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Cleveland Cavaliers [1-1] @ Indiana Pacers [2-0]
Saturday, November 2nd, 2013 | Indianapolis, Indiana | Bankers Life Fieldhouse | 7pm | FSI


GAME DAY READING

Early Season Returns: Paul George’s Improved Ballhandling

With 7:15 left in a seven-point game last night against the Pelicans, Paul George isolated his defender at the top of the key, spun away from an incoming double team while knifing into the lane and alertly dished the ball to a wide-open George Hill under the basket for an easy layup. It was the type of play that makes you say, “Wow!” while heading to Twitter to see if others are sharing the same reaction.

Yesterday, new 8 Points, 9 Seconds writer Jalen Bishop mused, “Paul George is growing more and more as a ball handler.” Immediately, several fans came to George’s defense crying that he’s always been a good ball handler, even in college.

But he hasn’t.

Rest: http://www.eightpointsnineseconds.com/2 ... lhandling/

Pacers' Paul George Buys out Alma Mater's Opening Night Tickets to Give Away

Indiana Pacers star Paul George is making good use of the max deal that he received this offseason. He bought all of the remaining unsold tickets to the Fresno State men's basketball home opener against Cal State Northridge and will give them away. George was a star for the Bulldogs in two seasons from 2008 to 2010.

Rest: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1832 ... -give-away

Jarrett Jack just might turn out to be the Cleveland Cavaliers' biggest free-agent signing

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- When the Cavaliers' biggest off-season free-agent signee entered Wednesday's game, the dynamics of the contest entirely changed.

Suddenly, the Cavaliers were more composed. All at once, they began to score easily. Quickly, they closed the deficit against the Brooklyn Nets.

Yes, it's safe to say Jarrett Jack's debut in Cleveland was a success.

Rest: http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf ... _clev.html

LAST TIME OUT

Cleveland 84 | Charlotte 90 http://scores.nbcsports.msnbc.com/nba/b ... final=true
Points: Miles 22
Rebounds: Thompson 11
Assists: Irving 7

Indiana 95 | New Orleans 90 http://scores.nbcsports.msnbc.com/nba/b ... final=true
Points: George 32
Rebounds: Stephenson 8
Assists: George, West 5

THE COACHES


Mike Brown | Frank Vogel

THE STARTERS

Pacers


George Hill | Lance Stephenson | Paul George | David West | Roy Hibbert

Cleveland


Kyrie Irving | Dion Waiters | Tristan Thompson | Earl Clark | Anderson Varejao

THE RESERVES

Pacers


Luis Scola | Orlando Johnson | CJ Watson | Ian Mahinmi

Cleveland


CJ Miles | Jarrett Jack | Andruw Bynum | Alonzo Gee

INJURY REPORT

Pacers


Danny Granger | Sprained Left Calf

Cleveland

Sergey Karasev | Sprained ankle

KEY MATCHUP

Kyrie Irving vs. George Hill



FLASHBACK

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td9CDx4s6Is[/youtube]

10 BEFORE THE TIP



Need up-to-the minute news and notes on the game? Check out, NBA.com's 10 before the tip.

NBA.com has a reporter in every arena, scouring the locker rooms and hitting press row for all the latest news, notes and anecdotes leading up to tipoff. Ten Before Tip is your source for lineup scratches, injury updates and all last-minute info that could affect the outcome of the game. Every night, before every game, NBA.com’s writers will be filing short TBT blog posts directly from the arena, covering the latest storylines to keep you fully informed.

GO PACERS GO

Pacers will eat cavs alive because they are well rested.

Bankers life will be rockin tomorrow!

Pog will be West and Roy!

It's a good chance to get out to a 3-0 start. Cavs are on a back to back and didn't look solid last night. I also love the test we had at NO last game, should be our game to lose. Let's hope there's no complacency in this one.

Now we can't get ahead of ourselves yet. Yes the cavs looked not so great tonight but this is a team that did knock the nets off.. I think its gonna be a really good game but I am hoping the pacers blow them out

Is this the night we finally see Chris Copeland ?

Reckon our big men will be the key, if they can stay out of foul trouble and deny second chances by rebounding well it should be a W. Agreed on Irving v. Hill being the key, if Hill for whatever reason can't slow Irving down we might have a problem!

Go Pacers!

Grang33r wrote:Is this the night we finally see Chris Copeland ?

Playing Copeland would be a smart move cause they play small ball alot

Big game tonight. Hope Paul George can have a big game and Hibbert dominate off the glass. Looked around the web and found a cool Sports website with some awesome NBA content. Even some great stuff for tonight's game against the Cavs.

Check this out: http://www.movoli.com/event/4687/indian ... 11-02-2013

Ola-Depot wrote:Big game tonight. Hope Paul George can have a big game and Hibbert dominate off the glass. Looked around the web and found a cool Sports website with some awesome NBA content. Even some great stuff for tonight's game against the Cavs.

Check this out: http://www.movoli.com/event/4687/indian ... 11-02-2013

Welcome to RealGM!

Gremz, you out there?

Dupp wrote:Gremz, you out there?

He's always out....there.


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I see Lance is slowly playing his way out of our price range. But DAMN, he looks good.

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MIP for Lance possible?

Jake0890 wrote:I see Lance is slowly playing his way out of our price range. But DAMN, he looks good.

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My hope is that he just resigns with Indy without even talking to anyone else due to his respect for Bird. I mean without Bird, he likely doesn't have a career, but I'm worried he may get a huge offer from someone.

pacers33granger wrote:

Jake0890 wrote:I see Lance is slowly playing his way out of our price range. But DAMN, he looks good.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

My hope is that he just resigns with Indy without even talking to anyone else due to his respect for Bird. I mean without Bird, he likely doesn't have a career, but I'm worried he may get a huge offer from someone.

Thats tough to say, because while it's hard for us to say, since we're so emotionally attached to a sport or a team, at the end of the day, the guys writing the check to the employee recieving the check, it's business. I hope he stays with us too, and i hope we find a way to keep him but i also don't feel like he owes us any kind of discounts or favors either.

As for the game, it was real nice to see the bench come in late in the first, led by Solomon Hill and Donald Sloan, and extend the lead. I think when they came in, it was a 3pt lead, and when Vogel started to bring the starters back in, it was up to 11. The bench did it again later on in the game as well. Having Lance as a 6th man on a full-time basis is truly key for this team i feel like. That, with Granger starting, truly seperates us from the current form we are in to a whole new different level. Lance had 22pts tonight, but how many with the second unit?

Also, a quick note- I read a story last season (around playoff time) by some news agency, could of even been the Indy Star, on Orlando Johnson. OJ said early in the season, he kept shooting more baskets then he's ever done in his life and still couldn't sniff the court. OJ went to Paul George and pretty much asked him, how come? He's been a good scorer his whole life and not shooting more then ever in practice but he's getting nowhere. George told him, you got it all wrong. We know you can score, you've done it your whole life. But you need to mastermind defense. And just told him to keep working on defense.

It's only a 3 game window, but he's been fantastic on defense so far. In our opening night win, he had the teams second highest plus/minus with +11 and tonight led the team with +15.

Has anybody else noticed his steller play on defense so far this season?

Also, player of the game.... Lance Stephenson?

The good
[tweet]https://twitter.com/SamAmicoFSO/status/396834339188531200[/tweet]

The ugly
[tweet]https://twitter.com/SamAmicoFSO/status/396835106288988161[/tweet]

I was also impressed with OJ on D, he is beginning to look like he deserves to be out there properly. Still puzzled about the Copeland situation, although I think I might have found the answer in the rise of OJ: Vogel is unhappy with the potential lack of D if he puts Copeland in, as we talked about when he was first signed: He is too slow to guard a real SF and too small to guard a real PF.

So the fact that he is a tweener doesn't help, that does beg the question: Why sign him?

It is early in the season and the D is holding up great, we are still able to shut down teams and now the second unit is also coming into a bit of O. Still think we have a few too many turnovers and, don't kill me, but I think PG needs to be a bit wary of not becoming a chucker, he had a few plays today where I felt he simply wasted possession, dribbling up and shooting a three with plenty of time left on the clock and the rebounders not quite set comes to mind.

So: plenty of things left to iron out, but overall the effort, talent and D are in place and it looks like we are set for a good season.

About Copeland, it should be noted, that he is coming off a off-season surgery. I wonder if that has him still behind. He looked very slow and rusty last night in the very few minutes he played. I watched a few Knicks games last year, and he wasn't that slow. So maybe that's the issue?

Grang33r wrote:About Copeland, it should be noted, that he is coming off a off-season surgery. I wonder if that has him still behind. He looked very slow and rusty last night in the very few minutes he played. I watched a few Knicks games last year, and he wasn't that slow. So maybe that's the issue?

It could be, but if you brought the fellow in to be an impact bench player you'd play him more, just to get his engine started? It could be that Vogel just hasn't seen enough yet to know what to do with him, due to the injury and they are just taking it easy bringing him in, he certainly didn't seem disgruntled when he was on.

We shall see!