Posts tagged ‘Defense’

On a night where someone rolled an ankle what seemed to be everytime down the court, the Pacers emerge victorious 114-107 against Seattle. The reason is purely Mike Dunleavy. Dunleavy left the game in the 2nd quarter after rolling his ankle. I don’t know if you noticed, but he looked like he could hardly jump after that.  On top of that, he got elbowed in the nose by Jeff Green in the third and left the game for that also.  In addition to tallying two injuries and multiple limps, Dunleavy led the Pacers with 32 points.  He was hitting everything.  He took people off the dribble and finished on the interior.  He made pull up Js.  He made three pointers (4-5 in fact).  He shot 62.5% from the field on the night (his best shooting night since January 9th)! He actually showed signs of a go-to player, which is something he shows rarely.  Recently he’s been doing a better job of trying to put the team on his shoulders.   

Somehow this team was able to overcome going 7-24 from 3-pt land and allow Seattle to shoot 50.6% from the field and still win.  Everytime I try to criticize this team on a game-by-game basis trying to look for possible trends, etc.  They just come out the next game and do exactly opposite of what I just pointed out was a weakness.  Tonight against Seattle, they took care of the boards and even had more free throw attempts than Seattle.  Instead they are back to playing terrible defense.  This team is so inconsistent, as if you haven’t already noticed.  This win atleast solidifies to me that the team is not yet on the bottom rung of teams in the NBA, but they are as close as you can get. You never know, they could go on a 19 game winning streak and improve from a mediocre team to one of the conference’s best just like the Rockets in the West.  The only problem…they only have 18 games left.

Well as soon as I make the first episode and it goes on the internet, the pacers do exactly what I wanted them to. They signed Flip Murray to a contract for the rest of the year to give them more talent and depth in the point guard position. He is also a better defender than Travis Diener. He is athletic, quick and tall (6′ 3″) for the 1. I like that move especially since it’s hard to tell when Tinsley will be back and if he’ll be fully healthy this season.

They also go out and pick up two wins to end February and begin March. The win against Milwaukee actually impressed me than the one at Toronto. In Toronto they won purely because they shot lights out. They created more chances from the free throw line and shot well from the perimeter. The Pacers just had a shootout with the Raptors, which is not showing any improvement in their key areas, mainly defense. Then cam Milwaukee and hot shooting Michael Redd. Redd did have a good day with 28 points, but he’s going to get his. The Pacers eliminated a lot of the other role players from contributing. The reason I was more impressed with the win over the Bucks is the play on the defensive end. The Pacers made them settled for shots. They constantly played tight on this team with a hand in the face of almost every Buck. They held the Bucks to only 38% from the field and 37% from 3pt land (a shot the Bucks often live and die by). They finally had a break through peformance on the defensive end breaking the streak of giving up over 47% shooting in the last four games. The month of March is looking to be much more forgivable than the 4-9 February was.