Months later, and David West was still punishing the Hawks.
The Pacers’ power forward helped eliminate the Hawks in the first round of the playoffs in May. He picked up where he left off Tuesday night. West scored a game-high 24 points to lead the Pacers to a 107-89 exhibition victory over the Hawks.
The Hawks (1-5) had trouble containing West, who often pleaded for the ball in the low post. He added seven rebounds and did not play the fourth quarter.
The Hawks got off to a fast start. Their ball-movement offense worked well in the first quarter as they opened an 11-point lead. However, their 24-15 advantage after the first quarter would soon vanish.
The Pacers went on a 27-8 run to start the second quarter, with West scoring 10 of the points, to take a lead they would not relinquish. They led by as many as 23 points in the fourth quarter.
The Hawks were led by Jeff Teague and Mike Scott, who each scored 17 points. Teague added eight assists. DeMarre Carroll (12), Al Horford (12) and Elton Brand (11) rounded out the double-digit scorers.
The Hawks played all four conference finalists during the exhibition season, with losses to the Spurs, Grizzlies, Heat and Pacers.
Paul George, another nemesis of the Hawks in last season’s playoffs, added 17 points. Luis Scola came off the bench to add 20 points.
The Hawks played without Paul Millsap because of his sore left Achilles. They will play without the starting power forward again Wednesday in the exhibition finale at the Mavericks.
Millsap has nursed the injury of late and had to leave Sunday’s exhibition against the Grizzlies late in the third quarter.
“I think we are going to be conservative and cautious and give him the next couple days off,” coach Mike Budenholzer said. “Just let him rehab and rest and make sure he’s feeling really good going into the season.”
Budenholzer said he did not want to risk further injury to Millsap — a strain or worse. The fact that Millsap had his best game of the preseason Sunday made the coach comfortable in the decision.
“I think he feels good, and he is getting more comfortable, and him being healthy is ultimately is the most important thing,” Budenholzer said.
Millsap said his Achilles is still sore and he will continue to receive treatments. The Hawks open the regular season Oct. 30 in Dallas.
“It just came along,” Millsap said. “It could be from different shoes or tweaked it maybe. Who knows? It’s nothing major.”
Brand started in place of Millsap. He played center, and Horford moved to forward.
“Particularly offensively, the bigs are interchangeable,” Budenholzer said. “Defensively, one of the reasons were are excited to have Elton is he can guard some of the good (centers) in the league and hopefully to whatever degree and have an impact and slow them down a little bit. It will be good to have that Elton and Al combo.”
Jared Cunningham, Eric Dawson and Shelvin Mack were the healthy Hawks who did not play.
John Jenkins, who missed the first five exhibition games with lower back spasms, saw his first action of the preseason, playing 11 minutes.
