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AJ Price

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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The Substitute Teacher Syndrome

by Tom Kester on March 11, 2011 at 1:45 pm · 0 comments

Sometimes the classroom gets out of hand. Sometimes the teacher needs to speak up, get the unruly little jerks back in their seats, and impose some guidance. No lessons are going to get learned when the students are bickering, pursuing their own interests, or even trying to hold class … because there’s a way this is supposed to work, and letting the students do their own thing isn’t it.

The Indiana Pacers, second youngest roster in the NBA right now, need some guidance.

After Wednesday’s blowout loss to the Timberwolves, the Indianapolis Star got second unit point guard A.J. Price’s take on the problem.

“Man to man, we all want to win individually, but we’re not all playing as a team and I think that’s why we’re not winning,” Price said. “Until we come back together as a team, we won’t win.”

“Lately we haven’t been in sync, and we haven’t been together as a unit,” Price said. “That’s why we aren’t winning games.”

Roy Hibbert added his thoughts.

“Teams are adjusting to what we’re doing and we don’t know how to win,” Hibbert said.

Of course they don’t know how to win. They’re the students in this scenario. Under the tutelage of the mean old teacher that used to run the classroom, they reached the point where they were trading skeptical sideways looks with each other, even making faces when the teacher’s back was turned. The old fellow tended to ramble on and on about his pet theories, after all. He would present reams of statistics for the students’ edification. He pushed his own ivory tower schematic of how a classroom is run, lessons successfully learned, tests completed with passing scores, even when the test results consistently placed his class in the lower echelons of academic accomplishment.

That’s why the substitute teacher (something Lester Connor called himself last year when he filled in for O’Brien) was such a breath of fresh air. No more odd educational theories need apply. Our class is back to basics. “Smashmouth,” old-school educating at its finest. Readin’, writin’, and ‘rithmetic.

The kids responded well. Enthusiasm for learning blossomed. Test scores soared.

But at some point, the whole glorious process faltered. We don’t really know why. Did the students start bickering with each other over who was the best student? Did that new kid cause friction? Is the substitute teacher just too inexperienced to keep the students following the curriculum? We don’t know. Even putting our ear to the classroom door reveals nothing but noise that seems inappropriate to a learning environment, but what exactly is all the commotion is about?

Don’t know.

The youth of the team is not the issue. The Timberwolves are even younger, and they put the Pacers out of that particular spelling bee early. What we do know, what is abundantly clear even to those of us with no teaching certificate, is that Teacher needs to step up his game. Soon. Like, now.

And the teacher in this tortured extended analogy, Coach Vogel, says he’s ready to fix the problem.

“Clearly we’re struggling on the offensive end. We’re struggling as a basketball team. We will work until we come out of it, and we will come out of it.”

Coach, teacher, all the concerned citizens of the school system hope you’re up to it. Classroom discipline is not always easy to regain once it’s lost, particularly perhaps for a substitute teacher. The results are going to go a long way toward helping the school board decide if the substitute teacher gets called back next term.

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Improving Defense from the Point Guard Spot

by Jared Wade on January 26, 2011 at 6:29 pm · 3 comments

In the below video, coach Jim O’Brien, Danny Granger and Mike Dunleavy, Jr. discuss the Pacers playoff chances at the midway point of the season. Obviously they are all still optimistic and think they can make the postseason. We knew they would say that.

The interesting part starts at the 2:34 mark when coach Jim O’Brien starts talking about how demoting TJ Ford may hurt the team’s defense. Even though I know it’s true, it’s still weird to hear; TJ has been the team’s best defender at the point guard position this season.

And he is is now out of the rotation.

Now, I don’t think TJ is a terrible defender — he’s just an undersized guy with flaws — but his status as best PG defender on the team is less about him being really good and more about Darren Collison being really bad.

Particularly in the pick-and-roll, DC has just been out to lunch all season. He fails to fight through the screens and takes way too long to recover. When he goes under the screen, the ball-handler all too often has a good look at a mid-range jumper. When he goes over the screen, he is usually way too slow and can’t prevent the ball-handler from penetrating into the thick of the defense or otherwise causing havoc by dishing it around the perimeter. And no matter whether he goes under or over, he is almost always so slow to recover that it leaves the guy guarding the screener exposed, forcing him to hedge at the dribbler to mitigate the quick play while at the same time keeping track of his own man, who is either rolling to the hoop for a layup or popping to open space for a jumpshot. Aside from Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett in their primes (neither of which are on the 2010-11 Indiana Pacers, FYI), there aren’t many players in the history of this sport that can contain both players in a pick-and-roll for as long as Darren’s lackluster recovery demands.

In addition to the hours of game film illustrating these failings, there are some numbers that show just how bad he has been, both in pick-and-roll situations and just overall.

In Darren Collison’s 1,028 minutes on the court this season, the Pacers have given up 107.8 points per 100 possessions — more than three points per 100 worse than the team’s overall 104.5 per 100.

Worse still, in the 801 minutes the team has played with Collison off the floor, the Pacers only give up 100.1 points per 100 possessions. For reference, only one NBA team has a stingier defense than the Pacers units have posted when Collison sits. (The Bulls only give up 99.4 points per 100 possessions.) As is always the case in a game that requires teams to play 5 on 5, there are definitely other rotation-based factors involved in addition to simply whether or not DC is in the game. But a swing of nearly 8 points is pretty damning circumstantial evidence.

With TJ now out of the rotation and AJ Price not exactly a defensive stopper himself, it seems obvious that Darren is going to have to improve if the team hopes to maintain its top ten defensive ranking. And for Indiana to make the playoffs, that seems a prerequisite. I believe that the team’s offense (currently the 7th worst in the league) will improve. But it certainly won’t improve to the degree that it can become a staple for winning this year.

Ultimately, the road to the playoffs is paved with defense.

And Darren Collison must improve his.

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Indy Can’t Close Out Either Half, Loses to GSW

by Jared Wade on January 20, 2011 at 2:40 am · 0 comments

The Pacers played miserably to end both halves tonight and that was the difference. With two minutes to go in first half, Indiana lead 54-43 and had held Golden State to just 15 points through the past 10 minutes. To close out the half, the Pacers missed two layups (Jeff Foster and Brandon Rush) and failed to defend the perimeter, allowing Monta Ellis to hit two threes (in addition to two other buckets). The result: the team that had dominated the first two quarters only led by 5 points at the break and the home team now had momentum and confidence to start the third.

Then, in the final two minutes of the game, the Pacers looked even worse. With the game tied at 105-105, Darren Collison traveled. It was a careless play in which he wasn’t even over-eager to get the hoop; he simply got himself in trouble picking up his job with nothing to do and dragged his pivot foot. Two possessions later, Danny Granger tried to hit a rolling Foster with a pass. It wasn’t even close. As @noamschiller said, “Danny Granger might have lost Indy the game, but in his defense, that fan was wide open.” If that wasn’t enough, Foster was again part of futility on the other end. Good Pacers defense forced Monta Ellis, who looked very much like an All-Star while scoring 36 points on 16/28 shooting, into a tough 16-footer. David Lee outplayed Foster for the board and kicked it out to Monta, who wouldn’t miss when given a second chance.

Despite this, the Pacers, who were now down 3, tied it up on a miraculous Collison lay-up and-one. But Monta stuck a pull-up dagger at the other end with the clock dwindling and Indy couldn’t get a good look at the hoop inbounding with only 0.6 left.

Another blown opportunity. Pacers lose 110-108.

The crunch-time failings will — and should — receive the bulk of the blame. But it’s meltdowns like the one to end the first half that really continue to perplex me. I’m not sure any team blows mid-game opportunities to demoralize the opponent more than Indy. If they had just stayed focused for two more minutes as they headed into the break, they could have easily been up by at least 9 and perhaps double-digits. Teams like the Warriors may fold in such situations — particularly if the Pacers would have used the first-half momentum they built by going on a 19-2 run at one point to do better than the 7-turnover, 5-for-16 shooting performance they gave in the third quarter.

A few other notes:

  • Prior to tonight, AJ Price had played in 7 games this year yet he still entered the game before TJ Ford, who didn’t play a minute. In similar news, Josh McRoberts started tonight after playing a total of 15 minutes so far in 2011. Jim O’Brien’s lineups are clearly decided by a monkey, a dart and a dart board. It’s beyond troubling and just funny now. What could possibly go through this man’s mind is beyond me, especially when Conrad Brunner reported that the coach offered the following comment before the game: “When you lose a key guy like Roy you try not to change up your entire rotation.” James Posey also got only his third DNP of the season, and Solomon Jones, who actually hasn’t gotten many minutes since December, also sat out all 48.
  • Perhaps also worth noting is that AJ Price was terrible. He had 3 turnovers to 1 assist and just generally dribbled around awkwardly and ineffectively way more than you would like to see.
  • Danny Granger had a great first half. One of the best halves I’ve seen him play this season even. He made it a point to penetrate, getting into the paint often and keeping the defense guessing enough to give him room to shoot from the outside. Granger was even setting up teammates for buckets. But he got away from “good Danny” in the third quarter as he started trying to go bucket-for-bucket with Dorell Wright, who torched Indy all night. By the time his arguably game-losing turnover occurred, he had 7 for the game and sullied what could otherwise have been an uber-efficient 32 point, 13 rebound, 6 assist night on 11-for-19 shooting. Still a decent night and a great stat line, but highly tarnished.
  • The aforementioned start for Josh McRoberts came alongside Tyler Hansbrough. I’m not going to lie; I was skeptical. But I actually rather enjoyed their time together on the court. Josh had a monster dunk early on a nice Granger dish and Tyler completed a highlight put-back dunk off a Mike Dunleavy missed layup. They brought energy and had the game taken place in Conseco, I think the crowd would have been going nuts. McRoberts played less than 20 minutes, however, and we were instead given a healthy dose of a Foster/Hansbrough big man lineup. I didn’t like that one very much. Foster finished with 15 boards though so he definitely helped out a lot — even while missing several layups, as expected.
  • Darren Collison was back to being hesitant, only taking 11 shots in 32 minutes, which looks even more aggressive than it was considering that 3 of those FGAs came in the final 4 minutes of the game. I like the initiative late, but they needed more of it. In his defense, he did sit for way too long in the third quarter as Price dawdled around the court doing very little.
  • As this season starts to feel increasingly downtrodden, the need to develop Paul George becomes paramount. This kid can be good. He is beginning to look comfortable out there. At one point he grabbed a board and dribbled coast-to-coast, getting himself to the line with a nice attempt near the paint. He played some good defense at times and would have had his fourth double-digit scoring night in his last 10 games had he been able to convert a should-have-been-easy-but-he-was-too-giddy alley-oop in the second half.

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