NBA Playoffs 2014: Indiana Pacers’ David West won’t miss playing Atlanta Hawks

Despite never leading in the series, the Indiana Pacers won both games 6 and 7 to defeat the Atlanta Hawks and move on to the second round of the NBA Playoffs, where they will meet the Washington Wizards.

The Hawks presented a lot of problems for the Pacers because of the ability of their big men to knock down shots from the perimeter. They were able to drag the Pacers out of the paint and rendered center Roy Hibbert useless for the majority of the series.

Pacers’ power forward David West is happy to be moving on and certainly won’t miss playing the Hawks.

“I won’t miss (Atlanta and its style of basketball),” David West told Bob Kravtiz of The USA Today. “It took us a couple of games to figure them out on the glass, the long ricochet rebounds they were getting. It took us a few more games to figure out how to cover (Kyle) Korver and those high screens he comes off of. Tonight, we put it all together. We defended the pick and roll with (Jeff) Teague, we forced him into some tough finishes. We forced (Paul) Millsap into some tough finishes. … Ultimately I felt like we were locked in enough to pull this series out.”

West is averaging 13.4 points, 6.9 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 1.6 blocks and 1.3 steals per game in the postseason.