ZAP THE ZARDS!
-VS-
Game Time Start: 7:00 PM ET
Where: The Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN
Officials: M. Davis, S. Corbin, J. Tiven
Media Notes: Indiana Notes, Washington Notes
Television: FOX Sports Indiana / Comcast Sports Net
Radio: WFNI 1070 AM / WJFK 106.7 FM, WFED 1500 AM
NBA Feeds:
*NBA Audio League Pass (available free to NBA All-Access members)
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REMINDER: Per PD policy, please do not share a link to, describe how to search for, request a link to, or request a PM about streaming video of a NBA game that is not coming directly through the NBA. Not even in a "wink-wink, nudge-nudge, know-what-I-mean" round-about sort of way. Thank you
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PACERS Danny Granger - left knee tendinosis (out) George Hill - strained right groin (day-to-day) WIZARDS Trevor Ariza - mild right calf strain (out) Trevor Booker - strained right knee (out) A.J. Price - fractured right hand (out) John Wall - stress injury left patella (out) |
Jared Wade: Just Another Pacers’ Comeback Win, Out-Plays Memphis Late Anyone who has followed the Pacers this season – or who has followed me on Twitter – is painfully aware that Roy Hibbert is having trouble putting the ball in the basket. Standing 7-feet-2-inches tall and getting almost 80% of your looks within 10 feet of the basket comes with certain expectations, and a trended FG% chart that looks like this isn’t among them: You know you’re in for an ugly game when you sit down to watch a 3:00 pm tip off on New Year’s Eve featuring the two hardest-to-score-on teams in the NBA. Memphis and Indiana entered the game as the only two defenses allowing their opponents to score less than one point per possession. It showed early. The offenses combined to make just 16-of-42 (38.1%) shots in the first quarter. They were knotted at 19 points apiece. It was as exciting as it sounds. Little changed anytime soon, but the Grizzlies—slowly but surely began to take control of the game. Indiana stayed close for awhile as they rained in timely threes, but Memphis was playing better basketball and out-muscling the Pacers’ big men for offensive boards. Neither team shot well, but the Grizzlies had longer, more cohesive possessions and ended up taking six more shots in the first half. The three-point halftime lead was negligible, but it was more of a Grizzly game than a Pacer game, and it took some perhaps-unexpected good possessions from DJ Augustin and Lance Stephenson for Indy to keep pace. Stephenson’s two three-pointers, while certainly part of his repertoire at this point, weren’t exactly designed plays that were the product of great-run offensive sets. In short, Memphis was steadily pounding its jackhammer against a tough-to-crack barricade, but Indiana was mostly just chucking rocks from afar that, by happenstance, left a few cracks in a fortified wall. The Pacers got off to a much better start in the third. With a few more threes and some good offense by Roy Hibbert, they even managed to snatch the lead. That advantage was short-lived. Memphis roared back and soon pulled up by as much as 12. Then, without warning, the Pacers decided they would play some of the best defense they had all year. In the final six minutes of the third quarter, nobody on Memphis aside from Zach Randolph scored a point. Darrel Arthur got in on the action slightly early in the fourth. But overall, the Grizzlies scored just eight points over an 11-minute period from half- way through the third until almost the middle of the fourth. The Pacers, while not exactly the playing like the 2004 Phoenix Suns, dropped in 23 points over the same duration — punctuated by two huge three-pointers from third- string point guard Ben Hansbrough — to take the lead. In all, Indiana held Memphis to just 5-for-20 shooting in the fourth — including just 2-for-10 in the paint. In fairness...CONTINUE READING AT 8p9s |
Mike Prada: On Stan Van Gundy's criticism of John Wall The Wizards' defense turned the Dallas Mavericks into the 2006 Phoenix Suns. The Wizards had a four-point lead at halftime of Tuesday's game against the Dallas Mavericks, but thanks to some shoddy transition defense, the Wizards’ lead turned into a 12-point deficit by the end of the third quarter. Let’s take a look at how Darren Collison and the Mavericks were able to take advantage of Washington’s defense. Former Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said John Wall isn't a good enough decision-maker to be a true franchise player. Some thoughts on that statement. Former Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy became the latest to rip the Washington Wizards and John Wall. In an interview on ESPN 980 earlier this week, Van Gundy declared that he doesn't think Wall will ever be good enough to lead a franchise. Dan Steinberg has the transcript: "You know, I don't know," Van Gundy admitted. "I don't know if it's a trade, a free-agent thing, but I do know this: you build a team around certain people, and then you find complimentary parts. There's been no one to even build around there. There's certainly nobody on that roster now you can build around. "I think maybe they thought it was gonna be John Wall - maybe they still think it is. I think there's a lot of people in the league - I'd certainly be one that would share this opinion - I don't think John Wall's good enough to be the guy that you build around. I think he's got great speed and quickness, but point guard is a decision-making position. That's what makes you great as a point guard, is your decision-making. I haven't seen any indication that John Wall is a great decision-maker." It's hard to argue with Van Gundy's assessment right now considering Wall's own struggles last year. As a decision-maker, he definitely has improvements to make. He's definitely not in Kyrie Irving's class in the pick and roll, and Irving was drafted a year after him. Wall's inability to hit perimeter shots kills him here. But this is also an indictment on the supporting casts that have been put around him. Point guards don't make decisions in a vacuum. They need space to see the floor. They need supporting players that amplify their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Without those things, any young point guard will struggle to develop proper decision- making skills. You aren't just born with a high basketball IQ. It needs to be cultivated with the right surrounding mix. In Wall's case, one would think that spacing and perimeter shooting would be the best way to amplify his quickness and minimize his poor shooting. Instead, the Wizards have consistently surrounded Wall with a weird mix of talent without an identity. Wall had by far the most assists to corner three-point shooters last season; why haven't the Wizards signed an elite corner three-point shooter? (They traded their best one in Nick Young and let their second-best, Roger Mason, go in free agency). Wall likes to run and find shooters spotting up; why haven't the Wizards studied which players hit the most transition threes and pursued them in free agency? (Marco Belinelli is starring for Chicago; he'd have been a nice, cheap addition). Why haven't the Wizards tried to find a stretch 4 instead of hoping their big men can hit enough mid-range jumpers to get by? Why are they running a post-heavy and baseline-screen offensive system when Wall is a poor off-ball player? These are all questions that...CONTINUE READING AT BULLETS FOREVER |
Pacers Mike Wells @MikeWellsNBA Jared Wade @8pts9secs Tim Donahue @TimDonahue8p9s Tom Lewis @indycornrows |
Wizards Michael Lee @MrMichaelLee Mike Prada @MikePradaSBN Kyle Weidie @Truth_About_It WizzNutzz @wzzntzz |
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