Look New York fans I can feel for you, to a point. Don’t get me wrong I don’t wish anything would change but believe me what you are seeing on the floor is what Pacers fans had to somewhat deal with for 3 ½ years.
Obviously you have a far better scorer in Carmelo and a far more athletic player in Smith & to a point Chandler. But believe me lack of rebounding, defense being given lip service but at the end of the day the only way your coach can talk about winning is by talking about spreading the floor and shooting more three’s.
Believe me, we were there. It was a misery that I just can’t even pretend to explain to you. It’s a fools gold type of basketball because much like the time Hasim Rahman knocked out Lennix Lewis anytime that three point shot is falling you have a punchers chance of beating anybody. Ask us, we know. We were able to beat the Celtics a few times when they were good, we beat the Lakers a couple of times but at the end of the day it was a horrible brand of basketball and ultimately it leads to losing.
I have no idea why your team has embraced this so heavily btw, I know Woodson likes his isolation plays but I never once considered him to be akin to D’Antoni or Satan.
So I extend my condolences to you along with this laurel and a hardy handshake.
Now why do I love our current team now that we have been freed from the bondage of just God awful basketball?
Here let me let Frank explain it to everyone.
“The beauty of this team is we don’t really adjust to other teams, we do what we do”.
Hallelujah, Amen and any other religious lingo you want to throw out there.
Again I want to make this clear here just so we don’t have “that guy” who feels the need to tell us all to calm down because we haven’t won the series yet, I know. We are only up 3-1 and you don’t win till you hit 4, N.Y. will be literally fighting for their entire season and frankly I think a few of the Knicks are probably playing their last games in the NBA. So it won’t be easy, but it is doable.
At the end of the day and again I’ll apologize to our Knick fans present and in contrast to what Carmelo said, we are the better team. I am now not even willing to concede to them that they have the best player in this series as I believe we are seeing Mello and Paul take intersecting paths with one going up and one going down.
Sure Anthony can score more but honestly if he isn’t scoring what is he doing for you? I say not much. The biggest and main difference between the two? Paul George guards Carmelo Anthony and Carmelo Anthony splits his time guarding Lance Stephenson, which he did a lot tonight and David West. He can’t guard Paul but believe me Paul can guard him.
But our team isn’t built on hero ball nor are we built around one superstar player, this is a TEAM and each night someone different has stepped up and tonight was no exception to that.
It’s really funny because after the game we were all talking like we normally do and I asked who was the MVP of the game and everybody but Hicks said George Hill and Hicks said Paul George.
Why was that funny? Because even Hick’s was going to change his mind about his pick until he & I started to think about the fact that we were not going to go with a player who had 18-14-7. That’s actually insane in a way but even after thinking about it we just decided that we couldn’t say one over the other so much.
Thus it was a team effort. Thus when the team wins you have to look to coaching. Well the truth is the coaching is almost always outstanding so you have to go back and look at who built the team.
He & I decided that Larry Bird was probably as responsible for this win as anybody was and I’ll go so far as to say that tonight Pritcherts off season pickup actually paid off (more on that later).
It was just a very good overall win where the G2 zone (actual players this time not the fan section, although as always they were top notch as well) led the way.
Another thing we talked about after the game and I think we’ve talked about it a couple of times on here this season but I’ll just ask it again.
Is this the best Pacers defensive team of all time?
We have size, we have strength, we have athleticism, we have a great plan, we have great individual defenders and we have one of the best rim protectors in the NBA.
I wanted to argue for the 93/94 team because of Haywood, Dale & McKey, but I quickly decided that while we all love Reggie & Rik they were both the weakest links in that chain. Hicks went with the 03/04 team but then he did the same thing except he conceded that Tinsley & Miller would have been weak defenders there.
There are no individual weak defenders in our starting five right now. David West would probably be the weakest but even he is crafty and one on one isn’t bad. He is not a rim defender at all and his help side defense sometimes makes me use swear words but still if he is your worst defender?
I mean by almost any statistic this team was the best in the NBA at defense this year and couple that with our absolute master of the glass (God I love saying that) most teams get one and done and usually if they score its off of a broken play or a contested shot.
Okay enough opining about our overall team let’s just review tonight’s game by way of grades.
Paul George: A
He can score, he can pass, he can defend, he can rebound, he can fly, he can fight and he can crow. He is the Pan!
Look the only reason this isn’t an A+ is because I’m just picky about a guy taking 9 three point shots in particular when he only hit 1 of them. Also missing 3 of 8 free throws made my colon tighten but other than those two minor issues he played as good a game as you would ever want from him. He took on one on one defense of Carmelo all night long and other than just hitting some very difficult shots he made him work for every point he got. In fact I think our defensive scheme is starting to get into Carmelo’s head.
David West: B
God almighty what has happened to his shot? It started in the Atlanta series but David has just not had a good shooting playoffs. The fact that everybody else is picking up the slack has made it almost a moot point or I can assure you his grade would be far different than it is. But he is doing a very good job of eating space down low and there have been more than one occasion that our guards have been able to swoop in and get boards because David’s wide body had cleared out some room for them. Had a pretty nice block in the second half as well.
Roy Hibbert: B
Triple teamed. That’s right I said triple teamed. The first 3 plays when Roy got the ball Chandler, Martin and one of the guards collapsed on him and even after those initial plays they still quickly double teamed him all night long. He made one really ill advised quick hook shot where he overshot the rim by about 5’ but the maturation of Roy was in full effect after that. He was patient, he didn’t force anything and he still cleaned up on the boards. He was totally hosed on a couple of really questionable calls, that block of Anthony was particularly egregious, but overall the refs. were quite good for most of the game. Had a great dish to Hill for a layup that Tyson Chandler could only dream of doing.
George Hill: A+
The Knicks came out of the locker room at half with a game plan of being aggressive and getting right back in the game. Every time they did there was George Hill to score a big basket to put them right back into the deficit they thought they had just worked their way out of. When he wasn’t scoring he was making life a living Hell for Raymond Felton by not losing him off of screens. I don’t know if this was George’s best overall game but by God it sure was a great one. How sweet must it be to actually be the hometown hero in both name and deed tonight?
Lance Stephenson: A
You know that New York had him pegged from the beginning as the weak link in our lineup. Either on the defensive end or that he would go all rouge on the offensive end. Much to their chagrin Lance has been solid on defense and for the most part has played well within the offense. In fact he hit 3 of his 7 three point shots, which again you know the Knicks were wanting him to be the one to shoot those. To his credit Lance has just developed his game and honestly being drafted by the Pacers was the best thing that ever happened to him. Getting out of big city’s he could get in trouble in and focusing on his game has made him from an after thought to being a solid contributor in one of the best starting 5’s in the NBA. Also again I can’t say enough what an advantage it is for us when our shooting guard grabs 7 rebounds a game. That would have been 3 weeks worth of rebounds for Reggie.
D.J. Augustine: A
Again remember grades often times, in particular for bench players, are based on expectations. D.J. prior to this playoff run I honestly believe had played himself out of the league. I’m not kidding I thought his next contract would be in Europe or China or something, but since the Atlanta series I think he actually has probably secured a min. level NBA contract. His ball handling has been vastly under rated in this series because the Knicks like to cause turnovers and get out in transition. D.J. when he is in has ran the point virtually turnover free, which is no small thing in my opinion. What’s more tonight I saw him make purposeful drives to the rims and he was successful almost all of the time and the one time he air balled a layup I think he got hit but can’t swear to it. Diamond Dave didn’t see it so he doesn’t think he was hit. If anybody had a good view of it I would like to know. But hitting 6-6 from the free throw line is like manna from heaven for our team because that is just points on the board and for our team that is always helpful.
Ian Mahinmi: A+
Yea I know it’s too high of a grade in some ways but that is the absolute best Ian has played in months. When Roy got in foul trouble not once did I ever have to go “Good God we have got to get Roy back in there” Ian did his job and held his own. His blind block of Felton was just absolutely hilarious btw.
Tyler Hansbrough: B
I’m not sure a player has ever had more of an effect on a game with less statistics than what Tyler did tonight. In his 13:42 on the floor he only grabbed one rebound and missed 2 of his 3 shot attempts yet there he was in the middle of almost every scrum and causing absolute havoc and mayhem. He got under both Stoudemire & Chandlers skin. In fact there was a great sequence between Tyson and Tyler where Chandler was yelling at Tyler and in a very uncharacteristic move for Tyler, he usually doesn’t respond, he yelled back right in Tyson’s face “F#ck You” loud and clear for all to hear, not that you could hear much in that madness tonight. The look on Chandlers face was priceless because it was like “did this dude just say that to me”.
Sam Young: A++++
When Sam pulled up and nailed that three like he was Ray Allen you could actually see Mike Woodson head grow hair like a Chia Pet, just so he could pull it out of his head in frustration at the fact that Sam Young lit them up for 5 first quarter points. I guess this somewhat makes up for that Un-Godly performance from game 1. I like the fact that Frank didn’t want to ruin the moment by letting him play beyond 6 min. either.
Look this was just another great overall win for our team. But I want to leave you with the words of David West as he checked out of the game to each team member.
“One more fellas”
Also I know that our good friends from New York wanted to come to Indiana and get the split going home by taking back home court. Well instead I leave you with this video as a consolation.
Obviously you have a far better scorer in Carmelo and a far more athletic player in Smith & to a point Chandler. But believe me lack of rebounding, defense being given lip service but at the end of the day the only way your coach can talk about winning is by talking about spreading the floor and shooting more three’s.
Believe me, we were there. It was a misery that I just can’t even pretend to explain to you. It’s a fools gold type of basketball because much like the time Hasim Rahman knocked out Lennix Lewis anytime that three point shot is falling you have a punchers chance of beating anybody. Ask us, we know. We were able to beat the Celtics a few times when they were good, we beat the Lakers a couple of times but at the end of the day it was a horrible brand of basketball and ultimately it leads to losing.
I have no idea why your team has embraced this so heavily btw, I know Woodson likes his isolation plays but I never once considered him to be akin to D’Antoni or Satan.
So I extend my condolences to you along with this laurel and a hardy handshake.
Now why do I love our current team now that we have been freed from the bondage of just God awful basketball?
Here let me let Frank explain it to everyone.
“The beauty of this team is we don’t really adjust to other teams, we do what we do”.
Hallelujah, Amen and any other religious lingo you want to throw out there.
Again I want to make this clear here just so we don’t have “that guy” who feels the need to tell us all to calm down because we haven’t won the series yet, I know. We are only up 3-1 and you don’t win till you hit 4, N.Y. will be literally fighting for their entire season and frankly I think a few of the Knicks are probably playing their last games in the NBA. So it won’t be easy, but it is doable.
At the end of the day and again I’ll apologize to our Knick fans present and in contrast to what Carmelo said, we are the better team. I am now not even willing to concede to them that they have the best player in this series as I believe we are seeing Mello and Paul take intersecting paths with one going up and one going down.
Sure Anthony can score more but honestly if he isn’t scoring what is he doing for you? I say not much. The biggest and main difference between the two? Paul George guards Carmelo Anthony and Carmelo Anthony splits his time guarding Lance Stephenson, which he did a lot tonight and David West. He can’t guard Paul but believe me Paul can guard him.
But our team isn’t built on hero ball nor are we built around one superstar player, this is a TEAM and each night someone different has stepped up and tonight was no exception to that.
It’s really funny because after the game we were all talking like we normally do and I asked who was the MVP of the game and everybody but Hicks said George Hill and Hicks said Paul George.
Why was that funny? Because even Hick’s was going to change his mind about his pick until he & I started to think about the fact that we were not going to go with a player who had 18-14-7. That’s actually insane in a way but even after thinking about it we just decided that we couldn’t say one over the other so much.
Thus it was a team effort. Thus when the team wins you have to look to coaching. Well the truth is the coaching is almost always outstanding so you have to go back and look at who built the team.
He & I decided that Larry Bird was probably as responsible for this win as anybody was and I’ll go so far as to say that tonight Pritcherts off season pickup actually paid off (more on that later).
It was just a very good overall win where the G2 zone (actual players this time not the fan section, although as always they were top notch as well) led the way.
Another thing we talked about after the game and I think we’ve talked about it a couple of times on here this season but I’ll just ask it again.
Is this the best Pacers defensive team of all time?
We have size, we have strength, we have athleticism, we have a great plan, we have great individual defenders and we have one of the best rim protectors in the NBA.
I wanted to argue for the 93/94 team because of Haywood, Dale & McKey, but I quickly decided that while we all love Reggie & Rik they were both the weakest links in that chain. Hicks went with the 03/04 team but then he did the same thing except he conceded that Tinsley & Miller would have been weak defenders there.
There are no individual weak defenders in our starting five right now. David West would probably be the weakest but even he is crafty and one on one isn’t bad. He is not a rim defender at all and his help side defense sometimes makes me use swear words but still if he is your worst defender?
I mean by almost any statistic this team was the best in the NBA at defense this year and couple that with our absolute master of the glass (God I love saying that) most teams get one and done and usually if they score its off of a broken play or a contested shot.
Okay enough opining about our overall team let’s just review tonight’s game by way of grades.
Paul George: A
He can score, he can pass, he can defend, he can rebound, he can fly, he can fight and he can crow. He is the Pan!
Look the only reason this isn’t an A+ is because I’m just picky about a guy taking 9 three point shots in particular when he only hit 1 of them. Also missing 3 of 8 free throws made my colon tighten but other than those two minor issues he played as good a game as you would ever want from him. He took on one on one defense of Carmelo all night long and other than just hitting some very difficult shots he made him work for every point he got. In fact I think our defensive scheme is starting to get into Carmelo’s head.
David West: B
God almighty what has happened to his shot? It started in the Atlanta series but David has just not had a good shooting playoffs. The fact that everybody else is picking up the slack has made it almost a moot point or I can assure you his grade would be far different than it is. But he is doing a very good job of eating space down low and there have been more than one occasion that our guards have been able to swoop in and get boards because David’s wide body had cleared out some room for them. Had a pretty nice block in the second half as well.
Roy Hibbert: B
Triple teamed. That’s right I said triple teamed. The first 3 plays when Roy got the ball Chandler, Martin and one of the guards collapsed on him and even after those initial plays they still quickly double teamed him all night long. He made one really ill advised quick hook shot where he overshot the rim by about 5’ but the maturation of Roy was in full effect after that. He was patient, he didn’t force anything and he still cleaned up on the boards. He was totally hosed on a couple of really questionable calls, that block of Anthony was particularly egregious, but overall the refs. were quite good for most of the game. Had a great dish to Hill for a layup that Tyson Chandler could only dream of doing.
George Hill: A+
The Knicks came out of the locker room at half with a game plan of being aggressive and getting right back in the game. Every time they did there was George Hill to score a big basket to put them right back into the deficit they thought they had just worked their way out of. When he wasn’t scoring he was making life a living Hell for Raymond Felton by not losing him off of screens. I don’t know if this was George’s best overall game but by God it sure was a great one. How sweet must it be to actually be the hometown hero in both name and deed tonight?
Lance Stephenson: A
You know that New York had him pegged from the beginning as the weak link in our lineup. Either on the defensive end or that he would go all rouge on the offensive end. Much to their chagrin Lance has been solid on defense and for the most part has played well within the offense. In fact he hit 3 of his 7 three point shots, which again you know the Knicks were wanting him to be the one to shoot those. To his credit Lance has just developed his game and honestly being drafted by the Pacers was the best thing that ever happened to him. Getting out of big city’s he could get in trouble in and focusing on his game has made him from an after thought to being a solid contributor in one of the best starting 5’s in the NBA. Also again I can’t say enough what an advantage it is for us when our shooting guard grabs 7 rebounds a game. That would have been 3 weeks worth of rebounds for Reggie.
D.J. Augustine: A
Again remember grades often times, in particular for bench players, are based on expectations. D.J. prior to this playoff run I honestly believe had played himself out of the league. I’m not kidding I thought his next contract would be in Europe or China or something, but since the Atlanta series I think he actually has probably secured a min. level NBA contract. His ball handling has been vastly under rated in this series because the Knicks like to cause turnovers and get out in transition. D.J. when he is in has ran the point virtually turnover free, which is no small thing in my opinion. What’s more tonight I saw him make purposeful drives to the rims and he was successful almost all of the time and the one time he air balled a layup I think he got hit but can’t swear to it. Diamond Dave didn’t see it so he doesn’t think he was hit. If anybody had a good view of it I would like to know. But hitting 6-6 from the free throw line is like manna from heaven for our team because that is just points on the board and for our team that is always helpful.
Ian Mahinmi: A+
Yea I know it’s too high of a grade in some ways but that is the absolute best Ian has played in months. When Roy got in foul trouble not once did I ever have to go “Good God we have got to get Roy back in there” Ian did his job and held his own. His blind block of Felton was just absolutely hilarious btw.
Tyler Hansbrough: B
I’m not sure a player has ever had more of an effect on a game with less statistics than what Tyler did tonight. In his 13:42 on the floor he only grabbed one rebound and missed 2 of his 3 shot attempts yet there he was in the middle of almost every scrum and causing absolute havoc and mayhem. He got under both Stoudemire & Chandlers skin. In fact there was a great sequence between Tyson and Tyler where Chandler was yelling at Tyler and in a very uncharacteristic move for Tyler, he usually doesn’t respond, he yelled back right in Tyson’s face “F#ck You” loud and clear for all to hear, not that you could hear much in that madness tonight. The look on Chandlers face was priceless because it was like “did this dude just say that to me”.
Sam Young: A++++
When Sam pulled up and nailed that three like he was Ray Allen you could actually see Mike Woodson head grow hair like a Chia Pet, just so he could pull it out of his head in frustration at the fact that Sam Young lit them up for 5 first quarter points. I guess this somewhat makes up for that Un-Godly performance from game 1. I like the fact that Frank didn’t want to ruin the moment by letting him play beyond 6 min. either.
Look this was just another great overall win for our team. But I want to leave you with the words of David West as he checked out of the game to each team member.
“One more fellas”
Also I know that our good friends from New York wanted to come to Indiana and get the split going home by taking back home court. Well instead I leave you with this video as a consolation.
Comment