Pacer in the Clutch

[granger05]

There's a Truehoop article up on ESPN right now that talks about end game performance and has several Pacer mentions.

The Lakers have by far the best crunch time plus/minus this season (plus-79, the Pacers are second at plus-65)

Good teams in general do well in crunch time. The top six teams in crunch time plus/minus this season have already locked up playoff spots, for instance (Lakers, Pacers, Hawks, Magic, Spurs and Bulls). But it's hardly a perfect correlation. In fact, surely a lot of what we're seeing in this chart appears to be simple randomness. The Pacers, terrible for a long time, are suddenly leaders. The Kings are excellent crunch time defenders this season. The Hawks are a solid team that is way better than solid late in games. And plenty of good teams -- the Sixers, the Knicks -- are pretty bad with the game on the line.

The top ten late-game offensive teams this season are the Magic, Lakers, Grizzlies, Bulls, Hawks, Pacers, Rockets, Thunder, Spurs and Knicks.

The Pacers are by far this season's best defensive team late in close games. They are followed by the Hawks, Kings (!), Spurs, Heat, Magic, Bulls, Lakers, Thunder and Clippers.

I've followed the links in the article and I don't see anything that links to the source data referenced here. In general, I've read a few blurbs about the Pacers' late game play (Granger in the 4th quarter as well) which mentioned stats that weren't specifically linked to. Does anyone know where these numbers are? This article also contains a chart which isn't showing up for me. It's just a blank space in the page.

[yoadknux]

the table at this article doesn't work for me either, but the clutch stat comes from:
http://www.82games.com/1112/CSORT11.HTM

[Miller4ever]

I researched that a week or so ago. Granger shoots 47-40-92 in the 4th. He also turns it over way less. He's super-efficient in the 4th while taking the shots for the team as a top-6 offensive producer in the 4th.

Add our defense and it's no wonder we do pretty well in crunch time. Now we just need it to translate to the playoffs, where most likely every game is coming down to crunch time.

[Solid]

We're relativly young and get good minutes from up and down the bench.
Our guys are, to a degree, are fresher at crunch time.

[8305]

I don't know if this impacts the statistics but, for the first time in what seems like forever we have a point guard option who can defend in George Hill. Lately at the end of games it seems we can totally shut down the opposition. Hill, George and Granger can be tough to get anything done against when they really lock in.

[PacersDG]

We are playing great team ball. The guys take pride in their defense and it is making the difference. I've never seen the pacers win so many close games. For the last 5 years we were known for blowing leads.

I think Vogel deserves some major credit in how he has developed this team and an identity.

[Wizop]

last few games we've just locked down the last five minutes. we're ready for the playoffs.