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Michael Jordan

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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FREE TICKET CONTEST: Win Two Free Tickets to See the Pacers Play the Lakers on Wednesday

by Jared Wade on December 13, 2010 at 4:39 pm · 21 comments

Kobe Bryant is getting old. That, combined with the fact that he only makes one trip to Conseco Fieldhouse per year, means that NBA fans in the Hoosier State are running out of opportunities to see one of the best to ever lace ‘em up play in person. Adding to the intrigue of the Lakers/Pacers game on Wednesday at 7:00 pm EST is the fact that the Pacers beat Kobe’s team in Los Angeles just two weeks ago.

8 Points, 9 Seconds really wants you to go watch this game. And to make sure that happens, we’re even going to give one lucky fan two free tickets (Section 209, Row 2).

All you need to do to win is tell me which former Pacer/Laker great you like better: Byron Scott or Sam Perkins.

I like both players a ton, so I’m honestly not even sure who I would chose. But tell us you pick along with give a brief reason why in the comments section below, and I’ll pick a lucky winner by tomorrow at noon. Be sure to leave a real email address (only I can see it if you enter it in the comment form) along with your response and check your inbox by noon tomorrow or I won’t be able to get the tickets to you.

Who ya got: Byron or Perk?

UPDATE:

And the winner is …. Evan.

Congrats. We chose randomly, but Evan has told me he plans to take his young cousin who has never been to Conseco before, so I’m glad they will definitely be put to good use.

Thanks to everyone for the interest. Hopefully we will have some more tickets to hand out soon and this can become a more regular giveaway. Check back regularly for your chance to catch the Pacers for free.

Just based upon Sam’s grin in this photo, I think he has a slight lead for me. The blond agrees.

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Memory Lane

by Jared Wade on October 12, 2010 at 7:53 pm · 6 comments

Memory Lane will be a new feature this year (Season Dos) here on 8p9s. Basically, we’re just going to run some old moments of triumph, comedy and heartbreak from years ago.

For those of us who have been on the Pacers ship for some time like me (going back to Chuck Person) and Tim (going back to when mastadons and sabertooth tigers roamed the Midwest), this will hopefully provide some nice nostalgia. For others who may be younger or have joined Pacer Nation more recently, this will hopefully provide some nice edu-ma-cation. We learn ya good here at 8 Points, 9 Seconds, I always say.

Today, you get a double feature.

First comes a depressing moment in which MJ at his absolute apex — both literally in terms of his career arc and figuratively in terms of he jumps really high — blocks a Reggie Miller layup in most dramatic fashion, single-handedly swatting it away, then somehow saving it from going out of bounds and in the process sealing a Bulls win. This was merely a regular season game in 1992 so it’s not exactly a Tayshaun-blocking-Reggie-level kick to the groin, but it is still ouchy even 19 years later. I had so much resentment for how good that Jordan guy was. Still do when I think about 1998 in particular. (I mean, how did that Game 7 lead slip away? Get a rebound guys.)

(hat tip to Trey Kerby of the somehow-improved-this-year Basketball Jones)

The second item for this inaugural Memory Lane is much better. I mean, just look at the back of Rik’s hair.

Classic Smits. (via Fat Shawn Kemp)

rik smits

Best part? The Chief totally photo-bombing Rik’s layup.

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Going Small?

by Jared Wade on January 26, 2010 at 10:39 pm · 3 comments

These days, it’s usually more of a news story when the Paces keep the same starters two games in a row than it is when they try a new starting lineup. So why should the 17th new starting lineup of the year be any more newsworthy than the 16th?

Well, the “small ball” starting lineup employed yesterday (Earl Watson, Luther Head, Brandon Rush, Danny Granger and Troy Murphy) feels a little more significant for two reasons. The first is that it was effective in the sense that the Pacers won and, thus, we will probably see if more often. The second is that with the Lakers (Bynum and Gasol) and the Cavs (Shaq, Big Z, Varejao, Hickson) both coming to town this week, Coach O’Brien might not be able to lean on it as much as he would otherwise like to in the next two games.

Regardless of the short-term realities, it seems that the Coach is smitten. Tom Lewis of Indy Cornrows breaks it down.

Not only did JOB start small, he stayed “small” all game long, never playing Roy Hibbert and Troy Murphy at the same time and utilizing the extra wing player for all 48 minutes. The end result was net positive as the Pacers overcame a slow start and early 11-point deficit to continue attacking in the second half and notch a second-straight road win, 109-98. With the win to build on, the small lineup appears here to stay.

“In regards to small vs. big lineup the margin is over +320 (favoring small) for the year. We’ll go with it for as many games as we can, as long as we can because that’s our best lineup,” JOB told reporters after the game.

So what took so long?

Dahntay Jones, who had what was arguably his best game since November last night, might be asking that same question and he seems to be a fan of how going small helps the team run and create match-up problems.

“We can cause matchup problems with our small lineup,” Dahntay Jones said. “The tempo changes when we have the small lineup. Everybody runs. Then they have to find out who they’re going go guard. Who’s their big man going to guard? And we take advantage of that. It’s been a weapon of ours in the past, and I’m glad we got back to it.”

Troy couldn’t argue with the results either, although he sounds a little more skeptical of whether or not it will always work — or perhaps he just has no interest in trying to bang with Bynum and Shaq over the next two games?

“It works against a team like that,” Troy Murphy said. “They’re a team that runs up and down. Against some of the bigger teams, we may struggle. We may do well. It worked well for us tonight.”

We’ll see tomorrow whether or not Jim is enamored enough with wee ball to see if it can work against the big, long champs. But expect to see more of it in the weeks to come.

Space Jam Monstars

Michael Jordan isn’t walking through that door, but the Coach thinks going small might be the most effective way for this Pacers roster to win.

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