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Etc. and so on...

I'm excited!

Yes!

Did I say that out loud?

I'm excited to see how the team responds to Coach Lester, but not excited about the circumstances. I dislike O'Brien as our coach as much as the next guy but I don't wish ill upon him or his family.

Should be cool to see how Lester does considering how much Jarrett Jack looked up to him last year. They seemed to have developed a very strong bond in the short time that JJ was here. I'll be rockin my Jarrett Jack Pacers jersey tonight at the Fieldhouse.

Glad to see Lester getting a shot, I think he could do a pretty good job coaching.

When I first read the thread headline, I thought maybe Obie was taking time of to attend a coaching clinic.

Definately glad to see Lester in charge, just sorry Obie has to miss for a sad occasion.

Just found out why Obie has to miss tonight's game. I hope everything's going to be okay there. That being said, I think this is a game where we can see if the players respond to somebody who's not Obie.

JOB coaches...Pacers lose by 15. Connor coaches...Pacers win by 15. I've gotta tell you, I have nothing personal against Obie, but this is not the right team for him to be coaching. I can't tell you the number of times I've disagreed with his moves. If we were winning, I'd just say that's why he's in charge. We're not, so why IS he in charge?

^^We sorta need a larger sample size.

This one's good enough for me

True that we don't have a great sample size but here are some very interesting quotes from NBA.com Raptors game recap.

"He (Connor) did, however, emphasize playing in attack mode and getting the ball into the lane more often and allowed longer playing rotations. The payoff was 50 points in the paint, 52 percent field-goal shooting and 35 free throw attempts."

"Just wanted to do something different, pushing the ball, getting layups, getting the ball consistently in the paint,"

"the positive impact of his presence and adjustments seemed obvious in this game."

"Conner had admitted before the game that should he ever get a head coaching position he would do things differently than O'Brien. He gave hints of that on Tuesday."

I also remember one of the players saying that they ran a few different plays and had a lot more freedom out there.

I think this just goes to show even more that perhaps Obie isn't the most suitable coach for us

^^I'd buy that. Those are fundamentals that I like Connor implementing. Get it inside, and draw fouls. Great ideas, and it led to a good attack and a balanced one at that. With Obie people seemed to get stuck in roles that didn't suit them 100%. This time, it was everybody contributing with easy shots.

Of course, Toronto's defense leaves something to be desired, and they were away, but it was great to see us beating a "playoff" (Eastern) team. They ARE above .500.

I hope we can build on this and get some wins going into and out of the all-star break.

Bad news time...

O'Brien is likely going to be back for tonight's game.