Grizzlies 103, Pacers 95: They Played

by Tom Lewis on Oct 13, 2008 11:02 PM EDT

The Memphis Grizzlies ambushed the Pacer in the third quarter, outscoring the P's 33-16, and held on to secure the 103-95 win in Memphis on Monday night. That pretty much sums it up.

The big news from this game was the utter lack of noteworthy items to take from the game itself. The Pacers only dressed ten players as Maceo Baston (flu), Marquis Daniels (groin), Danny Granger (elbow) joined Mike Dunleavy, Troy Murphy and Travis Diener in street clothes. None of the new injuries are considered serious; in fact I imagine the term injury is used loosely with Quisy and Danny.

All the new faces (both old and young) played plenty of minutes, but struggled most of the second half after leading at the break 53-51. Brandon Rush had a serious "meh" game, playing 32 minutes but scoring just 7 points on 3 of 11 shots. Late in the game, Slick lamented the little impact Rush had on the game, mentioning he has to bring it at a high level every night and seemed like he was out there just trying to fit in the flow of the game.

Roy Hibbert and Rasho Nesterovic held down the post quite nicely combining to score 29 points. Hibbert finished with 17 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocked shots. Mark Boyle mentioned his surprise at how far along Roy's game is at this point, admitting he thought initially that Roy would be a 2-3 year project. I was hoping Roy would be a one year project and he probably will be, but he will contribute much more this year than I anticipated.

The Grizz were running their young roster at full strength tonight. O.J. Mayo had a huge game dropping 6 3-balls as part of his 26 points while picking up 5 steals along the way. The Grizz have a lot of nice young talent that will likely be maddeningly inconsistent, but on a night when the shots are dropping and it all comes together, they will be mighty fun to watch.

The Dallas Mavericks with Shawne Williams and Rick Carlisle visit the Fieldhouse on Wednesday for the Pacers next preseason game.

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Rush

As I’ve often lamented Brandon Rush does not do enough to take over games. He is always content with sitting back and waiting for the game to come to him. Last night was a perfect example of what to expect from him on a nightly basis. Coach Self would often point out, in the media, how he thought Brandon was too complacent during the course of games. Hopefully Bird can sit him down and talk him into changing his stripes, my guess is that this is just who he is and he’ll never become more aggressive.

by ThirtyOne on Oct 14, 2008 7:45 AM EDT reply actions

Of all nights to be aggressive

last night would be the one. He started and was set to play big minutes. I didn’t watch the game but from listening to the game and how it flowed, it just seemed like after he missed his first couple of shots he toned down his game. Maybe Slick gave him a little advice on the way home.

Indy Cornrows

by Tom Lewis on Oct 14, 2008 8:04 AM EDT up reply actions

Impressive

Despite the loss, I like what I see!

Last night the Pacers was a completly diferent team of what we expect to see as the starting players in the beggining of the season.
In teh game a saw we’ve got two great PG’s (something we didn’t have for a long time), one consistent veteran center and one impressive rookie center.

Rush and Croshere are really struggling but we all know they can be better than that.

With a starting team with: Ford, Granger, Dunleavy, Murphy and Nesterovic/ Foster…and having Jack, Rush, Cro, Hibbert, Daniels and Maceo (who is a player that I love to see in the court) coming form the bench seems to be a good fit for the Pacers.

I’ve got high hopes on this new team.

Pacers Forever

by Hansel on Oct 14, 2008 11:05 AM EDT reply actions