Preseason game 2: Taipei

[Miller4ever]

Box score.

I can't see any of these games, but here's what I gleaned from the box score this time.

Our defense worked. Sure Dahntay Jones fouled out against his former team, and Slomon Jones picked up 5 fouls, but we forced 21 turnovers, won the rebounding battle by 12 boards (Nene was out, but so was Foster and Hansbrough), and held the Nuggets to 37.8% shooting.

There were some good things happening this game. We shot over 50% from the field as a team. He shot the lights out from beyond the arc (16-35). We didn't do so well from the line, and part of it was probably the fact that Granger didn't step up to the stripe at all. He averaged 6.9 FT attempts last season, often notching 10+ points from free throws when his shots weren't falling.

Going down the box score, we see that Granger played 20 minutes and notched a respectable 10 points and 3 rebounds with good shooting and only one turnover. Meanwhile, he got a staple of his stat line, 1 steal and 1 block.

Troy Murphy was extremely effective, playing 23:29 and earning 20 points and 8 boards. He shot 4-8 from deep. It looks like there won't be a huge dropoff from what he's been doing last year. Consistency is always welcome.

Solomon Jones' largest statistic was 5 fouls. His play was limited, and so was his effectiveness.

Brandon Rush attempted 12 treys and drained 6 of them. He gave an all-around effort with 20 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. He was being guarded Melo, J.R. Smith and Afflalo, probably, so the more impressive numbers are the defensive ones.

T.J. Ford was very effective this game. He only scored 6 points, but did it efficiently, at 1-3 FG and 4-4 from FT. He dished out 10 dimes, which is a welcome improvement from his last preseason performance. He had 6 turnovers (5 bad passes and one...backcourt turnover? That's what the play-by-play says). He did make up for 4 of those by stealing that many times.

Dahntay Jones must've tried really hard, because he just straight up fouled out, but scored 12 points.

Roy Hibbert was a BEAST. 20 points, 11 rebounds, 8 blocked shots. 8. 8 of them. And guess what? Only 2 fouls.

McBob was solid, shooting as well as everyone else, and ended with 8 points, 5 boards, and 2 assists and 2 steals.

The backup PG's both got 4 rebounds and 3 turnovers, so our PG position is really bad-decision prone right now. That will get better as the season goes on. Earl scored 10 whole AJ Price racked up 16 along with 4 assists.

Benson, Diener, Hansbrough, Foster, Head, and Dunleavy didn't play.

[jowglenn]

Now that feels good. Keep in mind, this is preseason, and Denver did play fairly big minutes from bench guys like Malik Allen, Anthony Carter, Joey Graham, Renaldo Balkman.

But still, gotta love these results. Hibbert played 33 minutes and only had 2 fouls? That's fantastic (not to mention his near-triple-double.) Rush and Price were draining 3s, which is great. McBob even chipped in meaningful work.

I just like that we got to see contributions from almost everyone in this game. great stuff.

[chatard5]

The first thing I noticed was Hibbert with 20 points and 11 boards (and only 2 fouls). I was extremely impressed. I didn't even notice the 8 boards. That's huge.

Melo and JR Smith combined for 11-31 shooting. I am guessing a lot of this was Brandon Rush and some for Dahntay. Gotta like when 2 very good scorers only go 11-31.

16 points from AJ Price is pretty impressive. He shot very well from deep, as did Rush.

All of our guys were on the + side of the +/-, with Murph, Ford, and Hibbert throwing up huge numbers.

I like to see the 10 assists from Ford. I like the PGs who can dish out 10 assists and score 12 points (I like the passing over the shooting). He only scored 6 points and only shot 3 times. I just don't like how he had 6 turnovers (as a team I don't see us winning a ton of games turning the ball over 25 times).

Obviously it is only pre-season, but I think that's a pretty good performance. We need to cut back on the TOs. You wouldn't imagine a team scored 104 points while shooting under 38%. I don't know if it was good defense or what, but since I am a Pacer fan I am going to obviously back that.

McBob has another slam!! It is towards the end of the highlight. It is kind of a mini version of last weeks dunk, but still pretty awesome. TAIPEI LOVES THE PACERS AND THE PACERS LOVER TAIPEI!

[Miller4ever]

Yeah, I just counted 7 players in double figures, 3 of them with 20 points.

[autissium]

Ya the game was on fox sports indiana this morning and will be replayed tonight at i believe 7. What i took from the game
-We did a really good job of getting in passing lanes
-TJ and Earl played pretty well together and were able to hold their own on d
-Hibbert looked great getting to the ball without fouling. 8 blocks and only 2 fouls, both coming in the second half i believe. He rushed some shots in the first half but still ended with 20pts
-Rush looked like his play from the end of the season will carry over.
-Granger started the game getting 8 of his 10 pts in the first few minutes.
-Price looked like a rook at times, had some trouble bringing the ball up, but had his shot falling.
-DJones played solid. His O was better than i expected as he did a good job getting to the basket.
-Murph was Murph, hopefully he has another consistent year
-All together i thought we played alot harder than Denver. They were just playing a pre-season game and our guys were just playing basketball.

[Grang33r]

I just watched it on NBA TV (also another re-run tonight at 7pm i think)

I thought the Pacers looked really good. TJ Ford looked good running the floor. He was a bit careless with the ball but i thought he was pretty good all night. I really liked Earl Watson. He was very forceful and went to the basket often and with ease it seemed like. I actually liked him a lot... maybe as much as Jarrett Jack. It's only pre-season but he gives us a different type of game then Jack. I think both can be effective. I also really liked Watson's defense.

I really thought our best lineup of the night came when JOB used Watson with Ford. They used great speed and both see the floor really well. I also really liked AJ Price off the bench. Like autissium said, he looked like a rookie at times but his shots were falling down against NBA defense was nice to see.

Danny Granger said they were going to show them a show and i think as a team they delivered.

The best player on the court i thought was Roy Hibbert. I think he was a beast. He started slow and was bad with the ball. But he over his early problems and took the game over. Only had 2 fouls and i just thought he was a monster all game long. Denver couldn't stop him at all i didn't think and he didn't look like the Hibbert from last year.

I also thought Brandon Rush looked very good. Both on offense and on defense. And D.Jones defense was good to see.

As for guys i wasn't impressed with... Solo Jones i thought looked like a stiff and didn't really bring much to the game.

Granger had the loudest ovation then anyone, it seems like he truly is a real star in Asia and i think he felt too much pressure and didn't have all that good of a game. I bet he tears it up in Beijing.

[IrishLuck31]

haven't watched the whole game yet - just looked at the box score and highlights on nba.com, but obviously what struck me was Hibbert's 11 rebounds and 8 blocked shots with only two fouls. great sign. Looks like Price and Rush were aggressive too. All that being said, it was preseason, and I cant imagine someone like JR Smith having given much effort at all defensively. especially in China - it was more like a fun, exhibition game

[GrapeApe]

I was really impressed with Hibbert's stat line as well. I just can't help wonder how much it had to do with him and how much it was Petro and Andersen.

Perhaps someone can give an opinion who saw the game.

[IrishLuck31]

Replay of the game is schedule for 10 PM tonight on NBA TV - that's 10 PM over here on the East Coast

[He's Heating Up]

Roy Toy is a BEAST, love him...and Earl the Pearl is a handy pickup. Price shot looked good aswell.

[Gremz]

It's preseason, so I don't really get carried away with individual performances. It's usually tough to gauge exactly how well that style of game translates, but there are a few things that impress me.

The overall efficiency of the offense was really impressive. A lot of sensible plays and shots. It was nice to see everyone pick their spots rather well. Hopefully that kind of fluency will be a mainstay for us this season.

Defensively, I was impressed by how the guys played their men/zones well. There were not a lot of sets where we were caught out of position quite badly, which reflected the score quite well I thought.

Nice team game this outing. Looking forward to see if it continues in the next game.

[IrishLuck31]

not going to read too much into this, but I watched the replay and here are a few observations:

-we did a great job of getting deflections and stepping in passing lanes (this could be partly due to the Nuggets just not trying as hard)
-Earl Watson is a GREAT back-up PG
-Roy was confident and active
-Dahntay Jones was trying too hard to make an impact
-Solomon Jones is very raw
-Brandon Rush's stroke is so pretty... although he did not did too much else offensively. seems like he will be a great role player in terms of solid D on opposing wings and then knock-down 3 pt. shooting. I dont think he will develop into too much more. He is not the second fiddle to Granger in terms of creating offense, and I am fine with that, but I think some fans are going to be dissapointed when he doesnt become a 18 pt, 5 assist guy. He will be good at his role - defense and shooting
-McRoberts shows flashes, but not sure if he will ever be able to make it, got lost defensively sometimes
-loved TJ Ford's stat line - 3 shots, 10 assists. but he had a few bad turnovers during the game
-O"Brien played Ford with either Price/Watson. sure, this is a good way to get to the lane and create offensively, but there is no way either of these guys can guard talented 2 guards like a JR Smith. I thought that was the point of bringing in Dahntay Jones, so we could concentrate of defense??
-Troy Muprhy is so valuable to our offense. if that was hansbrough running the screen and roll and being at the top of the key, defenses wouldnt have to respect it and it wouldn't open up a lot of our other offense

[captain green]

I'm a celtics fan 1st then pacers(i'm from kokomo,stop light shitville ,thank god I don't live there now)

hibbert looked damn good if we have half that all season it will be a big plus..
here is hoping for 8 seed or 7th ain't a stretch,if healthy..

[laydo]

Hey! Taipei fan's here! I watch the whole game and it was pretty good....well, maybe just for the Pacers fan like me, not for those who wanted to see a close game instead of a blow out.


The defense sure improved a lot, both on the skill and mental level. You can see whenever a Denver player is trying to dribble and drive into the paint, the Pacers work pretty hard to keep making presssure on them and force them to turnover. Let alone the defense on the screen and cut, the Nuggets that night didn't have much wide open shot.


The new comers brought lots of energy. Dahntay played not only good on denfese but also on the offense end. He kept attacking the rim and made Denver into foul trouble early. Earl did really nice on defensing Billups wherever he's on the court. And rookie A.J. was pretty confident to play with those veteran even though he still need to work on his turnover and defense experience.


As for Brandon and Roy, they look a bit green in the first half. They were in too much hesitation. But in the second half they showed what they have and what they need to do to help the Pacers back in the playoffs. Hibbert knows to stay his body until the player who's going to lay up finally strech and block the shot. Audience who's not a Pacers fan was wondering who this 8 blocks guy is. And Rush's shooting is consistent even though I think he still need to work harder on his dribbling.


And the best part of the game is the slam by Josh McRoberts! I was pretty upset that it wasn't in the top 5 plays of the day.

[Miller4ever]

Laydo, did you actually go to the game?

[laydo]

Laydo, did you actually go to the game?

Sure!

[Miller4ever]

Man, you're extremely lucky. Were there more Pacer fans or Nuggets fans?

[laydo]

Man, you're extremely lucky. Were there more Pacer fans or Nuggets fans?

The most popular NBA team in Taiwan may be the Lakers and the Rockets, because the TV broadcast are the most. And most fans who watch the NBA like players more than the team. For example, here you can find many people who wear KG's green Jersey, but they aren't Cetics fans before 2007 when KG was a T-Wolves.


Since the Nuggets had played in the playoffs in recent years, there were more people who watched the game that night dressed in Denver's Jersey. Of coures, most of them came to see Melo, Billups and the Bird Man, even they don't know any other Denver players.


There aren't so many Pacers fans here in Taiwan, maybe less than a thousand (the population of Taiwan is about 23 millions), but most of the Pacers fans, like me, are old fans who watched the Pacers since Reggie Miller led team in 90s.


However, after this game, I think there will be more and more people focus on the Pacers if the Pacers could back to the playoffs. One pal in the bbs said she just became a Pacers fan after watching the slam by Josh McRoberts!

[PerkinsFor3]

For example, here you can find many people who wear KG's green Jersey, but they aren't Cetics fans before 2007 when KG was a T-Wolves.

most international fans, especially the young ones, are bandwagon fans. the media only reports on the championship teams and contenders in most countries.

[Gremz]

I'm a bandwagon fan. That's why I go for Indy.