By Pacers Media Relations Director David Benner:
ORLANDO, Fla. — A promising start turned into a futile finish as the Indiana Pacers lost to Dallas, 94-79, in the Mountain Dew Orlando Pro Summer League at the Amway Center here Tuesday.
The loss dropped the Pacers to 3-1 and they will await the outcome of Wednesday’s games to find out if they will play for the championship Thursday. The Pacers have Wednesday off.
[Victor Oladipo courtside for Pacers summer league game]
Tuesday, the Pacers jumped out to a 24-12 lead after the first quarter, saw that trimmed to four by the half and then a game-long problem, turnovers, took affect. And the 3-0 Mavericks took full control. For the game, the Pacers had 24, leading to 40 Dallas points.
“Dallas’ intensity and pressure hurt us, which led to turnovers and that was pretty much the game,” said Popeye Jones, the Pacers’ Summer league coach. “They were faster than us and we were a step slow, which was to be expected as we have been going at it for eight straight days. We’ve got a day off, we’ll play Thursday and try to finish this the right way with a win.”
Jarnell Stokes led the Pacers with 15 points and seven rebounds. Trey McKinney Jones had 11, Joe Young 10 and top draft pick T.J. Leaf, Ben Moore and Jordan Loyd all had 7. Lloyd also had six assists.
Loyd went out with a nasty hand injury in the fourth quarter. He played just 99 seconds in the final 10-minute period.
