IC Cold Links: Pacers Go Back To Drawing Board After Loss To Kings

by Tom Lewis on Jan 19, 2012 12:02 PM EST in Indiana Pacers News

The Indiana Pacers' brutal late-night loss to the Sacramento Kings was even more painful this morning as I was sitting in the car pool line at 7:20 a.m. still shaking my head at the sleep loss I endured to watch that loss.

I'm still wondering how that zone defense ripped the spine out of the Pacers offensive attack. Well, attack may be a poor word choice since players were looking to teammates to knock down shots, hardly begging for the ball to step up and make a shot. Really, the Pacers just needed to make one or two more shots with three minutes to go and they probably would've hung on for the win.

Vogel going small and shuffling lineups didn't help since the Pacers obviously weren't comfortable with those adjustments. Roy Hibbert and David West weren't on the floor at the same time in the final 5:30 of the game which made it easier for the Kings to stay in that zone and chase the Pacers around the perimeter.

Plus, while the Kings shot horribly throughout the game, the four factors of winning showed up since the Pacers were on the wrong end of the other three factors. When you consider turnovers, free throw rate and offensive rebound rate often go to the aggressor, the Kings locked up those areas and deserved to win with better overall effort for the full 48 minutes of the game.

Back to the drawing board and the Pacers better start by drawing up a way to attack the zone. Might be seeing that strategy again.

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Comments

I'm still hurting from that loss last night

by BoomBaby31 on Jan 19, 2012 1:23 PM EST reply actions

Not Worried, but maybe,

just maybe, moving Paul to the 2nd unit at SF and Hill starting at SG will benefit both.
It would allow Paul to be the 1st option (rather then 2 or 3rd) on the court and make full use of Hills experience.

In no way is this a demotion or a lack of faith in Paul.
Despite his rare skill set and skies the limit potential, he is only in his 2nd yr and I believe he will get better by being the MAN (main focus) when he’s on the court.

Just A Thought!

by jonjonNYC on Jan 19, 2012 2:17 PM EST reply actions

Said that...

…ever since he got into the starting unit and his scoring went down. Last year I was saying Duns should start, this year…I’m thinking that might be worth a try.

However, I think I’d keep things going for now.

peac.e

by trucutter on Jan 19, 2012 7:45 PM EST up reply actions

I’ve been saying it since the first game. Vogel goes with the bench way too long. Not only that, but having our starters sit for long periods, they probably go cold and miss more shots.

And it's now my sig
by Bronn on May 17, 2011 4:56 PM EDT

by Sparhawk on Jan 19, 2012 2:53 PM EST reply actions

+1000

by indy62 on Jan 19, 2012 4:22 PM EST up reply actions

Yeah.

With Danny’s aggresiveness as of late (though only partially productive with it) he needs to be out there almost anytime that Hibbert isn’t.

peac.e

by trucutter on Jan 19, 2012 7:47 PM EST up reply actions

I think Vogel might not be the right guy

He seems to struggle with situational basketball like last night. We are down two points with Granger at the line with a free throw left and he has him intentionally miss the free throw, I thought that was a terrible decision. For one we have a timeout and 6 seconds on the clock and the kings were shooting like 60 percent from the stripe, even if the kings make both we still have a chance at a three to tie. I think his use of the bench is average at best, he has a set rotation that he goes with no matter how well a player is doing witch is frustrating as hell. In the first half he give the second unit a bunch of minutes then in the second half the never play at all, he just seems to lack any feel for the flow of the game and how players are doing.

by EliB209 on Jan 19, 2012 3:24 PM EST reply actions

I think he needs to lean on Brian Shaw more during the game than he does.

by FortWayneKarl on Jan 19, 2012 3:39 PM EST up reply actions

I think Vogel is fine

He just needs to understand that there are times when you have to react to what your opponent is doing, and there are times when you have to keep pushing forward with your game plan. I think he reacted a bit too much during crunch time last night.

The Pacers should have just done what they’ve always done this season when a tight game is coming to a close.

by StewStew on Jan 19, 2012 3:49 PM EST up reply actions

I think he panicked a little as a "sure" road win was slipping away - which hopefully won't happen again! :0

by FortWayneKarl on Jan 19, 2012 4:28 PM EST up reply actions

Yeah.

I think most of the time he’s done real well in game. I mean, the 3rd quarter has been our quarter. That could be a coincidence, but it would lead one to believe Vogel (or someone) has them playing well out of half time.

However, he needed to calm them down last night. They went through a tough stretch and then totally paniced and I don’t think Vogel did enough to calm them down.

peac.e

by trucutter on Jan 19, 2012 7:50 PM EST up reply actions

he did learn about coaching from JOB after all

that whole “adjust to the other team” habit must be kind of hard to kick, and flares up when you least expect it

by full sail on Jan 20, 2012 9:04 AM EST up reply actions

2nd unit

Needs some tweaking… They were horrible last night, and have gone from a strength to now looking like a weakness. I do think we have a solid 1-7, but the 2nd unit just isnt meshing.

Bottom line is we need a real backup PG. Its not Lance and its not GHill. I almost agree with the idea to start Hill at SG and move PG to the 2nd unit.

Then in the 2nd unit run with this lineup:
PG: A Price
SG: Stephenson/Jones
SF: George
PF: Hans/Pender
C: Foster/Lou

This also accomplishes the goal of LESS Dahntay.. Also don’t think it would hurt PG’s minutes a ton as he could still be a backup to the 2-3 spots and pick up minutes when either Hill or Danny are not in.

by deefree93 on Jan 19, 2012 6:56 PM EST reply actions

You won me over with less DJ!... I can't believe this clown is making me miss Rush at SG!!!

by FortWayneKarl on Jan 19, 2012 7:45 PM EST up reply actions

I just don't get it.

Jones IS not that bad. As a middle-to-late rotation player he’s as good as you can expect. I’d much rather have him out there on the court than Stephenson. And if we take position out of the equation…Amundson, and sometimes Hansbrough.

peac.e

by trucutter on Jan 19, 2012 7:56 PM EST up reply actions

He forces way too many shots, which is at least something Rush couldn't be accused of! :)

by FortWayneKarl on Jan 19, 2012 8:06 PM EST up reply actions

Karl you force to many comments. . .

Check out my website at www.bradwellssucks.com

by daledavis on Jan 19, 2012 10:00 PM EST up reply actions

Fake Dale Davis – I wish I could GRONK your keyboard! :)

by FortWayneKarl on Jan 20, 2012 10:36 AM EST up reply actions

The only problem I see with moving PG to the second unit is shaking his confidence. Vogel already pulls him out at the 6 minute mark at the start of each half no matter how well he is playing. Vogel needs to substitute by feel more than a set rotation if Granger gets off to a bad start and PG is playing well take out Danny and put in Hill, there is a lot of versatility in the back court giving us lots of options as far as rotation.

by EliB209 on Jan 19, 2012 8:49 PM EST up reply actions

price never

price should never be on the floor, his shot decision making is just as poor as DJ’s.

by rdoodoo on Jan 20, 2012 10:11 AM EST up reply actions

seems like the trend is win 3 or 2 and lose 1.

ok with me as long as we carry it to the playoffs

by denggoy7 on Jan 19, 2012 9:20 PM EST reply actions

When we started to struggle with the zone..

I thought we should’ve put Lance out there. I think he could be our best option of breaking down the zone off the dribble.

by Shrilly Ray on Jan 20, 2012 9:25 AM EST reply actions

agreed

by rdoodoo on Jan 20, 2012 10:13 AM EST up reply actions

But he can't shoot and plays out of control

That takes away two of the three things a zone is weak against: rotating the ball around the perimeter to get (good) open shots and finding creases in the interior or baseline (depending on what type of zone it is). Lance can’t shoot and he only knows how to “break down” someone man to man (he can’t be trusted to make sharp passes in traffic, at least not yet). Therefore he would’ve been worthless.

Not that anyone else was really that helpful. It wasn’t even a real zone, or at least not a very good one. It was basically like a version of man to man where they dared us to shoot by giving us too much space, and used some 2-3 zone principles to disrupt interior passing. It worked. We sucked at shooting in the 4th and weren’t decisive. That’s what killed us. On a side note, to all the Pacers fans I’ve heard who are proponents of Indiana trying a zone look all the time, I think DeMarcus Cousins’ 12 offensive rebounds WITH A MAN THERE TO BLOCK HIM OUT should put that to rest. He’d have gotten 20 O-boards if we ran a zone.

"You're hitting the wrong person. Don't you know you're hitting Ron Artest?"

Come visit The Fantasy Ninjas. We'd love to hear from you.

by LukeNukem on Jan 20, 2012 12:00 PM EST up reply actions

he made some..

sharp passes during the game and got a couple good looks. Just a thought. Nothing else seemed to be working. Would have been a good experiment.

by Shrilly Ray on Jan 20, 2012 3:53 PM EST up reply actions

At Risk

At the 5 position there is no strength with scoring backup in addiitiion to the back and health issues of JF.

At the 2 spot the team needs someone like a GH that can create a shot.

Witth 13 players and the nature of this season,it will expose weaknesses due to injuries and back to backs.

Richard E Schultz

by sycamoreres on Jan 20, 2012 10:35 AM EST reply actions

At the 5

Blatche or Kaman (FA) should do the trick.

by jonjonNYC on Jan 20, 2012 12:48 PM EST up reply actions

You got my vote to replace Bird, Pritchard, and Morway – all of whom are apparently asleep at the wheel regarding the center position. And besides that – looks like (according to SI), they are not going to extend Hibbert before this summer!

by FortWayneKarl on Jan 20, 2012 2:10 PM EST via mobile up reply actions