The NBA blogger previews for the Southwest Division are up. Enjoy!

Dallas Mavericks
Jake Kerr: Mavs Moneyball

Houston Rockets
grungedave and UofTOrange: The Dream Shake  

Memphis Grizzlies
Joshua Coleman: 3 Shades of Blue

New Orleans Hornets
Rohan: At the Hive
ticktock6 & mW: Hornets Hype
Ryan Schwan & Ron Hitley: Hornets247.com

San Antonio Spurs
Graydon Gordian: 48 Minutes of Hell

Also see links to all the previews at CelticsBlog.com

David Harrison makes the case for dealing with adversity by being patient, seeing the big picture and continuing to work hard. DH failed to do this in Indy but hopes to with Minnesota.

"Almost everything," he said when asked what angered him. "My draft position ticked me off, but at the end of the day, I was still a first-round draft pick. I saw opportunities at Indiana that I wasn't getting and I was impatient. If you look at the Pacers now, if I had been patient and kept my head, I'd probably be their starting center.

"But I didn't do that. That's what I have to prove here, that I'm willing to play and lose myself in the team."

DH has always been a thoughtful dude, so I don't consider his comments a sign of maturity. He's plenty mature enough to know what he needs to do. He just needs to do more doing as in having his actions measure up to his words. Hope it happens this time.

A win over the Bulls combined with the trade of Shawne Williams made for a busy Friday for the Pacers. Here's a few stories on all the action:

• David Harrison makes the case for dealing with adversity by being patient, seeing the big picture and continuing to work hard. DH failed to do this in Indy but hopes to with Minnesota.

  "Almost everything," he said when asked what angered him. "My draft position ticked me off, but at the end of the day, I was still a first-round draft pick. I saw opportunities at Indiana that I wasn't getting and I was impatient. If you look at the Pacers now, if I had been patient and kept my head, I'd probably be their starting center.

  "But I didn't do that. That's what I have to prove here, that I'm willing to play and lose myself in the team."

• Mike Wells details the trade machinations that sent Shawne Williams to Dallas. Bird expects Eddie Jones to wear the blue and gold once his injury (hammy) status is cleared up. The trade was done once Bird decided he wouldn't be picking up Shawne's option after this year, so he wanted to get something for him and put Shawne in a good situation.

  "I was very reluctant to (trade Williams) because of the talent, but when it came down to it, we felt we could get a couple of second-round picks, get off some money next year," Bird said.

  "I was at a crossroad whether we were going to pick up his option next year, and if we didn't do that we figured it might not be a good season for him. It was probably best to do the deal and move on."

• Wells adds a little more in this blog post regarding Eddie Jones.

  Jones told the Dallas Morning News back in February that he no interest in going to New Jersey as part of the Jason Kidd deal because he didn't want to be traded to a non-championship contender.

  "There is no next stop for me," Jones told the Morning News in February. "I'll go home."

  
  The Pacers don't fit EJ's criteria for a trade so it will be interesting to see how this plays out. I have a feeling Bird has no other choice than to make the comments he's making about Jones joining the team to avoid an overt act of circumventing the spirit of the NBA trade rules.
• From the FanPosts, duke dynamite liked what he saw from the rookies last night.
• Cliff Brunt recaps the win from Fort Wayne, focusing on Brandon Rush's effort in the win.
• Dallas is happy to have Shawne as long as he stays away from trouble.
• Mavsblog has several items on the trade including speculation the Eddie Jones will be back with the Mavs eventually.
• Mavs Moneyball has a great look at the trade from the Mav's perspective, including one story that had the Mav's offering Jones a coaching position prior to the trade.
• Bulls fans pretty much gave last night's game a resounding, "Meh."  Makes sense considering it was a preseason game, they had a couple players out and their team had already shown the ability to, you know, play.
• Game reports from the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune.

Ahhh, that's better. Preseason wins and losses don't mean a thing, especially with starters sitting out and random combinations of players filling the various playing rotations. But effort and at least appearing to know what you're trying to accomplish as a team is worth measuring. With that minimal metric in mind, the Pacers put forth a vastly improved performance on Friday night in Fort Wayne and relied on their new faces to put away a 102-95 win.

With the game in the balance in the fourth quarter, T.J. Ford led the team with plenty of help from Brandon Rush and Jarrett Jack. Both Rush and Ford finished with 18 points. Ford can't be stopped with the ball in motion and with the ball in the lane showed he can finish with a bucket or an assist depending on what you give him. He sealed the game shut by taking rookie Derrick Rose to the bucket for a hoop and the harm. Beautiful.

As Quinn Buckner mentioned, Rush contributed a quiet 18 points which is backed up by his efficient 7 of 9 shooting night from the floor. Rush played 27 minutes and really looked comfortable on the floor in the second half. One nice aspect of Rush's scoring tonight was his ability to finish at the rim on several occasions. During the first game against the Hornets, Rush was bumped while going to the hole and kind of gave up on the play. But what would've been a foul last year in Allen Fieldhouse, was a clean play in the NBA. No foul, we're going the other way. Tonight he finished strong and certainly wasn't expecting to draw any fouls. I guess the kid's a quick study.

Late in the game somebody had Larry Bird chuckling from his seat in the stands when the camera was on him. Honestly, I can't remember seeing Bird smiling from his seat while watching a Pacers game over the past couple of years. I couldn't help but share the laugh even though I didn't hear the joke.

Here are a few other thoughts from the game:

• Danny Granger continued to struggle shooting the ball, but Marquis Daniels was able to get it going. Danny was getting good looks so at this point that's all that matters. When the lights brighten for the regular season, he'll be ready. Both Danny and Quisy sat out the second half.
• Is it just me or does it seem like Del Harris is coaching the Bulls and Vinny Del Negro is his assistant? Seemed like both were up every time they showed the Bulls' bench and the familiar face of Harris had me thinking, wait, who's the head coach?
• Mike Dunlealvy spent most of the third quarter on the television broadcast with Chris Denari and Quinn Buckner. Sounds like he plans to start practicing next week and will be ready to go for the start of the regular season.
• I could watch T.J. Ford break down his defender, pull up and knock down that 15-17 footer all night.
• Austin Croshere is officially in the Jonathan Bender zone. We hear about how Cro is wowin' 'em in practice, hardly misses a shot and then his game results reveal pretty much what we've always seen. He'd be a great veteran presence to have on the roster but any actual production will remain a pleasant surprise.
• David Morway chatted with Stacy Paetz about the trade. Difficult to give up Shawne but picking up some financial flexibility and assets while thinning out the crowded wing position is a good thing. But wait, Bird said the Eddie Jones will report to the Pacers on Sunday. Has to be a formality, otherwise the wing position remains clogged.
• Great to see Stephen Graham back with the team and playing. Toward the end of the third quarter, Stevie was the only player on the floor who was with the Pacers last year.
• I may say this after every game, but watching the easy stroke of Brandon Rush is quite enjoyable. Watching said stroke after Ford finds him spotted up on the wing, even better.
• Tyrus Thomas is freaky athletic. While Dun was on the broadcast, Thomas missed an open jumper that Dun mentioned wasn't in the scouting report. In other words, let him shoot it all night. A couple of possessions later Thomas flew through the rafters for a highlight finish. Dun remarked that was a shot he (Thomas) won't miss.
• Roy Hibbert forced me to yell out loud when he dropped a sweet back-door bounce pass to Jack for a reverse layup. A few minutes later he converted a difficult past to McRoberts for a dunk. Nice. Love seeing all the young guys (Hibbert, Rush, McRoberts) get big minutes.

It's already been a crazy day for the Indiana Pacers so who knows what kind of team will show up tonight in Fort Wayne for the second preseason game against the Chicago Bulls. Jim O'Brien wasn't real happy with the team's execution in their first game, so I expect an emphasis on running, taking care of the ball and making shots. You know, the basics.

The Bulls are the same young talented team they were last year. They added Derrick Rose to the mix which won't make things any easier on the Pacers. To catch up on all the happenings surrounding the Bulls, make sure you check out Blog A Bull.

Use the comments to leave your thoughts on the game.

While announcing the Shawne Williams-to-Dallas trade, the Pacers also announced that they extended Jeff Foster's contract keeping him from testing free agency after his current deal runs out at the end of this season.

Bruno has all the details. The Foster extension isn't the sexy second announcement we were hoping for, but does merit a firm nod of apporval. Foster is now the elder statesman of the organization and effort is always welcomed. Congrats, Jeff!

As for Shawne, the deal reported by Mike Wells is confirmed. Bird on Shawne:

“I had a great relationship with Shawne while he was here,” said Pacers President of Basketball Larry Bird. “We are sad to see him go; but we think this will be a great opportunity for him in Dallas.”

Bruno mentions the reports of Eddie Jones being waived but nothing on this from Bird or the Pacers.

Oh, yeah, there's a game tonight.

As duke dynamite mentioned in the FanPosts, Mike Wells is reporting that the Pacers have agreed to trade Shawne Williams to the Dallas Mavericks for Eddie Jones a couple of second round picks and $1.8 million in cash.

Shawne appeared to have the same ol' game so far in camp so his minutes were going to be hard to find. The cash will nearly cover the $1.97 mil Eddie Jones is owed this season which gives the Pacers the option of releasing Jones to free up a roster spot.

Shawne gets to reunite with Rick Carlisle who obviously likes what Shawne has to offer.

So the worst case scenario is Shawne for two second rounders. Not bad as Larry Bird and David Morway work to acrue assets, those second round picks are nice to pull out when dealing with other teams.

More details to come on this story...

Former Pacer, David Harrison signed with the Minnesota Timberwolves to fill a need for bigs in Minny. Hopefully Harrison will figure it out and can put his skills to good use for the T'Wolves. This will probably be David's last chance to play in the L if he should flame out due to some behavioral problem. He is patching an injury hole, though, so if ends up being released in a numbers game he still has a chance to improve his reputation and set up a better future opportunity by sticking with the Minny program. Good luck, David!