Pacers vs Hornets thread

[Dunthreevy]

Here's my take on tonight's game...

First, it was pre-season and hardly any of our guys have played together before other than in scrimmages. I didn't expect us to win or even be all that competitive. The Hornets are probably one of the top 4 or 5 times in the league so I'm not surprised at all by the blowout.

Second, Jarrett Jack will be our biggest contributor this season off the bench. 11 points and 8 rebounds, and the guy was EVERYWHERE. It seemed like whenever he was in the game, he was wherever the ball was on both sides of the court. He had a lot of turnovers (8) but I don't expect that to become a trend.

Third, and I repeat, it was a pre-season game. Brandon Rush didn't look any worse than most of our other players out there. Roy Hibbert actually looked fairly decent to me. McBob looked far more promising than I anticipated. Daniels didn't look any different than he has since we acquired him. Maceo Baston is a huge presence on defense. Take all of these things for what they're worth. I say again, it was pre-season.

Fourth, and lastly, Mike Dunleavy got a vote from me for being probably the coolest dude on our team. His outfit was downright hilarious and just made me want to hang out with the dude. I bet he's a riot.

[cdash]

Ummm...Jarrett Jack looked like ****. 8 turnovers, and he should have had more than that. Dribbling off his foot, just played reckless half the time...he did not impress me at all. No one shot worth a crap, and the only player who I thought looked decent was Ford. It's the first preseason game without two of our starters and most of these guys havent played together, so I am not taking a whole lot from it, but yeah, the entire team looked bad. Hibbert should not have been ejected for that elbow, but whatever. He looked slow, but its not like thats news. I expect a major improvement in our next preseason game.

[Charcoal Filtered]

Ummm...Jarrett Jack looked like ****. 8 turnovers, and he should have had more than that. Dribbling off his foot, just played reckless half the time...he did not impress me at all.

I did not get to see the game, but I was wondering what the 8 turnovers were from. Watching him the past three seasons in Portland, dribbling off his foot and reckless sound familiar.

[Tim Lehrbach]

Did Jack's heel touch the sideline while he had the ball? Cuz you can expect lots of that, too.

[Gremz]

-I'm putting the whole thing down to rust.
-No one wants to get an injury in the first game i'm sure they were just taking it easy.
-The reason Danny went 1-11 is that he's trying to fool the rest of the league before the start of the season.
-O'Brien was coaching drunk
-They were all distracted by the recently installed mega-globe light system
-They were al distracted by the new Pacemate squad
-They were all disctracted by Boomer's new break dance routine

Do any of these excuses count??

[coolweed]

Looked like a lot of standing around to me. It seemed like the second unit did not have any flow. When TJ was in, he created penetration that allowed for the defense to collapse and open shots for the others. Problem was that a lot of those shots didn't fall. When Jack came in, it was almost like he was trying to out perform his counterpart and try too damn hard.

I like everyone else knows it was the first pre-season game and it was against a 50+ game winning starting offense. So, take that with the fact that our whole team has basically been modified and i cannot complain too much.

Observations:

Jeff looked pissed that his team mates were not moving without the ball. Seemed like he knew what he should be doing, by setting the picks, but nobody else was moving to create passing options.

Ford looked balanced and sometimes pulled the trigger a little early, but the offense is set up to allow that.

Austin let me down. I was really looking forward to seeing some good stuff. Although he was active on the defensive rebounds, offensive rebounds were very scarce and after he missed his first 3, he looked gun shy on afterwards.

Daniels still looks slow, but i know it is just from the long movements. Still think he is in to getting the shot rather than making the pass for the higher percentage.

Hibbert was just OK. i agree with other posts that he is just s l o w.

Danny looked to be trying too hard as well.

Brandon looked about where I thought a rookie would be. not great, but not bad.

Williams just needs to go. You can see potential, but you can't see desire. Lack of desire is making him look more like someone more interested in a possible ESPN highlight than getting the W.

Rasho impressed me. I like the passing and moving and such. Very deceptive or as much as you can be when you're 7 feet tall.

McBob impressed me. I didn't expect much out him at all, but I thought he was very active and can run the floor very well. You can see that he wants to be out there and is more interested in doing the little things and being where he needs to be. Nice block too.

Everyone else was kind of like just there. It is just my take on the game and I know it was just the first pre-season game, but I sure hope Jimmy can put together that second unit better than what was out there last night, or there will be many more games with big scoring droughts.

[greenway84]

So I just watched the game a few times, and thought I'd throw my 2 cents in. Individually heres what i thought.
Ford - Did about as well as I expected. Which is a good thing I think he would have had more assists if our guys were on tonight though.

Jack - Portland fans told us he has turnover issues at times. And he did. However he showed that he moves on after each play and fights for every possession. Hard worker. Overall though a little disappointed.

Diener - Had on a nice outfit.

Dunleavy - Good team morale and fan appreciation with his retro suite and shades.

Daniels - Impressed me a lot. Great hustle his jumper is looking better this year and his D was pretty good. Im thinking he is looking at this as a contract year.

Rush - Had some rookie jitters, but wasn't afraid to shoot the ball and played some solid D at times.

Granger - Huge let down. Couldn't buy a shot. Forced play at times. However got to the line at will.

Shawne - Also a big let down. Looked overall sloppy. Didn't seem to know where he needed to be at times. Just seems as though he has no desire or passion.

Murphy - I just hope he doesn't become our next over paid big man that wheres a suit more than a jersey. He did say (as well did Diener and Mike) that if this was a regular season game they would all be playing, but there's no season in pushing back for preseason.

Baston - I liked what I saw. Nothing flashy but does what he does. Defense and rebounding.

McRoberts - Probably the best part of the night for me was Josh. I hate to say it cause I just don't like him. But he looked great in the minutes he got. Great hustle, speed, and awareness. I just hope his play doesn't end once the final roster comes out and he's safe.

Croshere - So long, fair well, until we meet again. Not impressed forced action when he got the ball. You could tell he was trying to prove something. But wasn't successful. If we had the room sure. But I'm not cutting Baston or McRoberts for him.

Foster - As usual Jeff brought it like he does every night. Nothing that makes your eyes pop out, but a much needed constant. Did look frustrated at some lazy play of younger guys.

Rasho - Not impressed even a little. He looks lazy and lack luster. This guy is taking Jeffs starting spot. Booo! He's a stiff and I would love to ship him out now. I might be jumping ship too soon. But I didn't like what I saw.

Hibbert - Needs work on his body control. Needs to learn to protect the ball and use his size to his advantage down low. The elbow. Being a Pacer he should have known better. Especially as a rookie. But no he did not deserve to be thrown out. Then Ely curses and flips the bird and has to be shoved away from Hibbert. But he still stays. Bull****. Hibbert is what hew is a very young rookie big man that is going to require a lot of patience and hard work. I would like to see us bring in a big man coach for him. Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo or a more possible candidate Davis or Smits

Finally where in the world is Carmen San Diego....I mean Stephen Graham. Not injured but not on the sideline and not a word was spoken about him. Could he be out the door? A posible trade filler with Tinsley? He waqs no where to be found. Anyone have news on this?

[ska]

just my little 2 cent from Toronto.
TJ, you can see from day one what you have gotbut I never saw him improving
Rasho: he learn how to play with the team each day that passed. And , unless he got benched at the beginning you have got a rock solid player very soon. Nothing stellar, nbut a lot of BBall IQ.A lot.

[Wizop]

Graham had an excused absence for personal reasons.

[mizzoupacers]

In retrospect, maybe we shouldn't feel too bad about the way our Pacers got it handed to 'em by the Hornets...check out the score at the end of the first quarter in last night's New Orleans vs. Washington game.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=281014003

[count55]

I don't know whether that means we should feel better about ourselves or worse about the Wizards.

[Scoot McGroot]

Any team starting Darius Songaila, a self proclaimed 4th string PF, should have our sympathy.

[mizzoupacers]

More sympathy than a team that starts Austin Croshere at power forward?

[Scoot McGroot]

At least (now) Croshere is only making the vet minimum and doesn't have a 3 year/$14 million contract on the books.