Game 5: Indiana Pacers at Atlanta Hawks

Indiana missed a chance to get a win. The defense missed their assignments on the Hawks final offensive play, allowing an easy basket. Wouldn't we see this a few days later with the Timberwolves?

1st Quarter
Sam Young can't cover Josh Smith, just a size mismatch. The Hawks were going to milk this, Pacers starting to double team and bring help, but this can't last long. West comes into the game playing aggressively after looking the opposite. But for all the good on offense, they are allowing Smith to either A: Smith scores on Young, (4-4 against him so far) or he finds a cutter when the double team comes.

2nd Quarter
The bench is getting out scored 21-6 at one point in the second. I know we aren't as deep as some think we are, but is it that hard to hope for one or two bench players to be productive? With the 1st unit back in the Pacers are starting to cut back into the lead, but it feels like the offense has to be perfect to keep in the game. The Pacers cut the gap late in the second quarter with transition baskets and an offense that  passes the ball to create offense. On two of Hill's three first half 3-pointers, they came off a pass with no dribble. Simply, passes create points. One good thing defensively was Indiana started putting a double, or bigger men on Smith. Also, on the Hawks final play, the Pacers clogged the lane to make sure that Jeff Teague couldn't pass down low for an easy basket. This also allowed Hibbert to step out and put a hand in Teague's face to contest and make it a miss. Smart play to end the half and cut it to a one point deficit.

3rd Quarter
Lance Stephenson seems to be a decent from the arc, knocked down a long distant shot, creating turnovers, although the -3 +/- in the game isn't the most encouraging, but how much of that is on him?
Aside: Is it be, or does Devon Harris kinda look like Ludacris? Just a note, Hibbert needs to be more aggressive. Let's some plays get away from him by just not moving to the ball or basket sometime. Seems like he's leaving some points on the floor. Anyway back to the action. Watching this now, it looks like Indiana does better when they get out after missed shots. The tempo seems to favor them. Hill made three of his four 3-pointers in the game off passes. By my count, he missed the ones where he tried to create his own space. Small sample size, but it is easier to score off the pass (He also hit a long-two off as pass as well.) Watching this replay, it hard to see how the Pacers lost it when they play like this in the third quarter.

4th Quarter
Seems like every team trying tries to force the Pacers away from the top of the arc, but so far the Pacers are doing a good job at finding the open man.
But then everything fall apart, bad shots by Indiana followed by Atlanta taking smart threes spell trouble. Despite that, this was still a game the Pacers could of,  should of found some baskets late. Anything good I said about Stephenson is gone as he picked bad times to launch bad shots. These mental errors down the stretch are brutal, while Kyle Kourver and the rest of the Hawks are picking their spot and creating space of screens and double screens. Teague would get a three with a minute left after the Pacers collapsed in the paint. Stephenson redeems himself a bit with a three after running underneath and out to the left side thanks to a set of trio of screens.
The Lou Williams escape through the congestions, not sure if West or Paul George was suppose to cover him, of there was suppose to be a switch, but no real excuses for a team that was suppose to be the second best in the East.

One thing to remember about this team is that with the exception of David West, no one on this team (Other than the injured Danny Granger, who is 29) is older than 27. This is a young team with seven new players. It will take time for this team to come together. Any maybe this team is still too young to expect consistency out of.

Game 4: Pacers at San Antonio Spurs

This is all you really need to see.

Not a single player had a positive +/-.
The Pacers entire team struggled, and there was little to know good to take out of the game. Play looked sloppy and disconnected. It was 1-on-5 most the time in offense, and it doesn't take an expert to know that passing the ball creates open looks, but that wasn't happening.

1st Quarter
In Indiana first three games, they had been collapsing into the paint often, making it hard on opposing offenses to drive the lane, but also making them susceptible to kicking the ball out to an open shooter. Early on it didn't matter as the Spurs were shooting  3-13. But eventually the tempo of the game increased San Antonio began to get in rhythm and jumped out to a lead as Indiana was playing hero ball on offense and not getting open shots. First possession when they stopped doing that lead to a Gerald Green 3-point basket.
The Pacers were not doing a good job of creating offense and should be thankful the Spurs couldn't find their own offensive rhythm, only down 26-18 to end the first quarter. Simply, San Antonio played better team basketball, keeping the Pacers offense shooting at 26%, to the Spurs 46%. But rebounding was even at 14.

2nd Quarter 
We're losing by 20 POINTS!?!?!? Yup, Indiana looks like they are going to get blown out of the gym. However, The Pacer offense began to get their shots to fall, surprising without really coming together as an offense. However, the defense finally stepped up slow and eventually stop the San Antonio offense (Missed the last six field goals before half). Somehow the Pacers are coming back to close the gap to 47-38 at the intermission. The Pacers 13-2 run certainly helps, but as we wait for halftime to end, you have to wonder if they'll be able to cut the gap and keep the game from getting out of hand. Indiana needs to continue forcing the ball into the lane and getting to the foul line. David West was the only one hitting shots from range, hitting his two shots from the top of the key, everyone else had to create their offense from short range. Going 9/10 at the line and out rebounding the Spurs 14-8 helps as well.

3rd Quarter
The Spurs look happy driving to the top of the key and then making their play, usually by passing out. The Pacers continue to just to shoot and try to create their own offense. Of course when they do pass it always seems to be a bad one. Any momentum the Pacers had is gone in two minutes. I wish there was something to point to, but the players just looked unmotivated. Time and time again the Pacers try to play 1-on-5 basketball. Do we really need Danny Granger this badly? On the plus side, I at least like the aggressiveness of Tyler Hansbrough. He's not the most talented Pacer, but you know he's going to play physical ball and forced teams to foul him if they don't put up a fight. He gets in the game and makes Bonner push and shove (and foul) to try to get position on defense.  Also, I miss Stephen Jackson, strangely.

4th Quarter
This...is... ugh. What am I suppose to say? It was the same thing all game long. Not playing team offense, the Spurs did a good job or trapping and deciding which players they were going to let shoot. I'm not even going to finish watching this replay. The Pacers look like a lottery team tonight.

Game 3: Sacramento Kings at Indiana Pacers

(Quick bit of housekeeping: I got behind so some of the previous game breakdowns will be quick summaries instead of longer ones.)

The Pacers defense seems to want to collapse to the paint, making them susceptible to kick outs for threes. The Kings seemed to be the first team (then two days later, the Spurs with more success) that began to almost rely on Indiana's tenaciousness to create open shots. One would think that with someone like Hibbert protecting the paint, there wouldn't be the need to collapse in like that. While Sacramento struggled and shot only .363 percent from the floor. This certainly helps give the Pacers their 67-47 rebounding advantage in the game, one wonders how well this strategy will work against teams with better shooters. (Say, the Spurs?)

On offense the Pacers went to the post as usual. Often relying on West to either make a jumper or pass out of a double team.  (7-21 shooting, only 1 assist. However, thanks to his defense, his +/- was +21)

It was good to see the Pacers score with Paul George late in the game to tie. The Pacers went with a low four to create isolation for George, and he had no problem creating space for himself and knocking down a three pointer.

The big thing I took away from this game was that the Pacers should have lost. The Kings had so many opportunities to take the lead late in the game, but they couldn't get their good shots to fall. A day later we would see the Spurs exploit all these short comings.

Game 1: Pacers vs Raptors

It is much too early for me to make any grand and bold statements, so I’ll leave it to a group of experts to look at the storylines from the Pacers win. However, I will begin my work to break down the some of the Pacers' X’s and O’s.

Summary
 The Pacers starters efficient, we knew that last year as West and company showed that their adjusted +/- is well above any other starting group in the league.With Danny Granger out West stepped up his game with 25 points, and 14 important ones in the fourth when Indiana had been flat out struggling. Roy Hibbert was a no show as the defense closed him down, but it may have come at the expense of letting West run free. The 19 Pacers turnovers came mostly from the second unit, but considering this is game one of eighty-two, there is no need to panic yet. Most of the team posted healthy Player Efficiency Ratings. Stats aside, the stretch in the mid-third quarter to mid-fourth was not good, to say the least. They Pacers second unit will to come together if the Pacers want to compete with the heavyweights this season.

1^st Quarter

As pointed out before on other Pacers blogs, Indiana has a habit of starting strong, faltering as the first quarter ends and the second begins, then turning it back on at the end of the game. Tonight was no different. With the starting five in the game, the Pacers looked organized and had no problem working the ball towards the basket and using Roy Hibbert to create chances. Hibbert went 4-6 in the first quarter, with four of those chances coming in the post with his back to the basket.  Each time he spun towards the basket (right twice, left twice). The defense gave him the room to choose his path, and he seemed to favor the spin towards the basket early on. Paul George had 10 points to Hibberts nine, so offensively things looked good for the Pacers.

However, as the bench came in, chaos seemed to ensue. Ian Mahinmi doesn’t provide the same threat down low and Indiana was forced to work its offense from outside the paint. They looked disorganized and had too many bad possessions and shots. Nothing noticeable from the bench, with the exception being Tyler Hansbrough who seemed serviceable and played well enough on defense.

However, looking at the numbers, the Raptors only shot 36% from the field, so maybe the defense was doing better than I think. The five turnovers aren’t going to help anything though.

2^nd Quarter

The Pacers were still getting beat by the Raptors second unit,  but once Hibbert and the 1^st unit cycled back in Indiana found their rhythm again. Hibbert would be limited in his scoring but not in his effectiveness, when put in the post, the first two times Hibbert registered an assist, the first on a baseline drive by George Hill, the second on a pass to Paul George thanks to a Hill screen to help clear the way. In this third real post chance, Hibbert quickly turned baseline for an easy bucket against Jonas Valanciunas.  The Pacers were out rebounded though, helping explain why the teams went end tied despite Indiana out shooting the Raptors (47.9% versus 42.9%). Indiana missed a chance in the closing seconds to take lead.

The Pacers decided to run a double screen for Paul George after he inbounded the ball to George Hill. George Hill held the ball until around 14 seconds left and Paul George set the play in motion as he ran by a double screen set by Hansbrough and Hibbert at the foul line.

Paul George took the pass and looked to penetrate, but was stopped by a pair of Raptor defenders. Once Paul George saw he was trapped and Hibbert wasn’t an option, the he passed it to Gerald Green, who had spent most of the play rotating around the entire floor.

The play’s success was marginal as a collision of the Raptors double team on Green ruined the fact that Toronto had managed to sniff out the play (DeMar DeRozan tried jumping the route, colliding with Kyle Lowry.). Green’s shot was too hard, but Green did make up on the other in with a block to leave the game tied 48-48 at the half.

We’ll keep an eye out to see if they run the high double screen play again.

3rd Quarter
Nothing significantly different. The Pacers offense tried to work Hibbert in the post. Hibbert spun baseline every time as the defense defended the lane, and it worked to stifle Hibbert. Hibbert missed four attempts but did hit West on a baseline pass for an assist.

4th Quarter
Toronto begins to double team the ball at the top of the key mainly, also running a screen and roll defense. However, the Pacers passing improved down the stretch and Indiana only had one fourth quarter turnover. They had 18 in the game.

On the George Hill game winning basket, the Pacers chose to run an iso, with West feigning a pick and roll to the left of the paint. Hill took the lane and shot from around eight feet out to earn the Pacers the victory.

After the inbound pass, George Hill dribbles at the top of the arc while all but West faded to the far side of the court.

As the clock hits 10 seconds left, Hill begins to lean into his defender, Kyle Lowery, and West start drifting towards the two as if he is going to set the pick. 

 West feigns the screen and rolls to the left side of the paint, leaving a wide open lane as Bargnani is forced to respect the red hot West and cover his man, leaving Hill and Lowry one one one again.

With Hibbert bracketed by Valanciuns and Alan Anderson, and West also occupied, George Hill drives the lane and shoots before anyone can rotate into the to provide help for Lowry. Hill hits the runner and the Pacers go on to win.