Pacers Courtside

With all the talk about mavericks during this political season, it was good to watch good ole’ basketball instead of politics with the Pacers and Mavericks. Although Dallas played the majority of their all-stars, and Rick Carlisle tried his hardest while sitting on the bench, the Pacers ended up killing them with a score of 114-91.

Thannks to technology and the questionable legality of justin.tv, we were able to watch the game - although it wasn’t even close to HD or SD or even TV. But it was way better than trying to get AM to work in the basement. So instead of a full report on the game, here are some random thoughts:

• Jarrett Jack had 12 points in the first half off the bench. He’s not as fast as T.J., but that is some great scoring from the bench. However, he ended up with 12 points, three rebounds, four assists and one turnover.
• Pacers had a great number of fast break points and threes in the first half.
• Marquis looked good most of the game. The announcer said “Daniels is sneaky inside” . . . I like that analogy.
• Murphy started out the second half losing the ball, and then throwing it to Dallas, but ended up with nine points (4-8), nine rebounds and four turnovers.
• The Dallas channel has way better music than Fox Indiana. They played “The Temples of Syrinx” from Rush’s song and album 2112 during an segway to commercial. It doesn’t get any better than that.
• The Indiana Pacers player that fans may be taking for granted the most is Rasho Nesterovic. Maybe it’s because they can’t pronounce his name, but the guy is a veteran and can play. Rasho was 7 for 13 scoring 14 points, nine rebounds and two assists.
• Danny Granger ended up making a lot of points in the second half. Maybe Spidey blew the preseason cobwebs off of the Batman. He ended up 5-16 on two’s and 2-6 with threes, with a total of 24 points. With Mike’s knee, let’s hope that Granger turns back to normal during the regular season.
• TJ Ford collided with the Dallas fans sitting on the court side while going for a ball out of bounds with 30 seconds left and up 23 points . . . during a preseason game. That is some effort. Ford also had 19 points, nine assists and seven rebounds!  This guy is more important than anyone thought, and they are already saying he will have triple-doubles this season. Just don’t let him get hurt.

It’s time for the real deal - the regular season. We’ve seen some good play, some great play, and some not-so-good play. Beginning next week, it really matters. The suspense is worse than any Bob Barker suspense tactic ever televised.

Well, it was fun while it lasted Austin. The Indiana Pacers announced that Austin Croshere and Josh Davis have been waived. Why they were waived right before tonight’s preseason game is unknown, but maybe Jim O’Brien wants to focus on the 14 players we will have for this last game of the preseason.

Austin didn’t make a lot of shots the first several games this preseason, but seemed to warm up the past couple of games. He has always been a fan favorite, has a great attitude, and would be a good fellow leader for our new team. Sure, he’s old in NBA years and maybe not what he once used to be as a player, but if we could have kept him for a minimum contract it would have been a no-brainer. Thanks to the un-tradeable Jamaal Tinsley, we had to get rid of two players and Austin and Josh paid the price.

“This was an extremely difficult decision to waive Austin,” said General Manager David Morway. “Austin’s a terrific professional and has represented this franchise extremely well and we appreciate his passion, dedication and commitment to the Pacers over the years.”

Austin mentioned wanting to work with the Pacers organization in some kind of position after he retires, so maybe we’ll see him around. Or if we could just trade Tinsley, he could come back on the court. Whatever the case, here’s to AC and for all the years he gave the Indiana Pacers.

There is a pretty good interview with Roy Hibbert from WNDE 1260 AM that was just posted to the interwebs. The biggest impression: Roy is a good speaker and great character. Every time he received a compliment from JMV, he politely responded that he has a lot of work to do, needs to work with the good Pacers coaches he has available, and it’s going to take some time to blossom. Based on the excitement from fans during the preseason, it’s scary to think what Roy could blossom into . . . scary in a good way.

Roy admitted there were some first game jitters, and even some jitters during the first couple games, but again he thinks he has a lot of work to do to get to where he wants to be in the NBA. Listening to Hibbert’s answers to the questions left me thinking, do responses get any better than this? Hibbert also mentioned that he is getting acclimated with his teammates, they talk to him every day and it sounds like they usually eat lunch together. Roy did mention that although he wouldn’t name any names, the rookie is getting “newspapers and stuff and everything” for certain Indiana Pacers players.

Roy was also asked about Patrick Ewing, and said that besides the sweet baseline fade (JMV’s words, not Roy’s), Ewing also taught him about how hard you need to work every day in the NBA. It really seems like Roy Hibbert is trying to make as good of a first impression as possible in his rookie year - another smart move from the new “claw” of the Pacers. (Is that his new nickname? . . .  hard to keep all of Big Roy’s nicknames straight.)

You can listen to the Roy Hibbert interview here.

Assist by Indy Cornrows

This was surprising to see considering how hard the Pacers have worked to remove any glimpse of Jamaal Tinsley. I added this Pacers NBA widget to my iGoogle homepage, and after looking at the players and stats, I was less than enthused.

Darnell Hillman, Mel Daniels, Steve Green and Bill Newton reflect on the Pacers’ ABA years.

Hold on now, that’s not what we think. That’s according to General Managers who recently completed a survey. When asked who is the toughest player in the NBA, the GMs answered:

1. Ron Artest — 37.0%
2. Kobe Bryant — 14.8%
3. Matt Harpring — 7.4%
4. Chris Paul — 7.4%
5. Manu Ginobili — 5.6%

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We’re going to try to attend and get some video for PacersCourtside.com . . . 
“Join your 2008-09 Indiana Pacers at Conseco Fieldhouse for Pacers FanJam presented by Conseco. The event is FREE to everyone and the first 5,000 fans to the event will receive a free Pacers jersey, hot dog, chips and Pepsi product. Please join us to receive Pacers giveaways and a chance to win Pacers autographed merchandise and an Ultimate Pacers Experience.

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