IC Cold Links: Granger Impressed By Hansbrough's Debut In Pacers Win

It took only 13 minutes of play, but rookie Tyler Hansbrough's performance (13 points, five rebounds) during his first time on an NBA court turned some heads. And teammate Danny Granger is warning the rest of league to take notice.

After the Pacers 102-84 thumping of the Wizards Friday night, Granger gave Bruno the following quote about the debut of his teammate:

"We had all been waiting to see Tyler play. We've seen him play in practice and know how aggressive he is. They got a taste of it tonight. It was a lot of fun. He's like a big-man linebacker. He's going to get from point A to point B and take some people along with him in the process. ... He's so physical, he's one of those guys you definitely want on your team." -- Danny Granger

That seems to sum it up best. Hansbrough stole the show during a dominating Pacers performance at home that rightly celebrated two icons -- Conseco "Reggie Miller" Fieldhouse and the late, great Mel Simon. Tom had plenty of thoughts on the game here. 

The Pacers now get a nice mini-vacation to bask in the glory of a quality win. Indiana doesn't hit the hardwood again until Wednesday. So let's hit the jump and check out the many links that focus on the Pacers win, Antawn Jamison giving his teammates an earful after the loss and Granger's new blog.

• Box Score
• AP Story
• Photo Gallery
• The IndyStar's Mike Wells empties the notebook to comment on the jersey ceremony honoring Simon, which members of the 1999-00 Finals Paces squad showed up last night and an update on the latest injuries.
• Defense. Defense. Defense. The mantra was loud and clear heading into the season and after the team failed mightily to turn the words into something on the court during the first three games, Mike Wells notes that the effort is finally rearing its head in a big way. T.J. Ford told Wells that defense was the key to last night's big win: "That's huge. It gives us a lot of confidence knowing we don't have to worry about scoring. The scoring will come; we just have to continue to play defense like we're doing."
• Wells also wrote a Pacers Insider post about Hansbrough, Roy Hibbert and the Wiz leaving a shattered plate in the visitor's locker room.
• Bruno put together his Postgame Report giving Stat of the Night honors to Hibbert's achievement of three straight double-doubles after nabbing 12 points and 11 rebounds last night. Also, check out Bruno's live blog here.
  
• Shout out to user "donhein" for posting a link to Eddie White's glowing review of Hansbrough hitting the court.
• John Oehser writes his recap for Examiner.com.
• Always Miller Time also chimes in on the Pacers improving to a 2-3 record.
• The Washington Post gives a sterling report on Jamison's outburst to his teammates after the loss. Jamison reportidely "stormed from the locker room alone after unleashing a vicious, expletive-laced tongue-lashing."
• SB Nation's Bullets Forever could only muster a couple of sentences to accompany the photo of Wizards' players looking distraught on the bench in their recap. Ahh, what memories!
• In the not-so-distant future of the 2010-11 season, the NBA's salary cap could be taking another hit. Eight Points, Nine Seconds checks out the repercussions and how it could affect the blue and gold.
• Finally, NBA.com has launched a new blog for Danny Granger to spew his thoughts during the remainder of the season. In his first post, the star talks about the slow start to the season along with his off-the-court activities.