There was a scrum after the errant jumper that the Pacers used to re-secure the possession and get Tyler Hansbrough a layup. Then there was a steal, some free throws and an offensive board. You know: typical Jeff Foster “stats.”

As far as the stats the score-keeper actually records, Foster played 15 minutes and grabbed 4 rebounds, 3 of which came on the offensive end. But he was quick to point out that that doesn’t count the two boards Jeff claims he would have gotten if it wasn’t for Hansbrough. “He stole two from me,” said Foster after the game. “He even admitted it. [But] as long as someone gets them, I’m happy.”

The other thing that didn’t take long was for Foster to show his age. No, not in the game, but in the locker room.

Given that the game was in Boston, many reporters were eager for thoughts on Larry Bird. And Jeff, who played for Larry as a coach and has now signed multiple contracts to play for Larry the team president, was able to offer up this gem. “The funny thing is that a lot of these young players [on the Pacers] don’t remember Larry playing,” said Foster. “What did Larry finish up in? ’91? ’92? Somewhere around there. If you think about it, we’ve got guys who were born in 1988 and ’89. And they just hear of Larry Bird like I had heard of Oscar Robertson or I had heard of Wilt Chamberlain.”

Jeff showing his age in other ways is something that this young team needs, however. Of course, all NBA fans love the promise and potential of young players. The Pacers have several that fit the bill. Paul George has an outside shot — and perhaps an outside shot? — at becoming an All-Star, and Lance Stephenson has previously been called the most skilled player on the roster by none other than Bird himself.

But after trading away first-round pick Kawhi Leonard to the Spurs for George Hill, Bird stressed the fact that a winning team can’t be comprised of solely young players. Not that Hill is old. But he is battle-tested after going deep in the playoffs on a veteran, mature Spurs team his first few seasons in the league. Moreover, the team has added David West, a guy who, like Foster, leads by example and only speaks up when he really thinks something needs to be said.

And like Bird, Jeff has been thrilled to have West in the locker room.

“I’ve always had the respect of these young guys and they listen,” said Foster. “But to have multiple [veterans] that are able to say things and give poignant advice when needed has been huge. [West] has been great with Roy and Tyler.”

As far as Foster’s ability to continue to provide on-the-court contributions, Jeff said he felt “really good” after the game, despite sitting out the Pacers first six games to rest his chronic back condition. And after getting that first game under his belt, he expects to be healthy for the rest of the season and contributing just like he always has.

“We took a precautionary approach to [getting his back ready for the season],” said Foster. “The past few years, I’ve been slow to get back into it through preseason and everything. It’s normally taken me, from the beginning of preseason, about a month. So we’re right on pace for that month.”

Granger, too, is happy to have the teammate he has never played without back on the floor. ”He’s one of those guys that will give you 10 minutes and change the flow of the game so much with his offensive rebounding capability,” said Granger. “He’s gonna shoot 3-for-3 just with offensive rebounds and give us extra possessions. And he hasn’t played. That just shows the veteran in him. He’s just always ready.”

It wasn’t certain that Foster would be back this season. For the first time in his career, the almost-35-year-old was free agent. Before this year, he had always signed contract extensions to stay in Indiana before he hit the market. And while he always put Indiana first, there were other teams  — “some really good teams,” he said — interested. He was flattered, but Indiana was all he has ever know and all he really ever wants to.

“It was where I wanted to be,” said Foster. “This is my 13th year now with the organization, and they’ve been great to me. We’ve been through some great times and some tough times. It looks like we’re finally headed in the right direction, and I look forward to finishing my career out here on a winning note.”

That’s not to say he is planning to start his retirement right away. Sure, he is going to be 35 next week and his back has long been a concern, but — health permitting — he isn’t necessarily planning to pack it up after this year. He felt good physically after the game, and the playing part was just like riding a bike.

“Obviously the bike has some rust on it … [and] you can’t jump like you once could jump,” said Foster. “But if you know how to play basketball and you have a decent basketball IQ, it sort of just falls back in place when you get out there.”

Jeff did break some news regarding his future last night, however: He will never become the longest-tenured Pacer in franchise history. “[Tonight], I officially became the second-longest-tenured Pacer behind Reggie,” said Foster. “And I am not catching him. I’ve got five more years to go [to catch up] — that’s not happening.”

Adjust your 2016 NBA fantasy league draft strategies accordingly.

No related posts.

This off-season, Jeff Foster was re-signed by the only team he has known in his 13-year NBA career. He has yet to see the court this season, however, as his often-balky back has prevented him from playing. He has spent his down time going through treatment with the training staff and is now ready to resume contact drills. Today he will do just that, and — if all goes well — he will suit up to make his season debut in Miami against the Heat tomorrow night.

The good news is that the aggravating injury has been continually referred to as a “tweak.” And the man himself says that it’s not so much that it’s serious, it’s just that he is old and this is a long-standing condition that now requires more care and discretion than it did when he was younger.

Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star gathered the quotes.

“I’m about to be 35 in two weeks,” he said. “I would have definitely tried to play in all these games if this were a few years ago, but I think we know what to expect from my back. It’s a long season in a short period of time with a lot of games.

“The staff came up with a plan of prevention and treatment to keep me going these extra four years and we’re going to keep going until the wheels fall off.”

Lou Amundson has filled out the front court rotation pretty well in Foster’s absence. And the team is 4-1. But both team president Larry Bird and Coach Frank Vogel believe that Foster — who has played in more playoff games than the whole starting lineup has combined — can become another needed veteran presence on the court for this young team.

No related posts.

Veteran Jeff Foster (back) did not travel to Toronto so he could meet with Dan Dyrek, the team’s physical therapist consultant. Foster, who has a history of back problems, re-injured it during the Dec. 20 preseason game at Chicago. He hopes to return to the lineup next week when the Pacers are on a four-game trip.

Big man Jeff Pendergraph also remains on the shelf so we may see the Pacers debut of Lou Amundson.

No related posts.

Over the Christmas weekend, I wasn’t exactly scanning the airwaves for up-to-the-minute updates on the health of Jeff Foster. So it was a surprise to me that he was in a suit last night instead of a Pacers uniform. He sat out after having “tweaked” his back in the team’s final preseason game against Chicago, according to Pacers beat writer Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star.

And unfortunately for the team’s depth, Jeff will continue to look like the epitome of Bankers Life over there on the sidelines for the next few games.

The Indiana Pacers began the season with just 13 players on the roster and for the next week they’re going to be really thin in the frontcourt.

Jeff Foster [back] and Jeff Pendergraph [sprained knee] are currently sidelined, which means backups Tyler Hansbrough and Louis Amundson will get a lot of minutes behind starters David West and Roy Hibbert.

Foster is expected to be ready for game action in about a week, while Pendergraph should start practicing next week, reports The Indianapolis Star.

This means a shorter big-man rotation for Coach Frank Vogel, who will be hoping to get worthwhile spot minutes out of the non-injured four guys he has on his roster he doesn’t consider to be “starters.”

“The way I look at our depth now is that it’s like we’ve almost got seven starters and we still have quality bench players as well,” Vogel said. “I look at George Hill and Tyler Hansbrough as deserving starter minutes.”

Lou Amundson didn’t see the court in the team’s season-opening rout of the Pistons. Instead, the only big men to play were actual starters Roy Hibbert and David West as well as Tyler Hansbrough, who will presumably be the first big off the bench all season. But we can probably expect Lou to get some extended run in the near-term since, starting tomorrow, the Pacers play 7 games in 11 days.

Hopefully, at least Foster and perhaps even offseason acquisition Jeff Pendergraph join the rotation at some point during that stretch.

Related posts:

1. What Does a Draft Pick Get You? Part V: Ranking the Draft Classes — The 10 Worst
2. What Does a Draft Pick Get You? Part VI: Ranking the Draft Classes 11-20

Foster is entering his 13th season in the league – all spent as an Indiana Pacer. Only (hopefully soon-to-be Hall of Famer) Reggie Miller has played more seasons for the Blue-and-Gold (18). Jeff currently stands fifth all time in total rebounds for the Pacers with 5,206, and is only 13 behind George McGinnis and 71 behind Rik Smits.

His 2,083 offensive rebounds is good for third, and his prowess on the offensive glass makes it likely for Jeff to catch #2 Pacer Mel Daniels (2,182) this season.  He is 193 behind all time leader Dale Davis, and he has an outside shot reaching him this season – if health permits a similar performance to last season’s 190 offensive caroms in 56 games. More impressive than his totals here is the fact that he will have put them up despite being projected to play at least 1,000 fewer minutes than Daniels, and over 3,000 fewer minutes than Davis.

Acquired in a draft day trade in 1999, Foster is the sole remaining member of the 2000 NBA Finals Team – though he saw no action in the playoffs. A fan favorite, the Texas native has earned a special place in the hearts of Hoosiers with his energy and style of play. He personifies Pacer Coach Frank Vogel’s vision of “smash mouth basketball.”

Glad to have you back, Jeff.

Oh, hi, Luol. Didn’t see ya, there.

Related posts:

1. Report: Jeff Foster “Likely to Require” Surgery, Be Done for the Year (UPDATE)
2. Jeff Foster Could Out-Rebound the Floor
3. Pacers Sign a Big Man: Jeff Pendergraph

In our last installment, we looked at the “core six” players in terms of how they played last season and how they project to fit in with this franchise long term. Now, it’s time to look at the other players — some of which may not even be on the roster the next time the Pacers pick up a ball for a league-sanctioned game. Whenever that may be.

We will look at the rest of the squad in descending order by minutes played.

(Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference, 82games, BasketballValue, HoopData and ESPN.)

Brandon Rush

Rush will be 26 years old next year and is slated to become a restricted free agent at the end of the season. At best, he should be a fourth guard. Unfortunately for the Pacers he led the team in minutes in 2009-10 and was fourth in minutes last year. He shot an excellent 42% on threes, but was otherwise unspectacular with a PER around 10, which is basically replacement level. Seven of every ten shots he took were from outside 16 feet, resulting in him rarely getting to the foul line. This offsets his three point shooting and results in true shooting (54%) that is almost exactly average (surprise) at 54%.

On the strength of his long-distance accuracy, his eFG% shooting was a little better — but not much, only outpacing the league average SG by 1.5%. Worse still, he is a low-usage player who struggles to create his own shot, making only one unassisted field goal per game in 26 minutes.

He was average at rebounding and protecting the ball, but was 51^st of 55 shooting guards in assist rate and 53^rd in assists at the rim per 40 minutes (per Hoopdata). He’s not an elite defender and tends to lose focus, particularly off the ball and in rotation situations. While not completely indicative of his performance, the Pacers were 5 points per 100 possessions worse on defense last year when Rush was on the floor.

Mike Dunleavy

Since we’re going down the list in order of minutes played, it disconcerting to see Dunleavy behind Rush. Junior had struggles of his own last season, no doubt. But with Rush on the court last year, the Pacers were outscored by 5.98 points per 100 possessions. Meanwhile, during Dunleavy’s 779 minutes at shooting guard, the Pacers outscored opponents by 7.94 per 100.

There certainly isn’t a 14 points-per-100 difference between the two players, but these numbers do reflect how much better the Pacers operated with a starting caliber NBA shooting guard. Dunleavy and Rush had similar usage rates. However, Dunleavy’s TS% and eFG% were 5 points higher than Rush’s, and he was also a much better distributor, recording nearly twice as many assists per 40 minutes with fewer turnovers. Dunleavy grabbed 16.2% of available defensive rebounds, ranking 17th out of the 107 NBA swingmen who played 40 games.

In sum, he plays effectively within both the team offensive and defensive systems, and doesn’t take much off the table. Dunleavy will be 31 next year and is a free agent.

Josh McRoberts

McRoberts was very effective last year as a role player. He didn’t try to do too much and played solidly when opportunities presented themselves. His TS% and eFG% were 6% and 7% higher, respectively, than the average power forward. While only shooting 60 three pointers, he made an impressive 38% while also finishing second on the Pacers in FG% at the rim (among those with at least 50 attempts).

He was a capable defender last year as a league-average rebounder, while averaging 2.71 defensive plays (blocks plus steals) per 40 minutes (compared to a league average of 2.33 for power forwards) against only 4.1 fouls per 40 (average is 4.7). The Pacers were 1 point per 100 better on defense with him on the court, and the combination of these attributes resulted in McRoberts having the lowest defensive rating of all Pacers.

McRoberts’ best skill is probably his passing — something even more valuable on a team bereft of passers. Of 57 power forwards who played 40 games; McRoberts was 4th in assists per 40 minutes, and 8th in assist-to-turnover ratio (per Hoopdata). McRoberts will turn 24 years old next season and is a free agent.

Jeff Foster

Foster will turn 35 next year and, like the last two players, is a free agent. After missing almost the entire 2009-10 season, Foster played nearly 1,000 minutes last year. As Pacers fans know, he has never been a very good scorer, peaking at 7 ppg, but he’s becoming even less effective as he ages. Last year he scored only 7 points per 36 minutes and had shooting percentages well below average for a center.

Focusing on scoring, however, obscures the thing that Foster is great at: getting the ball off the glass. Foster’s offensive rebounding rate of 19.1% was the best in the NBA last year, and the closest center only grabbed 13.9% of available offensive rebounds. Of players that played over 600 minutes, the nearest player (Dejuan Blair) was at 14.8%. No one in the NBA was in Foster’s neighborhood as an offensive rebounder. If he had played enough minutes to qualify, this would have been the third time that he led the NBA in this category. (He is 5th all time for qualified leaders since 1971.) Foster also takes care of the ball well; his assist-to-turnover ratio was 5th among 58 centers. In short, Foster was a very effective anchor for the second team.

James Posey

Posey will be 35 next year and, unfortunately, is not a free agent. (He has one year left on his contract, which, at $7.6 million for the final year, was the price Larry Bird accepted to obtain Darren Collison in that trade with New Orleans.) Last year all he wanted to do offensively was shoot threes, taking 88% of his shots outside the arc. Unfortunately again, he was not very good at making them. No need to belabor that Posey is probably not part of the team’s short- or long-term plans.

AJ Price

Price will be 25 next year and is under contract for one more season. After giving the team solid minutes in 2009-10, Price was very poor offensively last year. He shot 8%-9% below average for guards in TS% and eFG%, which is a shame considering his 23% usage. He was an average passer and below average rebounder.

The Pacers were 3.49 points per 100 possessions better with him on the court, but his adjusted +/- was negative 12.7 points per 100. That metric gives Price no credit for the Pacers successes when he was on the court. (Most of the credit appears to go to Foster, which we will discuss more in part five of this series.). Given Price’s offensive “contributions,” this seems reasonable.

TJ Ford

Ford is 28 and a free agent. He was likely the worst offensive point guard in the NBA last year. He was benched the second half of the season. There is not much to say about T. J. Ford as it relates to the future of the Indiana Pacers.

Dahntay Jones

Jones will be 31 next year and has two years remaining on his contract. It’s hard to make much of last season’s 600 minutes, but efficiency-wise, Jones had a career offensive year. His career high TS% of 56% was paired with career high usage. His turnover rate was at a career low. This may be due to playing primarily against back ups; in 2009-10 (in 1,900 minutes) his shooting was below average and he had the 7th highest turnover rate of all shooting guards. Jones is a solid defender, but is a below average rebounder that fouls too much.

Solomon Jones

Jones will be 27 next year and is a free agent. There is not a lot positive to say about his play last season. His eFG% and TS% were approximately 10% below league average for a center. Of the top 58 centers in minutes, Jones ranked 53d in defensive rebounding and fouled the 5th most times per 40 minutes.

Lance Stephenson

Stephenson will be 21 next year and is under contract for one more year. He was the 8th ranked player in the high school class of 2009, but through his one year of college and one year in Indiana, there are concerns about conditioning, shot selection and behavior. Larry Bird has said that he is the most talented player on the roster. So far, we have yet to see this reflected in his numbers.

Related posts:

1. The Pacers’ Recent Past & Near Future: Part 2, How the 2010-11 Team Stacked Up
2. The Pacers’ Recent Past & Near Future: Part 3, The Core Six and What They Bring to the Table
3. The Pacers’ Recent Past & Near Future: Part 1, What Makes an NBA Team Effective?

NBA Summer League has been cancelled. But the always-on-point Sam Amick is saying that a bunch of players may head to the desert anyway. And it might not just be the rookies and also-rans that usually head to Nevada for some exhibition runs. (via @CardboardGerald)

He’s talking about full teams, including the likes of Blake Griffin and Kevin Durant, showing up to play som ball.

While the NBA’s official summer league was canceled in July as a result of the lockout, more than 50 players will be descending on Sin City to take part in a league at Impact Academy, starting on Sept. 12. And while the labor gap between owners and players means an actual season is likely still many months away, the Vegas session that was first reported by Hoopsworld will have the feel of an unofficial training camp for a number of teams.

Call it Phase II of lockout life for the players. While ventures such as these won’t provide much-needed leverage in the nearly nonexistent negotiations with the league’s owners, they will certainly help when it comes to staying in shape during the prolonged work stoppage.

According to Impact owner and renowned trainer Joe Abunassar, the Clippers’ Blake Griffin, Mo Williams and Randy Foye came by last week and expressed a desire to enter the league with a team made up solely of their teammates. Oklahoma City center Nazr Mohammed is trying to convince Kevin Durant, James Harden and others to do the same, while Indiana’s Dahntay Jones and Denver’s Al Harrington are making similar pitches to their respective teams.

The Impact Academy’s owner is none other than power hoops stakeholder Joe Abunassar. He has already talked to the top player’s union officials and it sounds as if there has been nothing but support.

Abunassar has spoken with National Basketball Players Association president/Lakers guard Derek Fisher and vice president/Spurs guard Roger Mason about the league and been given their support. “It’s a natural deal,” Abunassar said. “Guys want to play, so this is a great service for guys. It keeps them in shape. They don’t mind coming to Vegas. The difference between what we’re doing and what other leagues are doing is that all five guys on the floor will be pros.

“It’ll keep them in shape. It’s a good thing for the NBPA.”

A few weeks ago, Danny Granger told the Indianapolis Star’s Mike Wells that he, along with Jeff Foster, were likely going to try to get the Pacers players together around September to start some informal practice sessions. So, presumably, he would be into this idea.

Hopefully, of course, there will be a season and none of this will be necessary.

But I wouldn’t count on it. Especially before September 12. Knowing that, yeah, this seems like a great idea for the team to do a little off season gelling, both on and off the court.

Related posts:

1. Why the Pacers Don’t Use the D-League and Why Lance Stephenson Likely Will Never Play There
2. Lance Stephenson Reportedly Will Play in China or Italy During Lockout
3. Danny Granger “Working Out with no End in Sight” During the Lockout

He also plans to coordinate some team workouts along with Jeff Foster well before the season starts in hopes that, even though training camp and preseason are likely already lost, the squad can have some time together to gel before the actual season, hopefully, begins.

It’s short so go read the whole thing. But here are a few of  his comments that I found the most interesting.

“I’m working out with no end in sight right now. Usually I’m ramping up to go full speed. With no set date on training camp starting, everybody is doing their own thing.”

“There’s not going to be a preseason, probably won’t be much of a training camp, either.”

“Nobody knows how much [David Stern] makes, though. That’s the craziest thing I’ve heard.”

“Everybody hates what happened in Miami, but it brought a lot of attention to the league.”

“There are some good power forwards out there. I think we need to be deeper at that position”

Not a lot of good news.

Nice shots thrown at the Heat though.

Related posts:

1. Danny Granger, Chris Paul and the Miami Heat
2. Danny Granger Is Glad Indiana Is Playing Chicago
3. What This Season Means To … Danny Granger

Game 1 was the perfect illustration of why it is much more valuable for a middling NBA team to make the playoffs than end the season on a losing note to move down a few spots in the lottery. The reality is that the #8 pick is nearly as likely to turn into a good rotation player as a #13 pick — something Tyler Hansbrough proved this afternoon. But playoff experience, finding out what it’s like when every player aside from Vince Carter is exerting maximum effort on every play, is invaluable.

Especially when the two teams kick off the NBA postseason with a display as fun as this.

The outcome wasn’t what the Pacers wanted. But no one outside of Frank Vogel actually expects this team to win the series so the process is more important than the final result. In terms of the young nucleus of this team building some confidence and a mental blueprint for success, it would be helpful for them to take a game or two from the Bulls. Ultimately, however, what matters more is whether or not the team comes away from its first trip to the playoffs in six years with some feeling that it can compete. In the press, the guys of course say that they think they can do just that right now, but they know who is on the roster in Boston and Los Angeles and who is on the roster in Indiana.

If you want to read the subtext of a Roy Hibbert quote after this afternoon’s 104-99 loss the way I do, the big fella essentially said as much: “There’s no way they’re going to sweep us.” He isn’t necessarily implying that the Pacers can’t win the series, but it reads to me as him insinuating that they plan to win a game or two.

Regardless, even in defeat, they took another step in the right direction today. The first step was making the playoffs. But this was something more. This was them showing the masses, on national TV, what a few of us saw a couple of times earlier this year when they beat the Heat and the Lakers in convincing fashion. Today, they landed some big punches on a heavyweight champ, leaving legs wobbly and eyes swollen. They lost the fight, but they made a statement to the world — and more importantly, themselves.

Moving past the platitudes and mixed metaphors of this whole intro, the Pacers simply played high-level offense today for most of the game. Even with two early airballs and a couple of other ugly jumpers from Danny Granger, the team put up 55 points in the first half, sparked by a 128.6 offensive efficiency in the opening quarter. Darren Collison led the way with 10 first-quarter points on 7 shots and went into halftime with a big 16 in his box score. That’s a big-time performance for a point guard in his first playoff game who only had 9 games this season with more than 20 points.

Unfortunately, he only finished the game with 17 points, due in part to him sitting for a curiously long, 7-and-a-half-minute stretch from 1:15 left in the third quarter until 5:40 remaining in the game. Maybe the offense still melts down if he gets back in earlier (they were outscored 16-1 in the final 3:38 … we’ll get to that), but maybe it doesn’t. Still, it stands to reason that the team should want its best point guard out there as much as his stamina allows as they try to shovel dirt on the best team in basketball’s Game 1 grave. And since he’s 24 years old, he probably wasn’t gassed.

That elephant-in-the-room, end-game futility we’ll be getting to also mars some great second-half performances by Tyler Hansbrough and Danny Granger. This was just an amazing game for the former Tar Heel star that even a lot of smart people who follow the NBA considered an association also-ran just three months ago. (That group may or may not include Jim O’Brien. And it may or may not include him for multiple reasons, according to some Pacers fans I know.)

Tyler was a mid-range assassin, brutalizing the Bulls in the pick-and-pop game and perhaps helping the rest of the league scout a chink in the armor of the league’s best defense. His 22 points on 19 shots and 4 rebounds were nice, but even they don’t really reflect his impact. Shooting and confidence can be contagious and it was his dead-on jumper, which he released time and time again without hesitation, that kept pushing the lead back up each time the Bulls scored on the other end. This was fitting since a lot of the Pacers late-season offensive success has been built on Tyler’s ability to do bury these shots. ‘Twas a microcosm, a person with a better vocabulary than I might try to say.

There was a very scary moment in the waning seconds of the third, however, when Hansbrough took a hard elbow to the temple from Kurt Thomas. Our lovable Buckaroo Banzai hit the deck, lying there motionless for way longer than you ever want to see someone lay motionless. He looked woozy when he did eventually sit up. Worse still, when he was walking back to the locker room, he couldn’t even make it the whole way, as his legs turned to noodles and he had to take a seat so as not to lose his balance.

Fortunately, he would soon return to the bench and, later, the game. So it would seem that there was no significant damage done, but you still have to cross your fingers considering that Hansbrough sat out most of his rookie season with vertigo-like symptoms that stemmed from what was originally diagnosed as an inner ear infection.

Furthermore on this “fortunately” vibe, he didn’t just come back, but he came back and just kept sticking jumpers. Matt Moore of Hardwood Paroxysm explains.

When he got whacked in the head and went down, it was a legitimately scary moment (which didn’t stop the Bulls fans from booing like crazy). He went to the back, came back out, and KILLED Boozer. Killed him dead. Carlos Boozer is normally bad at defense. The “Bro made him look even worse.

Shame they didn’t win. I had a “WELCOME TO CHICABROUGH” headline all picked out and everything.

Granger was similarly accurate in the third, scoring the Pacers’ first 7 points out of half time to extend what was a 4-point advantage to a 7-point edge and getting his cocky, bobblehead-imitating persona going to help fire up himself and his teammates. (He finished with a team-high 24 points on 10-for-20 shooting … a 50% rate that looked highly improbable for him to reach after his woeful start to the game.) It was a crucial way to open the second act, since this was around the point where everyone in the world expected the Bulls to surge back and take the game over. It didn’t happen. Not for a some time anyway. (We’re getting to the bad part eventually … I promise.)

Every time the Bulls hit a big shot that would normally feel like a “here we go again … cue the collapse” moment to Pacers fans, Indy kept their composure and just answered with a bucket of their own or a few defensive stops. There was never a point where it seemed as though they were overwhelmed by the moment. They didn’t turn the ball over, finishing with only 10 on the night — a good number for any team but an excellent one for a team that is both this inexperienced in the postseason and averaged 14.8 turnovers a night in the regular season (good for fourth-worst in the league). They shot the lights out, hitting 10 of their 18 attempts from behind the arc.

Really, they seemed to be the only ones who were not shocked by what was going on.

In fact, if it wasn’t for a maddening inability to keep Chicago off of the offensive glass (they finished with a .500 offensive rebounding percentage, meaning they got half of those available … league average is .264), the Pacers may have been up by even more than 10 when Hansbrough stripped Carlos Boozer in the open court and raced the other way for a breakaway power dunk, plus the harm, with 3:38 to play

Now … OK … we’re here … the bad part: this and-one FT by Tyler was the second to last point the team would score. And the only reason they even got that final point was because Joakim Noah badly bailed out a terrible Pacers possession by fouling Hibbert as the shot clock was expiring. Kelly Dwyer of Yahoo’s Ball Don’t Lie said it best: “Indiana outplayed Chicago for about 44 minutes of a 48-minute game.”

Up until that Hansbrough dunk, the Pacers had shot 51.3% for the game. Then they missed their final 8 shots in an ending that was eerily similar to the collapse they suffered in their loss to the Knicks in their penultimate regular season game. (In that one, they didn’t score a single point in the final 3:30, setting the stage for a back-breaking Carmelo Anthony game-winner.) Even worse than missing 8 straight shots was that they just couldn’t create any good looks. It was as if what everyone expected to happen at the start of the third quarter was simply delayed by 20 minutes. (Insert your own joke here about this happening in a building sponsored by United Airlines.)

Credit the Bulls for their defense, sure. They did heighten their intensity. And Rose soon started pouring it on on the other end, adding greater pressure for the Pacers to execute. But when you’re up 10 with less than four minutes to play, you need to win that game. I don’t really care what the other team does.

Here’s Granger’s take.

“We put forth a good effort, but who cares?” Granger said. “It’s 0-1.”

Instead, Indiana will have to look back at this one as the game that got away and hope they can put forth a similar effort against a no-longer-going-to-be-caught-off-guard Bulls team in Game 2. Before the series even started, Jeff Foster knew this moment was coming.

“We’re going to get punched in the mouth at some point. It’s a matter of how we respond to that,” Foster said. “That’s going to be key for us.”

The late-game heroics of Derrick Rose were indeed a punch. A stomach punch, Bill Simmons might even say. We’ll see how they can bounce back Monday. That might be the difference in whether they can, as Vogel believes, pull off a series upset or, as perhaps Hibbert and many Pacers fans simply hope, avoid getting swept by what we all know is simply a much superior team.

Some other stuff:

• Derrick Rose aint right. For real. He was brilliant and dropped 39 despite missing all 9 of his three-point attempts (3 of which, as Dwyer noted, came at the end of the first three quarters). He got to the line 21 times, making 19. (This isn’t a fluke. He’ll keep getting there and making em. He started off the regular season shooting in the high-70% range from the line but has hit 383 of his last 433, i.e., 88.5% since December 18. Scary.) Ultimately, the Pacers — nay, even the Navy SEALS — have no answer for this guy. But we already knew this. Frankly, it doesn’t even matter if he averages 45 per game. The Pacers held Boozer and Noah to a combined 9-for-23 shooting and that is half the reason they were in a position to win. Pacers fans can marvel at the wonder and awe of Rose. Everybody should. But when it comes to beating Chicago, just hope that Indy gets Derrick to mix in some contested jumpers along with his unstoppable forays into the paint while holding the rest of the team in check. And don’t leave Kyle Korver alone in the fourth quarter. That would be helpful. It’s not like doubling Rose is going to slow him down anyway.

• A few people have questioned why rookie Paul George was trusted with the Rose assignment so long late in the game. Why not give Brandon Rush or Dahntay Jones, who never entered the game, a shot? I don’t know the answer to that but I find it hard to believe anyone else would have done much better. It’s worth re-visiting in Game 2, however. I generally feel that the more different looks you can throw at a superstar scoring, the better. You can’t stop them, but perhaps you can force them to have to continually adjust their approach a little and maybe that will disrupt their groove. Anyway, George did a pretty decent job in forcing Rose to take some jumpers so I’m not sure it would have mattered in this one.

• Indiana lost the FT battle badly. Their FT/FGA was .131 for  vs. 317 for Bulls. League average, mind you, is .229. This is of course due in large part to the fact that Rose cannot be stopped by mortals. He also probably got a few calls. And, oh yeah, the Bulls had that one extra-free free throw courtesy of Joey Crawford T’ing up Vogel with just a few seconds left in the first half. They need to make this FT disparity narrower if they hope to continue being competitive. It would also help if they made more than 64.7% of their free throws.

• Paul George, Mike Dunleavy, Jr. and Brandon Rush combined for 9 points in 57 minutes. That’s not even remotely getting it done. The Bulls only real weakness is their SG rotation. The Pacers need to exploit that and George in particularly needs to start putting some numbers on the board. He can start by staying out of foul trouble, something he gets into like clockwork of late.

• From ESPN: “The Bulls outscored the Pacers by 13 points in the 4th quarter, continuing an ongoing trend from the regular season when they had easily the best 4th quarter scoring margin in the NBA. Fittingly the Pacers were -126 in the 4th quarter this season which ranked 28th in the NBA. Only the Raptors and Timberwolves were worse.”

• I’m not going to say Roy Hibbert was offensively worthless but he wasn’t worthwhile. This wasn’t a huge deal on a night when the Pacers were hitting so many jumpers, but they will need a little more out of him to succeed in future games, I reckon.

• AJ Price was OK off the bench, hitting a few key jumpers on his way to 8 points in 14 minutes. I thought he looked ready for the playoffs. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him have a game in this series where he drops somewhere between 15 and 20 points.

• Jeff Foster dished out a hard foul on Derrick Rose early in the game. It was the Official Playoffs Have Started, Guys moment of the NBA’s postseason. More than anything, it’s just nice that the Pacers could be involved in something like that. I wasn’t born yet, but I believe Jeff Foster started off the very first NBA playoffs the same way when he undercut Georg Mikan.

Related posts:

1. 8p9s Contest: You Give Roy Hibbert a Nickname, We Give You Free T-Shirts
2. Pacers Give Back
3. Game #23 Preview: Pacers Head to Second City

It was as brutal to watch as an NFL preseason game. Let’s just say that the highlight of the game for me was the television clip of Byron Scott’s game winning three-point shot to beat Shaq and the Magic in the 1994 playoffs, leading the Pacers to their first-ever NBA playoff series win 3-0 over Orlando. It was that game that kicked off an amazing playoff run of success that lasted more than a decade for the blue and gold.

Now it’s on to the Chicago Bulls and a 1 p.m. start on Saturday in front of a national television audience on ESPN. Are the Pacers ready for the kind of scrutiny they are about to receive? The upcoming series is all about the Bulls and their ability to live up to their lofty status as the number one seed. The Pacers have too often seen their confidence wane when the going has gotten tough this season. There will be no tougher environment than the United Center this weekend.

This will be an interesting test for the Pacers. On paper the Bulls have a big advantage in both talent and coaching.

Will the Pacers find a way to compete?

I hope so.

Related posts:

1. The Magic Smack Around the JV Magic
2. Game #30 Recap: Pacers Play the Heel
3. A Tale of Two Offenses: Indiana Pacers vs. Orlando Magic