Pacers fire coach after one season

Kevin Pritchard hired Nate Bjorkgren to take the Indiana Pacers in a new direction.

They went the wrong way. A season filled with defensive struggles, missed chances and locker room drama resulted Wednesday in the firing of Bjorkgren after only one season as coach.

“This was my decision,” said Pritchard, the Pacers’ president of basketball operations. “This was a really tough decision, one that had a lot of thought behind it. I brought in my management team, something we didn’t do lightly.”

Pritchard expected the 45year-old coach, who spent the previous two seasons as Nick Nurse’s top assistant in Toronto, to make an impact with his new-age approach and his creativity. When the hiring was announced in October, Pritchard acknowledged he was betting big on a young coach. It just didn’t pay off.

Indiana went 34-38 before finishing the season with an embarrassing 142-115 loss to Washington in the play-in tournament. The Wizards averaged 140.3 points in sweeping four games from the Pacers.

Harden to miss Game 3 vs Bucks.

Brooklyn’s James Harden will miss Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Thursday because of the right hamstring injury that forced him out of the series opener.

Harden left 43 seconds into that game with tightness but the Nets haven’t missed him, taking a 2-0 lead over the Bucks. Harden missed 20 of 21 games late in the season because of the hamstring.

Coach Steve Nash said Harden is progressing and he was optimistic for the All-Star guard’s return, but gave no timetable for that.