/ laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*"
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With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He blocks J.R. Smiths pitiful attempts to the ground
Helpless New Yorker sit and complain
Scream, as bug-eyes gazes down on them
He picks up the rock and he slams it back down
As he wades through the wreckage of Knickerbockers on the ground
Oh, no, they say heโs got to go
Go, go Royzilla
Oh, no, there goes Shumpertโs dome
Go, go Royzilla
History shows again and again how playing with strength makes you the man
Royzilla
Sorry I had to update my Royzilla song from the Houston game. If Roy Hibbert doesnโt deserve to be immortalized in song then I donโt know who should. I mean he didnโt do anything special really; all he did was take over, dominate and save the game. Other than that he didnโt do all that much.
Look I can already tell you I have very little patience tonight with the national NBA media and their narrative about J.R. Smith battling through the avian flu to valiantly attempt to provide the spark the team needed yet he was too ill to perform. Or how Roy is good but Tyson Chandler has a debilitating cervical spine injury that through the power of prayer and outstanding team physicians have managed to keep him on the floor and not laid up in a Hospital. To quote Al Swearengen from Deadwood โnone of that means nothing to meโ.
No, Iโm not buying it and even if I did I donโt care. Not when I have to sit there and view Danny Granger in a beige suite. Itโs the playoffs, nobody is feeling good and at the end of the day you get to play who you have. Now if Mello went down Iโd listen but heโs still playing.
Nope, we just beat them from stem to stern and they didnโt like it. Look it wasnโt pretty and frankly I didnโt really exhale and consider the game in hand until about the 1 min. mark left in the game. But that is because I am overly pessimistic and a worry wart, the fact of the matter is the game was in hand really mid way through the 4th and for as troubling as it was for me we actually led for the vast majority of the game. I donโt remember what team it was earlier in the year but someone said that a 10 point deficit to the Pacers felt far more like a 20 point deficit due to our stingy defense.
Well stingy was in full effect in the fieldhouse tonight, God knows it wasnโt our proficiency on the offensive end what was just absolutely terrifying to me all night long.
But the defense, man what can you say about the defense our club plays? Itโs really odd because in some ways this game was almost opposite game for us. We had Roy getting no blocked shots yet he was our leading scorer shooting 50% from the field. While Paul was a ball stealing fool, yet shot the ball as though he were channeling the spirit of Chris Dudley.
Hey, whatever works Iโm all for it. If it means that Lance leads us in rebounds and David West leads us in assist and we get the win, I donโt really care. What makes our team so special is this simple fact as well, to a man they donโt really care either. In other words there are no stat whores here (Roy gets upset when he doesnโt get a block but I think we can forgive him this one sin), they simply want to win. Thatโs rare on a veteran team, but for a team that is still somewhat young and still growing that has got to be almost unheard of.
I want to say this again becauseโฆ.well just honestly I like saying it out loud and I love to read it whenever it written. We are the leagues best defensive and rebounding team.
God I love that, I mean think back just 3 or 4 short years ago and remember how we neither rebounded nor defended and to think just in that short time we have not only started doing it, WE ARE THE BEST AT IT.
But before we get too happy with ourselves there are still things to be very cautious about.
1. I love the fact that we are built to defend and that is how we play. But at the end of the day you have to score more than your opponent and I just donโt trust the Knicks to not be able to score. I never want us to lose our defensive intensity but we have got to start doing something more productive on the offensive end. We had a lot of bad plays wiped away thanks to Roy grabbing 8 offensive rebounds and as a team grabbing 18. We just canโt count on that to be our offensive plan.
2. We are falling into the three point trap they have built for us. 33 three point shots is, well itโs putrid is what it is. I hate when we shoot more than 12 as a team let alone have both Hill & George shoot 12 each. Of course you are open for a three point shot, that is the shot the Knicks are giving you and wanting you to take. We really truly have to figure out some way to drive the ball to the rim and if nothing else get some kind of mid range shot.
3. David West finally started to play well after the half but in the first half he missed a lot of easy bunny shots right at the rim again. While I appreciate what he has done for us the fact of the matter is out of 9 playoff games I think David has had maybe 3 or 4 good games. He started to control the glass tonight in the second half so Iโll give him somewhat of a break but the honest truth is that Iman Shumpert actually missed several wide open 12-14โ shots that had he even hit half of them we would really have had to worry.
But weโre not going to spend the night belaboring all of the things that could have gone wrong because, well they didnโt and I truly believe that each game is its own game. In other words what worked or didnโt work this game may or may not work the next game.
Also let me address the crowd issue a little here. Again it was a legitimate sell out and Iโll go so far as to say that this was a 95% or maybe even higher pure Pacers crowd. Were there Knicks fans there? Yes but they were few and far between.
Side note, I hope Spike had to pay a pretty penny to watch his beloved team lose. Thank you Spike for supporting our states economy by contributing to our tax base.
Anyway Iโve read a couple of places people complaining about the crowd. My answer is kind of two fold one of which is going to make be probably unpopular with some of our fans.
A. If you werenโt there you donโt know. The crowd was plenty into the game and at times it was so loud I could not hear Grady on the P.A. and frankly we couldnโt hear Area 55, the G2 zone or even the drum line most of the night. This is simply because the crowd was loud at times, and really loud at other times.
B. This wasnโt the type of game where there was lots to cheer about other than solid game long play. The crowd got up when we got a steal, hit a shot or fought for a loose ball (it was deafening when Tyler got that out of bounds call that should have gone against him in all fairness, it was clearly off of his knee).
Honestly Iโm sick of feeling the need to defend our fan base. They are here, they have been loud and other than throwing crap on the floor I donโt know what else some people want. No, we donโt all stand all game long and jump in unison but this place is sold out and they are cheering and booing at the appropriate times.
Speaking of booing I have now found my new front runner to replace Bennett Salvatore & Joey Crawford as my most hated official whenever they retire. Tony Brothers had an epically bad basketball game. At first he seemed hell bent on keeping the score close by calling horrible call after horrible call against the Pacers but he then decided to take on Joey Crawfords โlook at me, look at me of please God look at meโ persona by giving us his best WWE official dance when he called that ball out of bounds on Chandler. Go back and watch video of his over acting and over gyrating, simply uncalled for and frankly unprofessional. He is NOT there to emphatically do anything, he is just there to call a game not be part of the show.
Oh well we wonโt let him get us down either although he initially tried everything in his power to do so.
Letโs hit the grades.
Paul George: B+
Look the killer D he is playing really is always going to merit a high grade but I just canโt live with him take 12 of his 17 shots from behind the arc. I know that this is often times the result of reversing the ball but for the love of God not every time is this the case. Drive, post up, do something, anything other than just settle for the three in particular when you canโt hit it. If nothing else guys his play should give us some confidence moving forward. He hasnโt had a really good offensive game yet in this series and didnโt have many after the first few Atlanta games so if he ever can break out and start hitting it should be special. As always was all over the place getting boards, passing the ball and causing general disruption to the passing lanes and overall making life hell on Carmello Anthony. Still led everyone in turnovers (again) but he at least cut it down a little.
David West: B-
At least I wonโt complain tonight about effort. I have no idea why all of a sudden after the regular season he canโt hit easy short shots but it is enough to make me want to pull out my hair. But he started to hit the boards and tonight he actually seemed like he could move a little better on the defensive end. Again, just like with Paul, he hasnโt really had many good games in the playoffs yet either. So if he can get it going, along with Paul would be really nice, it could be special.
Roy Hibbert: A+++
A real legitimate Center, nuff said. Excelsior!
Lance Stephenson: B
Not sure what happened here as Vogel closed out the game with Augustine. I have a feeling that he just was afraid that Lance would rise up and take some ill advised shots. He did that a couple of times tonight but he actually hit a couple as well. Not sure here other than Frank must have just seen something he didnโt like because while D.J. wasnโt the regular season D.J. which is horrid, he wasnโt the โwhere the hell has this guy beenโ D.J. weโve seen so far in the Knicks series. BTW, was it my imagination or did Lance blow a kiss to Spike after his hit that three in the corner?
George Hill: B+
I actually hate giving him this high of a grade for this game because he actually caused me a lot of gastric distress due to his propensity to pull up and shoot the three with reckless abandon. But it canโt be denied he hit some big timely three point shots and did a really good job of taking Raymond Felton out of the game, which was very important because in my opinion Felton has been their most important player to date. Not the best player but he was the reason their offense was clicking early.
Tyler Hansbrough: B-
Sorry Reds fans but Iโm stealing this for this grade, Charlie Hustle. Stats wonโt show much but once again he came in and cause absolute mayhem and even a little destruction by giving Mello a nice second foul (you know the one that doesnโt count) after Roy had already fouled him on a drive. It would be great if he could score a little to help open up the offense but then why should he be any different than anyone else on our team?
D.J. Augustine: B-
I think he was in for ball control and honestly that has been one of the things he has brought during the playoffs is his ability to give us another ball handler out there. He did hit David West with a picture perfect pass for a dunk (his only assist) but it really put the lid on any form of come back the Knicks could have made. Post season D.J. vs. regular season D.J. isnโt even close. In fact itโs almost like another player altogether.
Sam Young: C
Didnโt kill the team which is almost akin to an A+. He actually made Mello take (and sadly hit) a couple of hard shots.
Ian Mahinmi: C
Like Sam he at least didnโt fall on his face.
Iโm not messing with the rest, suffice it to say it was garbage time and they did what they do.
Look game 4 is going to be a war, we all know that now. Basically it boils down to the Knicks fighting for their playoff lives there because if they lose that one it will be very hard if not impossible to climb out of that deep of a hole.
So that should make all of us nervous but we can take comfort in a few things.
1. We have Frank Vogel, he will have them ready.
2. We have Roy Hibbert (take that Jim OโBrien)
3. Our defense has for the most part been constant.
4. Some of our players havenโt really yet had a good overall game, they may be due.
But letโs not let the uncertainty of the future diminish what was accomplished tonight.
We are the lower seed so we are actually pulling a little bit of an upset by being up 2-1 in our best of 7 series.
He blocks J.R. Smiths pitiful attempts to the ground
Helpless New Yorker sit and complain
Scream, as bug-eyes gazes down on them
He picks up the rock and he slams it back down
As he wades through the wreckage of Knickerbockers on the ground
Oh, no, they say heโs got to go
Go, go Royzilla
Oh, no, there goes Shumpertโs dome
Go, go Royzilla
History shows again and again how playing with strength makes you the man
Royzilla
Sorry I had to update my Royzilla song from the Houston game. If Roy Hibbert doesnโt deserve to be immortalized in song then I donโt know who should. I mean he didnโt do anything special really; all he did was take over, dominate and save the game. Other than that he didnโt do all that much.
Look I can already tell you I have very little patience tonight with the national NBA media and their narrative about J.R. Smith battling through the avian flu to valiantly attempt to provide the spark the team needed yet he was too ill to perform. Or how Roy is good but Tyson Chandler has a debilitating cervical spine injury that through the power of prayer and outstanding team physicians have managed to keep him on the floor and not laid up in a Hospital. To quote Al Swearengen from Deadwood โnone of that means nothing to meโ.
No, Iโm not buying it and even if I did I donโt care. Not when I have to sit there and view Danny Granger in a beige suite. Itโs the playoffs, nobody is feeling good and at the end of the day you get to play who you have. Now if Mello went down Iโd listen but heโs still playing.
Nope, we just beat them from stem to stern and they didnโt like it. Look it wasnโt pretty and frankly I didnโt really exhale and consider the game in hand until about the 1 min. mark left in the game. But that is because I am overly pessimistic and a worry wart, the fact of the matter is the game was in hand really mid way through the 4th and for as troubling as it was for me we actually led for the vast majority of the game. I donโt remember what team it was earlier in the year but someone said that a 10 point deficit to the Pacers felt far more like a 20 point deficit due to our stingy defense.
Well stingy was in full effect in the fieldhouse tonight, God knows it wasnโt our proficiency on the offensive end what was just absolutely terrifying to me all night long.
But the defense, man what can you say about the defense our club plays? Itโs really odd because in some ways this game was almost opposite game for us. We had Roy getting no blocked shots yet he was our leading scorer shooting 50% from the field. While Paul was a ball stealing fool, yet shot the ball as though he were channeling the spirit of Chris Dudley.
Hey, whatever works Iโm all for it. If it means that Lance leads us in rebounds and David West leads us in assist and we get the win, I donโt really care. What makes our team so special is this simple fact as well, to a man they donโt really care either. In other words there are no stat whores here (Roy gets upset when he doesnโt get a block but I think we can forgive him this one sin), they simply want to win. Thatโs rare on a veteran team, but for a team that is still somewhat young and still growing that has got to be almost unheard of.
I want to say this again becauseโฆ.well just honestly I like saying it out loud and I love to read it whenever it written. We are the leagues best defensive and rebounding team.
God I love that, I mean think back just 3 or 4 short years ago and remember how we neither rebounded nor defended and to think just in that short time we have not only started doing it, WE ARE THE BEST AT IT.
But before we get too happy with ourselves there are still things to be very cautious about.
1. I love the fact that we are built to defend and that is how we play. But at the end of the day you have to score more than your opponent and I just donโt trust the Knicks to not be able to score. I never want us to lose our defensive intensity but we have got to start doing something more productive on the offensive end. We had a lot of bad plays wiped away thanks to Roy grabbing 8 offensive rebounds and as a team grabbing 18. We just canโt count on that to be our offensive plan.
2. We are falling into the three point trap they have built for us. 33 three point shots is, well itโs putrid is what it is. I hate when we shoot more than 12 as a team let alone have both Hill & George shoot 12 each. Of course you are open for a three point shot, that is the shot the Knicks are giving you and wanting you to take. We really truly have to figure out some way to drive the ball to the rim and if nothing else get some kind of mid range shot.
3. David West finally started to play well after the half but in the first half he missed a lot of easy bunny shots right at the rim again. While I appreciate what he has done for us the fact of the matter is out of 9 playoff games I think David has had maybe 3 or 4 good games. He started to control the glass tonight in the second half so Iโll give him somewhat of a break but the honest truth is that Iman Shumpert actually missed several wide open 12-14โ shots that had he even hit half of them we would really have had to worry.
But weโre not going to spend the night belaboring all of the things that could have gone wrong because, well they didnโt and I truly believe that each game is its own game. In other words what worked or didnโt work this game may or may not work the next game.
Also let me address the crowd issue a little here. Again it was a legitimate sell out and Iโll go so far as to say that this was a 95% or maybe even higher pure Pacers crowd. Were there Knicks fans there? Yes but they were few and far between.
Side note, I hope Spike had to pay a pretty penny to watch his beloved team lose. Thank you Spike for supporting our states economy by contributing to our tax base.
Anyway Iโve read a couple of places people complaining about the crowd. My answer is kind of two fold one of which is going to make be probably unpopular with some of our fans.
A. If you werenโt there you donโt know. The crowd was plenty into the game and at times it was so loud I could not hear Grady on the P.A. and frankly we couldnโt hear Area 55, the G2 zone or even the drum line most of the night. This is simply because the crowd was loud at times, and really loud at other times.
B. This wasnโt the type of game where there was lots to cheer about other than solid game long play. The crowd got up when we got a steal, hit a shot or fought for a loose ball (it was deafening when Tyler got that out of bounds call that should have gone against him in all fairness, it was clearly off of his knee).
Honestly Iโm sick of feeling the need to defend our fan base. They are here, they have been loud and other than throwing crap on the floor I donโt know what else some people want. No, we donโt all stand all game long and jump in unison but this place is sold out and they are cheering and booing at the appropriate times.
Speaking of booing I have now found my new front runner to replace Bennett Salvatore & Joey Crawford as my most hated official whenever they retire. Tony Brothers had an epically bad basketball game. At first he seemed hell bent on keeping the score close by calling horrible call after horrible call against the Pacers but he then decided to take on Joey Crawfords โlook at me, look at me of please God look at meโ persona by giving us his best WWE official dance when he called that ball out of bounds on Chandler. Go back and watch video of his over acting and over gyrating, simply uncalled for and frankly unprofessional. He is NOT there to emphatically do anything, he is just there to call a game not be part of the show.
Oh well we wonโt let him get us down either although he initially tried everything in his power to do so.
Letโs hit the grades.
Paul George: B+
Look the killer D he is playing really is always going to merit a high grade but I just canโt live with him take 12 of his 17 shots from behind the arc. I know that this is often times the result of reversing the ball but for the love of God not every time is this the case. Drive, post up, do something, anything other than just settle for the three in particular when you canโt hit it. If nothing else guys his play should give us some confidence moving forward. He hasnโt had a really good offensive game yet in this series and didnโt have many after the first few Atlanta games so if he ever can break out and start hitting it should be special. As always was all over the place getting boards, passing the ball and causing general disruption to the passing lanes and overall making life hell on Carmello Anthony. Still led everyone in turnovers (again) but he at least cut it down a little.
David West: B-
At least I wonโt complain tonight about effort. I have no idea why all of a sudden after the regular season he canโt hit easy short shots but it is enough to make me want to pull out my hair. But he started to hit the boards and tonight he actually seemed like he could move a little better on the defensive end. Again, just like with Paul, he hasnโt really had many good games in the playoffs yet either. So if he can get it going, along with Paul would be really nice, it could be special.
Roy Hibbert: A+++
A real legitimate Center, nuff said. Excelsior!
Lance Stephenson: B
Not sure what happened here as Vogel closed out the game with Augustine. I have a feeling that he just was afraid that Lance would rise up and take some ill advised shots. He did that a couple of times tonight but he actually hit a couple as well. Not sure here other than Frank must have just seen something he didnโt like because while D.J. wasnโt the regular season D.J. which is horrid, he wasnโt the โwhere the hell has this guy beenโ D.J. weโve seen so far in the Knicks series. BTW, was it my imagination or did Lance blow a kiss to Spike after his hit that three in the corner?
George Hill: B+
I actually hate giving him this high of a grade for this game because he actually caused me a lot of gastric distress due to his propensity to pull up and shoot the three with reckless abandon. But it canโt be denied he hit some big timely three point shots and did a really good job of taking Raymond Felton out of the game, which was very important because in my opinion Felton has been their most important player to date. Not the best player but he was the reason their offense was clicking early.
Tyler Hansbrough: B-
Sorry Reds fans but Iโm stealing this for this grade, Charlie Hustle. Stats wonโt show much but once again he came in and cause absolute mayhem and even a little destruction by giving Mello a nice second foul (you know the one that doesnโt count) after Roy had already fouled him on a drive. It would be great if he could score a little to help open up the offense but then why should he be any different than anyone else on our team?
D.J. Augustine: B-
I think he was in for ball control and honestly that has been one of the things he has brought during the playoffs is his ability to give us another ball handler out there. He did hit David West with a picture perfect pass for a dunk (his only assist) but it really put the lid on any form of come back the Knicks could have made. Post season D.J. vs. regular season D.J. isnโt even close. In fact itโs almost like another player altogether.
Sam Young: C
Didnโt kill the team which is almost akin to an A+. He actually made Mello take (and sadly hit) a couple of hard shots.
Ian Mahinmi: C
Like Sam he at least didnโt fall on his face.
Iโm not messing with the rest, suffice it to say it was garbage time and they did what they do.
Look game 4 is going to be a war, we all know that now. Basically it boils down to the Knicks fighting for their playoff lives there because if they lose that one it will be very hard if not impossible to climb out of that deep of a hole.
So that should make all of us nervous but we can take comfort in a few things.
1. We have Frank Vogel, he will have them ready.
2. We have Roy Hibbert (take that Jim OโBrien)
3. Our defense has for the most part been constant.
4. Some of our players havenโt really yet had a good overall game, they may be due.
But letโs not let the uncertainty of the future diminish what was accomplished tonight.
We are the lower seed so we are actually pulling a little bit of an upset by being up 2-1 in our best of 7 series.
Pacers,
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