Mavericks @ Pacers Gamethread

[DougInOz]

Heck yeah Paul George!! Great game by the rookie. Give him more time.

+1, even though he won't go 6-9 every night, he needs the PT.

[PR07]

I felt like a number of guys played very well for us tonight. I don't know whether it's because Hans or George have seen more minutes as of late, but the team has played much better.

[Grang33r]

I felt like a number of guys played very well for us tonight. I don't know whether it's because Hans or George have seen more minutes as of late, but the team has played much better.

They worked very hard on their offense prior to last night's game and Granger even commented on the effort saying that is how they must play. While, i don't want to get too cocky, i did expect us to win this game unless we really struggled shooting the ball because both Butler and Nowitzki were out injured, but, it's the way they won that excites me. Rick Carisle, as we all know, is a defensive mastermind and despite some offense in the lineup, he came to Indianapolis with a very solid defensive team. I expected us to pull away late but thought it'd be a low scoring affair. I was wrong. The Pacers attacked and attacked their defense, went down low or shot from afar. They have looked real good these past two nights.

[chube]

Another game that makes me excited for the future. Danny, Darren, Rush, and Paul George all played well. And Roy was within striking distance of a double-double despite just 16 minutes (and was smarter with his shot, taking just 8 shots in the middle of a slump and made 4 of them.) Even Tyler did some decent things in limited play, shooting aside.

Would still rather see Solo in street clothes aside from McBob at this point though. I really don't see how Solo brings more to the table than J-Mac, especially considering Foster is healthy and got 20+ minutes of run. Only in Jim O'Brien's system could a guy go from starting the first 30 games or whatever, only to be in street clothes by mid-January.

But just 7 turnovers, shot 45%, shot 22 free throws, still too many 3's for my taste, but whatever. Sure, this might have been against a Dallas team without 2 of it's key starters, but still. Those are opportunities you have to take advantage of and I'm not sure last year's Pacers could've capitalized.

[Solid]

I saw some of the game for a change.
Defense looked pretty decent.
We won because we shot fairly well and of course - no Dirk. We will lose when our shots do not fall because that's all we know.
Sadly there is little in the way of movement, cuts, or interior post ups. I see, basically, four guys on the perimeter and long shots within a few seconds, kind of like a pick up game played with only guards.
An occasional drive is made to break their own boredom.
Posey's minutes should be rare.
Three small forwards at the same time? or two 3s and a 2 guard and a PF, no center??
Small ball blows. It's a short term answer to injury problems, or rare 2nd unit match up problems etc.
It will never work against good competition and when ever it becomes a fetish the coach should be dealt with.