Why did he abandon Brendon Heywood in the second half & only play him for like 22 min. the entire game?
They could have easily kept in this thing if they would have not decided to become the 1984 Denver Nuggets. Heywood, for whatever reason, always plays like Pat Ewing whenever he is facing Jermaine O'Neal & just loves to block his shot. I'm not saying he was a deal breaker for them but man they need to get their big guys some touches.
I'm all for an open court offense with slashers but they take it to the extreme.
Lucky for us that they do.
Well Pacers people we got a win. A win is always good.
But now the question is why?
Let's start with Fred Jones. Monster game for Fred. No not because of the monster dunk he laid down although that was absolutely one of the best dunks in traffic I've ever seen. No, Fred remembered that he was a good defender at one point in time & that is what led to his offense. He got the steals, we got out on the run & we put them on their heals. Fred will not always shoot this good. Actually Fred will probably never shoot this well again. But Fred can always play this good on the defensive end.
S Jax. Let's face it, this guy has been the face of the franchise for the past two weeks. No not the face that we want to present to the league, but the face of the man that almost every Pacers fan marked as problem #1 on our team. He needed a game where he could at least get the crowd off of his back for a little bit & thanks to some deadeye shooting he gets a one game reprieve. There are a couple of things to make of this though for those of you that want to pain everything as fine from here on in.
a. He played the three spot. Last season when he was the most successfull he played the three spot. Ron Artest has a lock on the three spot.
b. He was the second option on offense, not the third. Ron Artest has a lock on the second option on offense.
So even though this was a great game for him, I wonder if this really will solve the problem or will it add to it.
Rick Carlisle. he let up off of the reins again in the second half & our guys responded. However to Rick's credit on this, before everybody thinks he should do this every game, the Wizards pretty much played no defense in the second half so it's not like we were running a free flow offense on the Pistons. But Rick did make the adjustment to his players & for this game it worked very well.
Jermaine O'neal. He has taken this team on his back, but not in the way we would think he would. He has been the man on the floor for loose balls, hell he dove to try & steal it against the Wiz. He has been battling in the paint for boards & he has been defending every time down the court.
Nobody can say anything ill of Jermaine O'Neal.
I know everybody loves Saras & again he had a good game, but I'm sure we will still hear nothing but dread & doom about A.J. at the point. Nobody will point out that he was one assist away from a double double & they won't mention that he played great defense on Arenas. Gilbert only got 17 points & it took him 18 shots to do that. So I want to make sure that A.J. gets an atta boy from somebody. To have your third string p.g. step in & lay down these kind of numbers is huge.
I don't like Harrison at garbage time. I'm sorry but I hate any young player at garbage time because to me they develop nothing but bad habbits during this stage of the game.
Honestly more & more I think a trip to Tulsa should be in order for David if this is all we are going to do with him for awhile.
Granger looked great again. Thank God I am seeing more & more of the player I saw in the pre-season. He is truely a rebounding freak. I love the way he attacks the boards.
This entire game for some reason had the feel of the Magic game last season after the brawl. Maybe it was because of Fred Jones shining or maybe it was the underdog mentallity that the fans started to take on, but that's what it felt like to me.
What the hell did Pollard do to his hair now?
They could have easily kept in this thing if they would have not decided to become the 1984 Denver Nuggets. Heywood, for whatever reason, always plays like Pat Ewing whenever he is facing Jermaine O'Neal & just loves to block his shot. I'm not saying he was a deal breaker for them but man they need to get their big guys some touches.
I'm all for an open court offense with slashers but they take it to the extreme.
Lucky for us that they do.
Well Pacers people we got a win. A win is always good.
But now the question is why?
Let's start with Fred Jones. Monster game for Fred. No not because of the monster dunk he laid down although that was absolutely one of the best dunks in traffic I've ever seen. No, Fred remembered that he was a good defender at one point in time & that is what led to his offense. He got the steals, we got out on the run & we put them on their heals. Fred will not always shoot this good. Actually Fred will probably never shoot this well again. But Fred can always play this good on the defensive end.
S Jax. Let's face it, this guy has been the face of the franchise for the past two weeks. No not the face that we want to present to the league, but the face of the man that almost every Pacers fan marked as problem #1 on our team. He needed a game where he could at least get the crowd off of his back for a little bit & thanks to some deadeye shooting he gets a one game reprieve. There are a couple of things to make of this though for those of you that want to pain everything as fine from here on in.
a. He played the three spot. Last season when he was the most successfull he played the three spot. Ron Artest has a lock on the three spot.
b. He was the second option on offense, not the third. Ron Artest has a lock on the second option on offense.
So even though this was a great game for him, I wonder if this really will solve the problem or will it add to it.
Rick Carlisle. he let up off of the reins again in the second half & our guys responded. However to Rick's credit on this, before everybody thinks he should do this every game, the Wizards pretty much played no defense in the second half so it's not like we were running a free flow offense on the Pistons. But Rick did make the adjustment to his players & for this game it worked very well.
Jermaine O'neal. He has taken this team on his back, but not in the way we would think he would. He has been the man on the floor for loose balls, hell he dove to try & steal it against the Wiz. He has been battling in the paint for boards & he has been defending every time down the court.
Nobody can say anything ill of Jermaine O'Neal.
I know everybody loves Saras & again he had a good game, but I'm sure we will still hear nothing but dread & doom about A.J. at the point. Nobody will point out that he was one assist away from a double double & they won't mention that he played great defense on Arenas. Gilbert only got 17 points & it took him 18 shots to do that. So I want to make sure that A.J. gets an atta boy from somebody. To have your third string p.g. step in & lay down these kind of numbers is huge.
I don't like Harrison at garbage time. I'm sorry but I hate any young player at garbage time because to me they develop nothing but bad habbits during this stage of the game.
Honestly more & more I think a trip to Tulsa should be in order for David if this is all we are going to do with him for awhile.
Granger looked great again. Thank God I am seeing more & more of the player I saw in the pre-season. He is truely a rebounding freak. I love the way he attacks the boards.
This entire game for some reason had the feel of the Magic game last season after the brawl. Maybe it was because of Fred Jones shining or maybe it was the underdog mentallity that the fans started to take on, but that's what it felt like to me.
What the hell did Pollard do to his hair now?
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