This was a scary game for the Indiana Pacers.  For starters, they were without PG Darren Collison (ankle) and Mike Dunleavy (wife having a baby).  The LA Clippers were also on a horrible 7-game losing streak, meaning they were desperate and dangerous.

Fortunately, the Pacers were on their game tonight and pounded the Clippers 107-80.

Some observations:

• Danny Granger is finally starting to realize just how good of a defensive and all-round player he can be.  Against the Clippers, he Granger scored 22 points and also filled out the rest of the box score with 7 rebounds 5 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks with 0 turnovers.  Most importantly, he held an initially hot Eric Gordon (who had 11 in the first quarter, including a vicious dunk on Hibbert) to 19 points on 5-17 shooting.  Great sign that Granger is playing good D and leading by example.  As a team the Pacers blocked 14 shots!

• Roy Hibbert continued his strong play with 18 points (9-13 shooting), 8 rebounds and 3 blocks, but he did have 6 turnovers.  However, he did have 0 fouls in 31 minutes!  Finally, the Pacers look like they've got another star.  If Big Roy can keep up his ascension and stay healthy, I have no doubt he can be an All-Star.

• Solomon Jones did not play.  Great idea.  The reason is probably because Jeff Foster is finally back!  The dependable veteran will never be what he once was after back surgery (and let's face it, he was always a utility player anyway), but he was solid today with 2 points (making his only shot), grabbing 4 rebounds and blocking 2 shots in 12 minutes.  Hopefully he can keep up this kind of effectiveness off the bench.

• Paul George appears to be out of O'Brien's dog house.  He played 16 minutes and had 4 fouls to go with 3 points and 3 rebounds.

• Brandon Rush finally had another decent game after struggling since his debut against the Nuggets.  Tonight he had 14 points, 5 rebounds and 5 blocks in 28 minutes, but he did have 4 turnovers.

• AJ Price played again tonight in Collison's absence and was great.  He played only 21 minutes but had 14 points and 6 assists against just a single turnover.  Play him every night JOB!!!!

From here, the road gets rough for the 5-5 Pacers.  They take on Orlando on Saturday at home in a game that will be very difficult for them to win, but if Hibbert can stay out of foul trouble and keep Dwight Howard in check and the rest of the team can find their offensive flow, a victory is not out of the question.

Then, the biggest test -- a date in Miami with the Heat.  And after that, a rematch with the Cavaliers, then tough games against the Thunder and the Lakers.  No one is expecting them to win all those games, but the Pacers are already doing a lot better than what people have been predicting.  Here's to hoping they can keep proving the experts wrong!

The up-and-down season for the Indiana Pacers continues.  Tonight, they lost to the Atlanta Hawks at Conseco Fieldhouse, 102-92, dropping them to 4-5 for the season.

To be honest, I wasn't confident that the Pacers could pull out the victory against the stacked Hawks squad, and my confidence was further dashed when I discovered that both Darren Collison and Tyler Hansbrough were out with ankle injuries.  However, to my surprise the Pacers did relatively well until the third quarter, when the Hawkes blew open a tight game.

Danny Granger led the way with 22 points, and Roy Hibbert continued his strong run with 18 points and 15 boards.  For the season, Hibbert is averaging 16.3 points, 10.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.8 blocks (last season he had 11.7, 5.7, 2.0 and 1.6 respectively).  If the Pacers do a little better in the standings perhaps Roy might get a couple of All-Star votes from the coaches.

The only silver lining from the injuries and the loss was that we finally got to see AJ Price play.  The same AJ Price that coach Jim O'Brien said was the best player of the team during the preseason and suddenly disappeared off the end of the bench when the season started.

Price was effective, putting up 7 points and 2 assists in just 11 minutes.  TJ Ford played 37 minutes and had 6 points and 5 assists.  I simply don't understand why Price doesn't play more.

As for Brandon Rush, it looks like his promising debut may have been an abberation.  He had 5 points in 26 minutes, meaning he has scored just 14 points in his last 3 games after putting up 16 in that big rout of Denver.  Let's hope he's not smoking again...

Next up, the LA Clippers at home on Thursday.  Surely that is a winnable game!  Come on Pacers!  Stick to 0.500 for as long as you can!

After a tough loss to the Houston Rockets the night before, the Indiana Pacers, lead by Danny Granger, buckled down in the second half to defeat the new look Cleveland Cavaliers, 99-85. 

A much stronger effort by the Pacers tonight on the defensive end, but as always, there's still plenty of room for improvement.

Danny Granger was hot tonight, scoring a season-high 34 points on 13-21 shooting (5-8 from downtown).  Mike Dunleavy added 20 and Roy Hibbert chipped in with 16 points and 13 rebounds.

This was much more like it for the Pacers.  They shared the ball, hustled hard and played good D when it mattered down the stretch.  Road victories were a rarity for the Pacers last season, but so far this season they are 0.500 on the road (and at home).

Coach Jim O'Brien used a 10 man rotation tonight, meaning Dahntay Jones continued to sit on the bench, along with rookie Paul George.  I like the use of James Posey off the bench, but they really need to give George some minutes for him to develop.  I say get rid of Solomon Jones and give his minutes to George and Hansbrough.

Well, a tough stretch is about to come up.  From Tuesday the 16th of November till the end of the month, the Pacers will play Atlanta, LA Clippers, Orlando, Miami, Cleveland (again), Oklahoma City, LA Lakers and Sacramento.  A crucial part of the schedule -- if they can come out of it at 8-8, then I think the team will be in good shape for the remainder of the season.

Well, no one expected the Pacers to repeat their performance against the Denver Nuggets the other night. 

Tonight, the Pacers took on the Yao-less Houston Rockets, who have struggled themselves out of the gate.  It was a close game with some questionable calls down the stretch (including a tech on Josh McRoberts and a series of no calls as the Pacers tried to claw their way back), but the Pacers couldn't get off a decent three point shot on the final possesion, losing 102-99 and dropping to 3-4 for the season.

I knew this was going to be a tough game because even though the Rockets were only 1-6 coming into the game (winless on the road) and are currently without both Yao Ming and Aaron Brooks, they are a solid team -- perhaps the best 1-6 team I've seen!  And when key guys are out, the other guys usually step up.

That's exactly what happened tonight as Brad Miller lit up his former team for 23 points, including a couple of big threes down the stretch, Kevin Martin had 20 and Luis Scola had 16.  But the guy that posed the most obvious problems was Kyle Lowry, who made both Darren Collison and TJ Ford struggle on the defensive end.

For the Pacers, James Posey, who didn't even play against the Nuggets, top scored with 19 points, including several big shots in the third quarter as the Pacers erased a 10 point deficit.  Danny Granger added 17, Roy Hibbert had 18, and Mike Dunleavy had 15.

What this game showed, once again, is that this Pacers team is going to have A LOT of ups and downs this season.  This game was not as bad as the thrashing at the hands of the 76ers earlier in the season, but it wasn't anything close to what we saw against the Nuggets either.  Still too many bad passes, bad shot decisions, bad turnovers.  Their defense is still not there yet, but when this team is sharing the ball, they are a nightmare to guard.  If they can just get a bit of consistency at both ends of the court, there is no reason why this team cannot make the playoffs.

Other things this game showed:

1. Brandon Rush isn't going to average 16 points a game this season (which was what he scored in his first game!).  He struggled with open shots tonight, going 1-7 and finishing with just 2 points.  Let's just hope he's capable of averaging 12-14 a night.  I think that's realistic.

2. Tyler Hansbrough played just 11 minutes and scored 4 points, but the kid has potential.  Offensively, he is a huge upgrade on Josh McRoberts.  I like Josh and the energy he brings, but he isn't good enough to be a starter, even on this team.  He does a good job rebounding and hustling, but he counters the good with a lot of bad decisions and his offensive game is sporadic at best.

3. Rookie Paul George got dropped out of the rotation as O'Brien says the kid's head is not in the right place at the moment.  I'm no NBA coach, but Jim O'Brien's decisions really puzzle me.  What is the deal with his rotations?  You don't play Posey one night, and the next night he gets 26 minutes.  Posey was on fire in the third quarter, but what does O'Brien do at the start of the fourth?  Take him right out.  I just don't get it.

4. Granger is a terrific player, but he can't carry this team alone.  He doesn't have that superstar aura about him yet.  He seldom takes over a game when he needs to.  When guys like Kobe, Wade, Lebron, Paul, Durant, etc get the ball with the clock winding down, you believe they're going to score or make a play leading to a score.  You don't get that with Granger.  Not yet anyway.

5. Collison is going to be a great PG in this league, but he's not there yet either.  He shows flashes of brilliance but he too makes a lot of silly errors.  There's no doubt he's a better player than TJ Ford, but I can understand why O'Brien goes with Ford over Collison sometimes.

Next up, the Pacers head to Cleveland to take on the Cavaliers.  Very important game because they are entering a tough part of the schedule where they will face the likes of Atlanta, Orlando, Miami, Oklahoma City and the LA Lakers.  If this young team falls too far behind 0.500 early in the season they may never recover.

 

I am speechless.  I am without speech.

I was out and about when I decided to check the score of the Indiana Pacers-Denver Nuggets game.  When the score flash up, I decided I must have been dreaming.  It was the end of the third quarter and the Pacers were up 113-76.  I looked at the quarter stats and saw that the Pacers had just completed a 54 point quarter.  I thought someone must have hacked into my computer and posted a fake game update!  How can a team score 54 points in a quarter?  And the Pacers of all teams?

Anyway, the Pacers remained relatively hot and finished the game 144-113.  It was just an insane night of basketball, especially when you consider what happened in Miami with Paul Millsap going nuts all by himself.

As soon as I got the chance, I watched the entire game on NBA League Pass.  All I can say is that it's one of the most surreal Pacers games I've ever seen.  The team played well in the first half to get a 10 point lead.  The Nuggets were playing their fourth game in five nights, so they were understandably tired, but I expected them to come out strong in the third, which they kind of did.

But the Pacers just lost it.  Granger was swishing jumpers (19 points).  Hibbert was knocking down shots in the post (17 points).  Collison, hot all night, got it going inside and out (season high 29).  Rush, back from suspension, had a solid return game, hitting a few of his own (16 points).  And of course, there was Mike Dunleavy doing his Reggie Miller impression.  24 points, including 5-5 from three-point range in the third quarter.  He finished with 31 points.

Cra-zy.  The most incredible stat of the night was that the Pacers hit their first 20 shots in a row in the third quarter.  They only missed one field goal, the very last one, when Josh McRoberts took a three with the clock winding down.

This was a historic game I'm pretty sure we'll never see again, and it is just ONE game, so let's not get carried away -- but there's lots of great things to take away from it and build on.  Collison was on fire, picking up the tempo and taking his shots when the opportunities presented themselves.  Granger was learning to take better shots, as was Hibbert.  McRoberts and Hansbrough were hustling and grabbing shots (and Hansrough is a much better offensive player than I had given him credit for).  And Brandon Rush -- if he can put in this type of effort (16 points) every night then the Pacers would have proven everyone wrong about giving him a contract extension.

There will be nights when the shots simply don't fall, but on this night, everything did.

The Pacers next play the Rockets at home on Saturday.