IC Cold Links: Pacers Off To Beijing After Win In Taipei

Plenty of storylines emerged after the Indiana Pacers piled up points while pounding the Denver Nuggets.

The best preseason news surrounds the Pacers non-descript depth which after one night in Taipei appears stronger than many believe. Roy Hibbert, Earl Watson, Dahntay Jones and A.J. Price all came off the bench with solid minutes. Hibbert and Jones may find themselve in the starting lineup depending on how things play out the rest of the month, but regardless of which players start or come off the bench, JOB has options to work with and the ability to go to his bench if a player at any position just isn't getting it done on a particular night.

If JOB can get a consistent and reliable effort from his depth the competition will raise the level of effort throughout the whole roster and give the team a chance to win every night.

Lots of links and highlights after the jump.

• Bruno reports on the game from Taipei and finds Jim O'Brien please with the defensive effort which helped fuel all of  the points on the offensive end. He also checks in on some of the position battles along with the veteran presence of Troy Murphy and Earl Watson.
  

  "I thought we did some really positive things, defensively," said O'Brien, citing 57 deflections as an indicator "which shows we were pressuring the basketball well."
  
  "We shot the ball very well, 16-of-35 from the 3-point line," he said, "but I was most pleased with our tempo, the way we continued to fast-break the entire night. …We scored 126 tonight because of our defensive pressure. The running game always starts with defense."

• Mike Wells reports on Roy Hibbert's game which was a vast improvement from the preseason opener last week.
• Roy Hibbert's effort stood out, so Jeff Rabjohns checked in with his Georgetown coach, John Thompson III to see what he thought.
• Have the Nuggets been down this road before? Andrew Feinstein at Denver Stiffs has a sinking feeling after observing the Nuggs so far this preseason.
• Movie director, Ang Lee was courtside in Taipei, so the boys at Ball Don't Lie couldn't help wondering what alterations to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" Lee would make after watching the game.
• Mike Anthony keeps the UConn faithful updated on how A.J. Price is doing with the Pacers.
• The NBA is popular in China and so are player jerseys. Hopefully after this weekend there will be a few more blue and gold jersery amongst the masses in Beijing.
• At HoopsWorld, Tommy Beer previews the MVP candidates and finds Danny Granger worth a mention.
• The "Sonicsgate" documentary is set to release on www.sonicsgate.org on October 12th, but there are two showings in Seattle this weekend. Steve Kelley and Percy Allen offer more information on the film today.
• Finally, here are the game highlights from Taipei.