Pacers Courtside

T.J. Ford, one time. OK, a bunch of times. Ford made the game tonight. Sure you can look at stats and all that mumbo jumbo, but when nobody was hitting shots, when no one was being aggressive, when no one was taking it inside . . . T.J. SuperFord came to the rescue.

To be honest, this was a hard game to watch until the end of the 2nd quarter. Early foul trouble didn’t help. I was trying to remind myself this was a “Pacers Game” and I needed to be more excited, but it was tough until the Pacers got going in the 2nd half. This was one of the first games where everyone didn’t give their best effort, but despite being behind most of the first half, the Indiana Pacers persevered through some adversity and won the game 107 - 99.

Maceo Baston came in, and for whatever reason I got preoccupied with the fact that Josh McRoberts STILL hadn’t played in the regular season. About ten minutes later, here comes Josh in for a sick Troy Murphy. Thank you for listening to my inner thoughts JOB, and a sincere thank you to Troy for the stomach flu. Just like the media focused on, Josh McRoberts seemed to get us over that first half hump and helped gain a lead in the second half. His hustle on defense and offense made a big difference when it counted. Just like his surprising preseason hustle play which had some doubters singing high praise for McBob, he seemed to prove his ability for the Pacers during his first regular season game.

There were other players that played a big role: Hibbert, Jack and more. Granger had 20 points, but also got in early foul trouble and couldn’t compete like normal. Jeff Foster played well for most of the game, with 15 points and 4 blocks. However, therefore, please do note: T.J. Ford was the play maker and game-saver tonight. He had 24 points, 10 assists, 7 rebounds and nearly zero turnovers (2 in the fast paced endof game) in 40 minutes. Hello?!? Without those kind of stats, and the effort that didn’t show up in the stats, tonight’s game against a Thunder team we should beat would have gone dry. T.J. brought some much needed lightening against the Thunder. Let’s just be thankful we’re at 50% with the schedule we’ve had. Two wins in a row could be a start to a streak . . . stay positive Pacers fans. We’ve got something here.