Game 66: Pacers vs Bulls 04/25/12, 7:00 EST

[Miller4ever]

Fair warning, all the playoffs gamethreads are going to be on the NSFW side of things.

[chube]

Bandwagon Bulls fans out in force tonight. Sounds like our fans are trying extra hard to drown them out tonight.

[Nuntius]

What's the NSFW side of things?

[Miller4ever]

Animal torture.

Bulls fans in Indiana. It's a problem.

Too bad this game isn't near the real thing with Granger and Barbosa out. That's the top offensive starter and the top offensive bench player. And Lance starting. Wow.

[Miller4ever]

Glad to see Lance. I think he does better at SG than PG. He's a bad decision-making PG, but a good passing SG. If he keeps working on that shot he will be in contention with Barbosa for which backup SG the Pacers should re-sign.

[glasket]

Well looking at the box score I am impressed with Lance.

Didn't see the game so don't know the "non box score" things like how he looked on Defence etc... but a pretty impressive offensive display.
Perhaps he does earn some more court time and rotation time next year.
I would think it is too late for this year in the playoffs and don't want to mess with rotations too much

[FreeRon]

He looked fairly lost on defense, but in fairness so did everyone else. The last couple of games have seemed to be better for resting our starters than for seeing how the young guys could do. Seemed like everyone on the court wanted to shoot the ball instead of running plays, but I suppose a lot of players would want to put up points when they get a rare chance to shine. I don't know if anyone else got this feeling, but it seemed like the Pacers were pushing it on every play but still barely getting a shot off before the shot clock went off. Overall just seemed to be a lack of communication. Doesn't seem they practiced the teams that they put on the floor together more than maybe the last week or so.

[Nuntius]

I enjoyed the game. Lance was very good. I appreciated the effort.

I'm ready for the playoffs now. Goooooooooooo

[chube]

Orlando beat Charlotte (shocking, I know) so it appears we're locked into play Orlando. And it sounds like Big Baby Davis left the game with a bad ankle, and last I heard Nelson is up in the air too in terms of health.

Obviously, we can't relax, but this definitely helps in terms of matchups.

[Miller4ever]

The Bulls can really put the clamps down on defense. It shows the preparation that they put in, because they were ready for every regular Pacer player, but Lance Stephenson was a wrinkle they weren't prepared to deal with. Unfortunately, Lance wasn't prepared to deal with the Bulls offense, either, so in the end it probably offset to a degree. He did a good job, though, after hesitating in the beginning.

Paul George stunk it up, big time. He was forcing things. Stephenson earned the 35 minutes he spent on the floor.

It wasn't a blowout, but it felt like the Bulls were in control the whole time.

[Indy2thaWindy]

Hibbert shouldn't have played either. He looked like he didn't want to be out there.

[FreeRon]

I noticed the same thing. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt and just believing that he didn't want to get too emotionally involved in a game that meant nothing so close to the only games that mean anything.