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Al Horford

The Best Play of the Pacers Season So Far

by Jared Wade on January 12, 2012 at 4:21 pm · 1 comment

As mentioned on his report card, Roy Hibbert often looked like a man among boys last night against the Hawks lineup. As Bret LaGree of the Hawks blog Hoopinion noted, this was in part due to the fact that Al Horford left the game early with an injury. He wrote that, in the third quarter, with Jason Collins starting at center in the play of Horford, “the Pacers ran the Hawks out of the gym, partially on the basis of Hibbert not having to worry about Collins and being free to protect the rim.”

~~Of course, there was a reason Horford left the game. And it was due to his shoulder getting banged up when Hibbert and Paul George sent a tag-team swat team after two of his shot attempts.~~

The result was the easily the best Pacers sequence so far this young season. Horford gets swatted, regathers and gets swatted again. Vlad Rad picks up the loose ball and gets his attempt block nearly before it even leaves his hands.

Then it’s off to the races the other way as Paul George adeptly leads a break, but slows it down rather than forcing a drive (perhaps due to the fact that he, not so surprisingly, almost lost his dribble). He finds a posting Hibbert, who had hustled down the court and looks poised to a make a move. But instead sees a wide-open David West cutting through the lane for to turn the Indiana power-play (Horford was lying on the floor at the other end) into a dunk.

Ball movement city.

* UPDATE: Didn’t know about the severity of Al’s injury when originally posting. In the grand scheme of things, this play really sucks. Al Horford tore his left pec during the exchange and will now be out up to 4 months. Crappy, crappy stuff. No insensitivity intended. Was unaware.

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Roy Hibbert Is the NBA’s 5th Best Center

by Jared Wade on December 11, 2010 at 3:16 pm · 0 comments

According to Scott Carefoot’s latest positional rankings over on The Basketball Jones, Roy Hibbert is now the fifth best center in the league.

5. (7.) Roy Hibbert, Indiana Pacers — 2010-11 stats: 20 GP, 29.8 MPG, 15.4 PPG, 3.1 APG, 8.5 RPG, 0.4 SPG, 1.9 BPG, .512 FG%, .000 3P%, .750 FT%, 20.4 PER

Hibbert says that his nickname at Georgetown was BMW — meaning “‘Body Made Wrong.” He dropped 30 pounds this off-season, practiced his passing out of the post with Bill Walton and trained with MMA fighters. Now you could call him “VW” because he’s playing Very Well. His 3.1 assists per game trails only Al Horford among NBA centers, but Pacers coach Jim O’Brien says, “He’ll average, I believe within a year or two, seven assists a game.”

The most common question I get about the team is whether or not Roy Hibbert will be an All-Star this year. It’s certainly a possibility. The East starting will obviously be Dwight Howard and there are rarely more than two centers selected, however.

That means that one of Al Horford (who TBJ ranked fourth), Joakim Noah (sixth) and Andrew Bogut (seventh) will not be invited to All-Star Weekend. If Amar’e Stoudemire is voted in as a center (third), then it’s possible none of these guys makes it.

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Game #74 Recap: Al Horford REALLY Likes Playing the Pacers

by Tim Donahue on March 28, 2010 at 7:58 pm · 3 comments

Atlanta Hawks 94 – Indiana Pacers 84

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Well, you knew it couldn’t go on forever. Heck, you’re probably still not sure that the Pacers really and truly had a five-game winning streak. Regardless, it all ground to a halt in the second half as the Pacer offense that had been running like well-oiled machine seized up.

Atlanta is a tough matchup for our boys in Blue. Their frontcourt is quick and athletic, capable of protecting the rim and controlling the glass. Backcourt mates Joe Johnson, Mike Bibby, and Jamal Crawford all can make you pay if you lose them on the perimeter.

The most glaring advantage Atlanta has is in the pivot, where Al Horford has just destroyed Roy Hibbert all season long. In the first two matchups, Horford has outscored Roy 49-12, outrebounded him 35-13, and recorded 7 blocks vs. only 2 for Roy. Still, those were both played before the first of the year, and Hibbert has made some great strides since then.

Unfortunately, not great enough. A good chunk of the story can be seen on their comparative shot charts:

alvroy

The Pacers tried to work Roy early, but he missed his first four shots as Horford used his strength to force Roy into jump hooks from just a foot or two outside his comfort zone. Meanwhile, Horford continually found himself wide open for 12 to 15-foot jumpers, and he capitalized. Hibbert either got lost in rotations or (understandably) gave the Hawks’ center space due to a lack of foot speed. At the end of the day, Horford posted 18 points and 12 boards, essentially in three quarters of play. Conversely, Roy managed only 6 points and 2 rebounds in 23 ineffectual minutes.

As for the rest of the Pacers, they posted an impressive 31-point 1st 1uarter, buoyed by 6-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc. Brandon Rush drained all four three-point tries in his 12 first quarter minutes, and the Pacers entered the 2nd up 31-26. From there, it was a tough road-a-hoe.

Over the next 36 minutes, the Pacers managed only 53 points while hitting only 2 of their 17 threes. Brandon Rush, who was so hot in the first, didn’t play at all in the second, then went 1-for-5 from the floor the rest of the game and was generally nonexistent. At least twice in the second half, he was completely exploited defensively by Jamal Crawford. Rush committed a dumb foul on Joe Johnson late in the first. It’s unclear as to whether his second quarter absence was some sort of punishment by O’Brien, or if it was because Brandon had two fouls. Unfortunately, there was no Pacer TV coverage, and Mike Wells didn’t make the trip to Atlanta, so we’ll have to wait to find out what happened there.

Danny played a good, bordering on great, floor game today, but couldn’t buy a bucket. He scored 18 points on 7-for-19 shooting. He did play some good defense, and his attacking the basket was creating the few second quarter opportunities the Pacers got. Unfortunately, any day that finds both Danny and Roy struggling to score is pretty much going to doom the Pacers limited offense.

Watson, like Rush, played a fantastic first quarter, then showed us his down side. Josh McRoberts was unable to repeat his recent aerobatics, as he was at an athletic disadvantage to Josh Smith, Marvin Williams, and Al Horford. Solo got the call after McBob’s first rotation, and performed admirably, posting 7 points and 7 boards. AJ Price and Dahntay Jones, God Love ‘em, played like hot garbage. The only Pacer who was able to maintain his play of late was Troy Murphy, with 21 points and 14 rebounds.

Still, despite being overwhelmed by the Hawks, the Pacers largely kept their heads in the game. This wasn’t a game where they just rolled over. No question they were soundly beaten in the second half, but they kept chasing it. The Pacers have had several losses this year where the final score was closer than the game really was. This game was really closer than the fourth quarter and the final score showed.

None of it was good enough, and the Pacers dropped their 47th game in 74 tries. It’s long been a foregone conclusion, but if Toronto holds onto the double-digit lead they hold in Miami late in the third, then the Pacers will officially be mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. One more loss, and the Pacers will be guaranteed of having their worst record in 21 seasons.

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Game #1: Recapping the Recaps

by Jared Wade on October 29, 2009 at 11:22 am · 0 comments

Fortunately for yall, most people don’t write 2,500-word write ups about a poorly played game. (And, yeah, that won’t be the norm around these parts neither. It wasn’t my intention when I started it, but that was essentially half opening game recap/half season preview part deux.)

And given the number of non-AP recaps proliferating around the internet, Pacer fans can probably spend all day reading different people’s takes on the opener. The internet keeps it thorough like that.

I can’t say I’ve read them all yet, but it’s hard to believe that anyone can sum up Indy’s painful offense last night better than Kelly Dwyer of Ball Don’t Lie did.

(it’s like the Hawks had five Deion Sanders’ out there, at times), and it was only the sweet shooting of Earl Watson (you read that right) that kept the Pacers in contention.

The sweet shooting of Earl Watson. I like that. Let’s try that again.

The delicate stylings of Napalm Death.

The cogent musings of Gary Busey.

The rapier wit of Jay Leno.

The definitely not stabbing anyone of O.J. Simpson.

Don’t complain about O.J. Simpson jokes. I learned from the rapier wit of Jay Leno.

When it comes to Pacer/Hawks recaps, I think Dwyer just earned himself a chicken dinner. Here’s the best of the rest for your reading pleasure.

Cornrows: “Possession of the ball is nine tenths of the loss.”

Mike Wells: “The Pacers’ supposed new defense was nowhere to be found in the Atlanta metropolitan area”

Indy Basketball Report: “Indiana finished the game with one steal while Atlanta registered 16″

John Hollinger: “Indy’s interceptions ruined a superb shooting night”

Pacers Digest / UncleBuck: “One thing the Hawks aren’t very good at is half court offense, but they seemingly had no problem scoring against the Pacers defense”

AP: “The game finally turned when Atlanta started cutting off the driving lanes and Johnson got in Granger’s face. Indiana’s star was held to four points in the final period”

Sekou Smith (ATL): “Horford had a masterful opening night, finishing with 24 points, a game-high 16 rebounds and two blocks as all five Hawks starters scored in double figures.”

Hoopinion: “Through a little more than three quarters, Jim O’Brien got a lot out of Dahntay Jones and Earl Watson. Then he asked them for more and learned they’d given all they had.”

Peachtree Hoops (ATL): “Jeff Teague enjoys the game out there. After that steal and dunk, the kid was uncontrollably smiling.”

Human Highlight Blog: “Granger was in the game he must have been wearing his Cloak of Invisibility, because he found himself wide open a bit too much for someone of his considerable talents.”

Repeat after me: It’s only one game. It’s only one game. It’s only one game.