Vogel Expects Execution To Trump Fatigue For Pacers

The Indiana Pacers play the Denver Nuggets tonight, their fourth game in five nights which always brings tired legs into the equation. Last Saturday in a similar situation against the Orlando Magic, the Pacers appeared to run out of gas, front-rimming open looks when they weren't shooting air balls.

Tonight in the same situation, the Pacers find themselves desperately needing a win regardless of how tired their legs are. Before the game, coach Frank Vogel dismissed fatigue as an issue. In fact, he wasn't happy to hear his team lean on the excuse after losing to Orlando last week.

"I felt like our guys came out of that game (loss to Orlando) saying, well we had tired legs and we couldn't make shots," Vogel said. "I felt differently. I thought we had enough legs to make shots, I thought we executed poorly in that game. The night before in the Dallas game, we executed very well. That was the focus of our film session before the game tonight was that we need to just execute. If we execute, we'll get good looks and we'll knock down shots and fatigue won't be a factor."

With this crazy NBA schedule you can see how critical the mental approach to the game is while dealing with the physical toll all teams face.

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