From the monthly archives:

March 2011

Game #76 Recap: Pacers Handle Pistons

by Alex Yovanovich on March 30, 2011 at 11:19 pm · 0 comments

The Indiana Pacers looked great in handling the Pistons 111-101 on Wednesday night. Darren Collison led the attack with 20 points, Danny Granger added 17 and Josh McRoberts had a career-best with 13 rebounds to add to an effective 15-point night. Mike Dunleavy inspired the troops by making a triumphant return from injury to score 9 points. It was truly a night when no one on the Pacers played poorly.

On nights like these it’s easy to envision the Pacers as a worthy playoff team, despite their 34-42 record. Play well and the Pacers should easily be able to steal a game in a likely first round match-up against Chicago. Pushing a Chicago series to five games would be a noteworthy accomplishment for this group and set the franchise on the right path for the future. With the impending cap room the Pacers are about to enjoy this would be the icing on the cake.

All seems right with the world. The Pacers just spanked the Pistons. They continue to have a one-game lead for the 8th and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Keep playing like this and the regular season business will soon turn into the postseason bonus.

Which makes the cynic in me wonder — based on how things have gone this season — how far does the pendulum now swing in the other direction?

A quick glance at the Pacers closing schedule shows that there aren’t many teams like Detroit left on the slate. In fact, I count only one sure win, next Wednesday against Washington. It all starts with a game against Milwaukee, which will be looking at a last gasp effort on Friday to stay in the playoff race by beating the Pacers.

Here’s the Pacers remaining schedule:

Friday, April 1 – Milwaukee (30-44)
Sunday, April 3 – at New Orleans (42-32)
Wednesday, April 6 – Washington (18-56)
Friday, April 8 – Atlanta (42-32)
Sunday, April 10 – New York (36-38)
Wednesday, April 13 – at Orlando (47-28)

While things look a little daunting, it could be easier than anticipated if Atlanta, New York and Orlando all are locked into their playoff spots and decide that they have nothing to play for down the stretch.

On the surface, Charlotte has more games that they should win. Their closing schedule includes several bad teams in Washington, Cleveland, Detroit and New Jersey.

Here’s the Bobcats remaining schedule:

Friday, April 1 – at Orlando (47-28)
Sunday, April 3 – Washington (18-56)
Tuesday, April 5 – at Cleveland (15-59)
Wednesday, April 6 – Orlando (47-28)
Friday, April 8 – at Miami (52-23)
Sunday, April 10 – Detroit (26-48)
Monday, April 11 – at New Jersey (23-50)
Wednesday, April 13 – Atlanta (42-32)

Before their latest Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde routine, I really thought making the playoffs would be a relatively easy proposition for the Pacers. As Tim Donahue pointed out in recent article, the Pacers should have been home free after thoroughly dismantling the Bobcats last week.

Instead, they find themselves in a fight for their lives. Michael Jordan essentially made it public that Charlotte did not want to be the 7th or 8th seed in the East when he traded away his key pieces before the February deadline. Somehow, the Charlotte players ignored all that and have gone on to win four games in a row since the Pacers blew them out on their home court.

Meanwhile, the Pacers somehow managed to lose by double-digits to both Sacramento and Detroit before putting together a great effort to beat Boston.

The Pacers are a hard team to figure out. They have beaten teams they shouldn’t be able to beat, but they have lost in blowouts many more times to teams they should beat consistently.

If the Pacers recent trend of beating teams that are headed to the playoffs holds true, they should be in good shape. That would mean at least four wins down the stretch and the blue and gold would be playoff bound.

Given the wild swings of inconsistency this year, that is probably too much to ask …

But I’ll cross my fingers anyway.

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Detroit, Indiana, Fans, Apathy and an Odd Future

by Ronald Eugene on March 30, 2011 at 1:03 pm · 8 comments

Recently, I entered the House the Bad Boys Built and Ron Artest nearly tore down: the Palace of Auburn Hills. Expecting to perhaps be threatened or harassed for my preferred outcome of Saturday’s Pacers/Pistons game in Motown, I was instead disturbed for entirely different reasons.

It wasn’t the fact that I was in Detroit during Spring Break, the free throw shooting of my favored team or even the final result that upset me. The problem was the atmosphere of the game.

In a city far removed from its team’s latest championship, the Detroit crowd was lively and responsive. The Pistons played a good game — certainly helped by their opponent’s 7-of-19 performance from the free throw line — and the crowd fed them energy.

Why does it matter that Detroit had a good crowd on a Saturday night home game in March? Great question. I’m glad that you asked.

The real problem is that it was a more energetic game than any of the dozen that I have been to in Indianapolis all year. This came in the building of a team that is effectively out of the playoff race and has very few, if any, long term answers.

As the regular season draws to a close, and the postseason vaguely threatens to disappear entirely, it is not unreasonable to take a quick glance to the Pacers’ future.

Mike Dunleavy ($10.5 million), T.J. Ford ($8.5 million) and Jamaal Tinsley ($5.5 million) all have contributed about equal amounts since the switch to Frank Vogel, and all will be off the Pacers’ cap next year. This gives the team a considerable amount of wiggle room to sign new free agents to complement the assumed existing core of Darren Collison, Danny Granger, Roy Hibbert, Tyler Hansbrough and Paul George.

In a rapidly changing NBA, the question becomes: what will bring the players to Indiana?

We’ve seen from the recent migrations of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Carmelo Anthony that money isn’t enough in every circumstance. Oftentimes it comes down to the existing players on the roster (also known as the “Miami Cheat” or “LeBron White Flag”) or location (also known as “Carmelo Takes Denver Hostage”). Unfortunately, the Pacers really don’t have either advantage on their side.

Don’t get me wrong: I’ve lived in Indiana my entire life, and with the exception of a few months-long excursions to perfect my Spanish, I don’t expect to leave anytime soon. But I’m not an NBA free agent, the majority of whom aren’t from the Midwest.

So if money isn’t enough to bring a big-time free agent to Indianapolis, what’s getting him here?

See, the problem in Indiana may be the weather: the cold-weather tendencies of the winter and the fair-weather tendencies of the fans. The Colts even had some trouble selling out this year’s home playoff game initially, and the Pacers can’t get a full house without help from either LeBron or fans from Chicago.

If I’m an NBA player, I’ve noticed this in my past trips to Indiana over the years. I’m not entirely sure that I want to spend the next three to five years of my career playing in front of a Conseco Fieldhouse half-full of lethargic supporters. I don’t know what the small market of Indianapolis, a city where the bars close at 2:00 and the winter lasts a full three months, has to offer me other than a paycheck. I’m going to think twice about playing almost 50 games a year over six months in an arena in the self-proclaimed capital of basketball where the fans can’t match the energy level of a destitute team in a city that just set a national record for population decrease.

If you’re reading this thinking that sounds ridiculously immature and shortsighted, you may not completely understand the mind of a millionaire athletic phenomenon in his 20s.

On November 19, 2004, Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson ran into the stands at the Palace of Auburn Hills; the Pacers have never been relevant since. As I sat less than a hundred feet from that very spot six years and change later listening to an invigorated Detroit crowd celebrate a fundamentally meaningless victory, I worried about how my team could ever return to what it once was if the fans just don’t really care.

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Game #75 Recap: Roy Hibbert Kickstarts and Darren Collison Closes in a Big Win Over Boston

by Ronald Eugene on March 28, 2011 at 11:33 pm · 6 comments

Just two nights after losing in Detroit due in large part to horrid foul shooting, the Pacers received some help from the Boston Celtics at the free-throw line. Rather than looking that gift horse in the mouth, the Pacers rode it to a 107-100 victory.

Playing against a banged-up team, the Pacers benefited from solid bench play and great showings from point guards Darren Collison (18 points on 8-of-9 shooting) and AJ Price (15 points in 20 minutes).

It was a night that both teams needed a win for different reasons. The Pacers, trying to hold off quickly closing Charlotte, began just one game ahead of the field for the 8th and final playoff spot. Boston needed help to catch Chicago for home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

The game was a Jekyll-and-Hyde night that encapsulated a Jekyll-and-Hyde season thus far.

Predictably enough, the Pacers got off to their typical slow start. With five minutes remaining in the first quarter, Indiana trailed 22-12 due mainly to an inability to control Celtics star Rajon Rondo. Rondo was doing anything and everything he wanted to such a degree that, at the time, it seemed as though Collison would be incapable of redeeming himself for the poor defense he was playing.

With Boston shooting lights out in the opening period, Roy Hibbert kept Indiana within striking distance. Throw in a Price buzzer-beater as the quarter expired and the lead was cut to a manageable six at 33-27.

Enter the Bench Brigade.

Led by Price, Dahntay Jones, and the sharp-shooting Brandon Rush, the second string turned the 6-point deficit to a 5-point surplus in just 5 minutes. The starters capitalized off this energy. By halftime, Indiana had shot 60% and gotten 19 points from Roy Hibbert, who simply out-classed whoever Doc Rivers threw at the big fella (including Nenad Krstic, Big Baby Davis and even Jeff Green). The good guys led by 8.

The third quarter was the opposite story. Teams began trading baskets to start the half, the kind of back-and-forth against a superior team that makes conditioned Pacers fans ask “How long can this last?”

As it turns out, not very long. A 16-6 Boston run put the Celtics up by 2 midway through the period. But the Pacers weathered the storm.

Needing an impetus at the beginning of the final quarter, the Pacers responded to a Boston drought by going on a 7-0 run to grab a 3-point lead. Sloppy play and turnovers (I consider a jump shot by Josh McRoberts to be a turnover and am currently drafting up a proposal to the commissioner on the subject) prohibited the Pacers from stretching that lead any further. (I joke, but despite what the box score may tell you, McRoberts played very well, making several nice passes that led to buckets in the second half.)

The most surprising aspect of the game came with the Pacers new-found lead dwindling. With his team down one, Ray Allen went to the line for an automatic pair.

Then Allen missed his first foul shot since the Eisenhower administration, Indiana notched three quick buckets in under a minute, and the usually reliable Kevin Garnett shot off on a couple more free throws. Collison was at the center of the Pacers attack, hitting four big buckets late including a pull-up jumper, a steal/dunk alone in transition and a driving layup at the rim (on which he might have also gotten fouled).

Another big hoop by Hibbert, who had 26 on the night on 12-for-17 shooting, put the Pacers up 8. Whenever Indiana opened the door up for a potential Celtic comeback in the final 4 minutes, Boston was uncharacteristically quick to give the ball back.

On a night when they really needed a win — particularly with the Bobcats winning a thriller over the Bucks — the Pacers got it. With 9 games left and a 1-game cushion for the last playoff spot, nothing else matters.

Other thoughts:

  • Can we stop calling Pierce, Garnett and Allen The Big Three, please? None of them are currently the best player on their own team, and none of them even had the best career of all players currently on the team.
  • James Posey stands farther away from the team huddle than TV sideline reporter Stacey Paetz

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Pacers Get a Lot of Love During NCAA Tournament

by Alex Yovanovich on March 28, 2011 at 12:26 pm · 1 comment

Since the current collection of Indiana Pacers have reassumed their Mr. Hyde pose after delivering what appeared to be a knockout blow against Charlotte, let’s talk about something positive: The Pacers have been getting a lot of love during the NCAA Tournament.

Most everyone knows that former Pacer Clark Kellogg replaced the long-in-the-tooth Billy Packer a few years back as the number one college basketball color analyst at CBS. Kellogg will be alongside Jim Nantz at next weekend’s Final Four in Houston.

What came as a special delight was the pairing of ex-Pacers Reggie Miller and Len Elmore as dual color analysts for the Southeast Regional. Spurred on by the infectious excitement of play-by-play man Gus Johnson, Miller was almost overcome by the moment in Butler’s overtime win over Florida. When Butler guard Shelvin Mack hit a three-pointer near the end of overtime, the former Knick killer yelled, “This is an old-fashioned shootout for a chance to go to the Final Four!”

It’s nice to see the ex-Pacers get their shots on a national stage. It seemed especially appropriate as Butler, the small private school from Indianapolis, moved onto the Final Four for the second year in a row.

This guy knows how to get excited.

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