[From the FanPosts, pvirsky takes us inside the Garden last night and makes the most out of a miserable game for the Pacers. -TL]

There aren't many positive things to take from your favorite team being this crappy, but if put to task on finding a silver lining, getting cheap tickets while living away from Indiana is definitely one.  For just under $150, my wife and I got seats 4 rows back, straight across from the Pacers bench.  Since I don't get to watch many games from out here, I thought I'd give a personal take on the game from a fan who's followed closely without actually seeing the team play much this year.  I'll also add a few pictures and videos as we go and note that Paul Pierce's wife and daughter were sitting about 5 feet from us.

[The view from our seats.  The woman sitting just past the blonde woman (all you can see is her hair) is Pierce's wife, their daughter was running all around the area]

Unfortunately, the game was so awful that I'm not sure there's much reason to talk about the actual game.  Instead I'll try to provide some insight into smaller details and mix in unrelated anecdotes from the game.

The overwhelming takeaway from this game for me is that the Pacers are depressed.  They want/need this season to end.  I'm honestly not sure if I saw a smile from the blue and gold for the entire game.  Guys on the bench looked bored and the guys in the game were often just going through the motions.  Obviously, being down 20+ most of the game doesn't help, but they were like this from the tip-off.  It really couldn't be any more apparent how much these guys are just done with this season.  Towards the top of the depressed list were Granger and Dunleavy (and understandably so).  

[Okay I lied, Hibbert looks to be smiling here, maybe]

I guess the best we can hope for from the rest of this season is continued blowouts - they make JOB's demise likelier and force him to play some of the younger players.  Maybe Price wouldn't have played at all were it not for Ford's injury, but it was still nice to see him get some run.

[A rare Price sighting!]

But back to JOB.  At this point, it almost seems like he would rather get fired too and just be put out of his misery.  He just looks miserable (and from the recent interviews, sounds like it too).  This next picture is blurry, but I get the impression this is how he looks to the players by now (and he probably sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher).

[Is he pointing at me or Hibbert?  Cause I was kinda hoping for a DNP-CD tonight...]

So this game obviously wasn't really telling of the Pacers, other than that they sort of suck this year and are susceptible to blowouts, especially on the road.  It was nice to see Price get in there and for Dr. Hibbert to have a good game.  But overall, it was pretty sad to watch this team and their body language.  Now I understand why Ford was dancing when he thought he was getting traded - going to another team would be a welcome respite from what's going on in Indiana.  

As for a few random anecdotes, first of all, there was a guy dressed as Green Man from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.  Every time they did the "people dancing on the jumbotron" thing, they would go to him and he was doing some crazy dances.  Very amusing.  I don't watch the show but I'm sure that would make it funnier.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to use video when he had the good 10-15 second dances, but I did get a short one.  Picture this for 5 times as long and with crazier moves and you'll understand where we got most of our enjoyment from last night:

[Green man dancing]

Another enjoyable part was the halftime show, which included the mascot/leprechaun guy throwing down some dunks.  I got a nice shot of him on his way up and a video of him grabbing a ball mid-air and throwing down.  Of course, he had a trampoline.

[best dunk of the night]

[leprechaun dunk]

All in all, it was a good time, especially for someone who has never had seats that good.  The team looks awful and dispirited, but going into the lottery stretch-run, that's a good thing.  Having watched Wall take over a game and Turner sink a crazy game-winning 3, I'm just getting more excited for the possibility.  Hopefully this game will give us some negative momentum.  We still have a shot at the third worst record if things go right.