending him one way. We tried trapping him and he shot the ball over our traps. He flopped into a shot and made it.”

A baffled Rodney Stuckey: “I don’t know what to really say, man. He was just on fire tonight.”

Just how sizzlin’ was Williams? His confidence was clearly the roof.

With a crowd of reporters surrounding him after his memorable showing, Williams recalled a point during the game in which he turned to Pacers point guard C.J. Watson and said, “Man, there ain’t nothing y’all can do today. Don’t even worry about it. … I’m shooting it in the Pacific today.”

That he was.

Still, the Pacers were within three with 1:40 to play after West sank a 15-footer. Williams banged in a 3-pointer at the other end, and then Watson answered with a layup with 69 seconds left.

It was all Minnesota after that.

They were responsible for eight of the final 11 points. (And with the game in hand, less than 29 seconds on the clock, an upset West received his second technical foul of the game.)

The Pacers didn’t help themselves at the free line. They missed 12 of 30 attempts, including seven over the final 12 minutes, whereas Minnesota sank 18-of-19 tosses for the game.

“We definitely could have won the game just if we would have made our free throws,” said Stuckey, who played off the bench after battling food poisoning since Sunday. “Despite Mo Williams having a 52-point night. That’s it right there.”

The Pacers have now lost consecutive games, to Philadelphia and now Minnesota — to conference dwellers that should be two of their easier wins on the season.

“It’s no fun to losing to teams with poor records,” Vogel said. “It’s no fun. But it’s a long season.”

This one, though, they’ll have to think about longer than most. The Pacers take the floor again on Friday against the Detroit Pistons, a division foe that has won nine of their last 10 games.

“We have to find something, and we still haven’t found it,” Hill added.

Top individual performances against the Pacers:

55: George Gervin (San Antonio), Jan. 23, 1980
53: Larry Bird (Boston), Mar. 30, 1983; Michael Jordan (Chicago), Apr. 12, 1987
52: Bernard King (New York), Nov. 24, 1984; Mo Williams (Minnesota), Jan. 13, 2015
51: Chris Webber (Sacramento), Jan. 5, 2001
50: John Williamson (New Jersey), Apr. 4, 1978