Honestly I'm a little confused by all of the teeth gnashing and wrist wringing from this game? Were you guys honestly expecting to beat the NBA champions? The previous seven games they had beaten us seven times by an average of 23.3 points the fact that we only lost this one by 10 seems like almost a win to me. Bluntly we were in this game till basicallly the end and by in it I mean 10 or so points, heck at one point in the 4th we had it to 5.
I mean the truth is they were missing some of their top guys but they still had the top 2 guys out there and well being a Pacers fan let me assure you I have no sympathy for teams and their injuries. Maybe I'm still just giddy from beating the heat but I was really shocked when i got home and read the post game thread and it was filled with even more doom and gloom than I expected. Again these are the NBA Champs for a reason, again we have not had a competative game with them for I believe 3 maybe even 4 years. So I'm not sure why everyone was nit picking some of the performances other than maybe we were thinking they had a legitimate shot to win.
Now if you want to complain about how we let Grayson Allen and Pat Connaughton go off on us I can see your point. But being upset because Giannis and Middleton went off is kind of silly, nobody can stop them.
Which brings me to my time to eat crow. I really owe Krhis Middleton a huge apology. Bluntly speaking I considered him a bum and thought that his first all star game was simply by having the strongest hands in the NBA by holding onto Giannis cape. Yea, well I was dead wrong about that one. He is litterally a scoring machine that we simply cannot handle. I learned this the hard way last year when Giannis didn't play and they still demolished us. He is a legitimate all star player and to think he played on the Mad Ants in 2012 (albiet for Detroit).
Let's just do the good the bad and the ugly tonight.
The Good:
Sabonis once again putting in yomans work with another double double and once again playing damn near 40 min. in this game. No he can't guard Giannis (who can) but I thought his defense was solid and once again nobody over powers him down low, not even the former MVP. He also shot 62% from the field and 83% from the line. Now I really don't like the idea of him lining up for a late game 3 point shot, but to his credit it wasn't a forced shot in reality he was open, but yea I think I would prefer to pass that one along.
Duarte once again did not shy away from the challenge or the moment. I will enjoy when he is a veteran and gets some of the calls on the offensive end because he is a great free throw shooter. Defense wasn't spectacular but it was solid and there were many times he was switched onto the much taller Middleton and he never backed down. 5 rebounds is very reasonable and he is always down there battleing. So while there are always going to be things to be critical of I would say as a rookie this guy is giving me every single night I've seen him play everything I've ever wanted from him.
Brogdon is hard to always judge him. Defensively I just am always somewhat disappointed but I don't feel like tonight it was for lack of trying. Yes he had a horrible airball layup that looked bad, buy hey if you want to feel better about it think back to the time Tyreke Evans airballed a finger roll. But he was 50% from three point land ahd 48% overall which is not bad at all really. His assist to turn over ratio is nothing to shoult about but overall I felt like he had a positive impact on the game.
Bitadze played with fire and passion and battled down low in the 4th quarter. He couldn't hit the broad side of a barn but 7 offensive rebounds will always get you on the good side in my books. He was on the floor battling as well.
Rick Carlisle: Okay I'm going to admit something here, I was never a big fan of him. I always thought he was a good coach but not a great one and when we signed him back here I was more "meh" than anything. I have never felt that it was a coaching probalem here, it was a talent problem and to be honest I still feel that way. However, and I may be way off base here, I think Rick is actually trying to win but at the same time he is trying to experiment to see what he has. I also think he is letting players play themselves into and out of the rotation. Early on Craig was getting the minutes and well frankly other than a few min. the Hornets game he just hasn't produced much and now Brissett is getting that time. I think we are going to see more and more of this as the season goes on. I think he will make some of the returning players from injury actually have to beat out Duarte to get their spots back (frankly I don't think they will be able to). He also definately has the respect of the officials as you can see they way they talk with him vs the way they talked with either Nate.
The Bad
Craig was just an entire 6 minutes of nothing. I mean I hate to say he was bad because honestly 6 min. is not a large sample size but he just did not seem to even giving much effort to be honest with you.
McConnell statistically ddin't have a bad game but once again and I don't know what it is vs last season but he just does not seem to fit the offense we are trying to run. Maybe it's lack of shooting or something else but last season i felt he had an impact on the team and this year I kind of dread him coming in.
Brissett rebounded well and he tried to guard Giannis but may God that shot was so bad tonight. I still like the energy he brings and he is a strong guy so he does hold his ground against big strong players. Calling him bad is not really right but shooting 17% from the floor has got to be called something.
The Ugly
Myles Turner in the 4th quarter when he was not playing reminded me very much of Roy Hibbert 2.0 Now to be fair, this is why I don't love my new seats (I like them but I miss the bench), I can't see facial expressions like I once did and I certainly can't watch conversations. But there just seemed to be a lot of pouting going on. Now you can argue all day long whether or not he was justified in his demeanor but I am not sure how Rick deals with that going forward. I have a feeling that Rick is experimenting and seeing what the twin towers looks like, what each of them look like alone and now what Sabonis looks like with Bittadze. We may see what Myles looks like with Bitazde sometime soon and maybe what he looks like with Brissett and maybe even Jackson. Myles had two excellent rebounds in traffic so he had that going for him but sadly he resorted to shooting 4 of his 5 shots from beyond the arc. I would like to see him get to the rim like he did in the first two games.
Now I did tell BillS and Roaming Gnome after the game that Myles left the bench before the game was over and went to the locker room. However on the way home I got to thinking, from my new seats I can't see the entryway like I once could so it is very possible he was just standing back there waiting till the game was over so there really is nothing to report there and I'm withdrawing what I said to them after the game.
Look 1-3 is not a great start but I think if all of us were honest we had tonights circled with an L anyway and well I certainly had the Heat game as an L so it's a bonus for me. This week will be interesting as I believe we play the Raptors twice.
I mean the truth is they were missing some of their top guys but they still had the top 2 guys out there and well being a Pacers fan let me assure you I have no sympathy for teams and their injuries. Maybe I'm still just giddy from beating the heat but I was really shocked when i got home and read the post game thread and it was filled with even more doom and gloom than I expected. Again these are the NBA Champs for a reason, again we have not had a competative game with them for I believe 3 maybe even 4 years. So I'm not sure why everyone was nit picking some of the performances other than maybe we were thinking they had a legitimate shot to win.
Now if you want to complain about how we let Grayson Allen and Pat Connaughton go off on us I can see your point. But being upset because Giannis and Middleton went off is kind of silly, nobody can stop them.
Which brings me to my time to eat crow. I really owe Krhis Middleton a huge apology. Bluntly speaking I considered him a bum and thought that his first all star game was simply by having the strongest hands in the NBA by holding onto Giannis cape. Yea, well I was dead wrong about that one. He is litterally a scoring machine that we simply cannot handle. I learned this the hard way last year when Giannis didn't play and they still demolished us. He is a legitimate all star player and to think he played on the Mad Ants in 2012 (albiet for Detroit).
Let's just do the good the bad and the ugly tonight.
The Good:
Sabonis once again putting in yomans work with another double double and once again playing damn near 40 min. in this game. No he can't guard Giannis (who can) but I thought his defense was solid and once again nobody over powers him down low, not even the former MVP. He also shot 62% from the field and 83% from the line. Now I really don't like the idea of him lining up for a late game 3 point shot, but to his credit it wasn't a forced shot in reality he was open, but yea I think I would prefer to pass that one along.
Duarte once again did not shy away from the challenge or the moment. I will enjoy when he is a veteran and gets some of the calls on the offensive end because he is a great free throw shooter. Defense wasn't spectacular but it was solid and there were many times he was switched onto the much taller Middleton and he never backed down. 5 rebounds is very reasonable and he is always down there battleing. So while there are always going to be things to be critical of I would say as a rookie this guy is giving me every single night I've seen him play everything I've ever wanted from him.
Brogdon is hard to always judge him. Defensively I just am always somewhat disappointed but I don't feel like tonight it was for lack of trying. Yes he had a horrible airball layup that looked bad, buy hey if you want to feel better about it think back to the time Tyreke Evans airballed a finger roll. But he was 50% from three point land ahd 48% overall which is not bad at all really. His assist to turn over ratio is nothing to shoult about but overall I felt like he had a positive impact on the game.
Bitadze played with fire and passion and battled down low in the 4th quarter. He couldn't hit the broad side of a barn but 7 offensive rebounds will always get you on the good side in my books. He was on the floor battling as well.
Rick Carlisle: Okay I'm going to admit something here, I was never a big fan of him. I always thought he was a good coach but not a great one and when we signed him back here I was more "meh" than anything. I have never felt that it was a coaching probalem here, it was a talent problem and to be honest I still feel that way. However, and I may be way off base here, I think Rick is actually trying to win but at the same time he is trying to experiment to see what he has. I also think he is letting players play themselves into and out of the rotation. Early on Craig was getting the minutes and well frankly other than a few min. the Hornets game he just hasn't produced much and now Brissett is getting that time. I think we are going to see more and more of this as the season goes on. I think he will make some of the returning players from injury actually have to beat out Duarte to get their spots back (frankly I don't think they will be able to). He also definately has the respect of the officials as you can see they way they talk with him vs the way they talked with either Nate.
The Bad
Craig was just an entire 6 minutes of nothing. I mean I hate to say he was bad because honestly 6 min. is not a large sample size but he just did not seem to even giving much effort to be honest with you.
McConnell statistically ddin't have a bad game but once again and I don't know what it is vs last season but he just does not seem to fit the offense we are trying to run. Maybe it's lack of shooting or something else but last season i felt he had an impact on the team and this year I kind of dread him coming in.
Brissett rebounded well and he tried to guard Giannis but may God that shot was so bad tonight. I still like the energy he brings and he is a strong guy so he does hold his ground against big strong players. Calling him bad is not really right but shooting 17% from the floor has got to be called something.
The Ugly
Myles Turner in the 4th quarter when he was not playing reminded me very much of Roy Hibbert 2.0 Now to be fair, this is why I don't love my new seats (I like them but I miss the bench), I can't see facial expressions like I once did and I certainly can't watch conversations. But there just seemed to be a lot of pouting going on. Now you can argue all day long whether or not he was justified in his demeanor but I am not sure how Rick deals with that going forward. I have a feeling that Rick is experimenting and seeing what the twin towers looks like, what each of them look like alone and now what Sabonis looks like with Bittadze. We may see what Myles looks like with Bitazde sometime soon and maybe what he looks like with Brissett and maybe even Jackson. Myles had two excellent rebounds in traffic so he had that going for him but sadly he resorted to shooting 4 of his 5 shots from beyond the arc. I would like to see him get to the rim like he did in the first two games.
Now I did tell BillS and Roaming Gnome after the game that Myles left the bench before the game was over and went to the locker room. However on the way home I got to thinking, from my new seats I can't see the entryway like I once could so it is very possible he was just standing back there waiting till the game was over so there really is nothing to report there and I'm withdrawing what I said to them after the game.
Look 1-3 is not a great start but I think if all of us were honest we had tonights circled with an L anyway and well I certainly had the Heat game as an L so it's a bonus for me. This week will be interesting as I believe we play the Raptors twice.
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