Hey, the coach deserves some credit, too

The Pacers improved to 15-1 with an 93-73 win over the visiting Washington Wizards Friday night.
The Big Picture
It was the Pacers final game before they head off on an eight-day, five-game road trip that at least for the moment looks like it will be the toughest of the season. So, it was nice to not have a nail biter against a shorthanded Washington team, which was without starting center Nene and shooting guard Bradley Beal, who is averaging 20 points a game. The Pacers took control early here by closing the first quarter with a 22-4 run. The Wizards chopped that lead to four in the second quarter, but the Pacers got it back to seven at the half and then were up by 13 to end the third quarter.
The Ups

Frank Vogel, reacting to a call in Monday's
win against Minnesota, has made a big
difference since he took over as coach of the Pacers.

1) How about the coach? Sure, the players make the plays, have to do the work in the offseason to improve, and have to listen to the coach. But the coach must be telling them the right things and doing something right. From the beginning,  FrankVogel has understood that the NBA is all about the players, not the coach. The coach gives out the basic game plan, calls the set plays out of timeouts, calls timeouts at the right times and establishes the regular rotation. But unlike college basketball, the coach is not really part of the show. But what Vogel has really done is cultivate an attitude of expecting to win every night the Pacers step on the court. Sure, they are not always going to execute or play their best game every night, but that doesn't mean they still can't figure out a way to win. Sometimes we wonder if one man, a coach in this case, can really make a difference. I don't think there's any question that since Day 1 that Vogel took over that he has been a big difference maker for the team and franchise. In his 201 regular season games as Pacers coach, he has a 126-75 record, good for a .627 winning percentage. We've talked about Paul George as an MVP candidate and Roy Hibbert as a Defensive Player of the Year candidate. Certainly, too, we can talk about Vogel as a Coach of the Year candidate.
2) Sure, we all would like to have seen Lance Stephenson get a triple double, especially since he was lacking in the points category, finishing with 11 rebounds, 10 assists and seven points. But Vogel did the right thing here, too, taking him out late in the game with just over three minutes left. One, he wanted to avoid a possible injury in a blowout game and two, he did not want Stephenson to get out of control and focus on scoring, even though it was a blowout game. But a couple of years ago it would have been hard to imagine fans booing the fact that Stephenson was being taken out of the game because he had played so well. He's come a long way and he understands the importance of getting his teammates involved in the game and helping out with the rebounding, too. There will be more triple-doubles to come for him.
3) Defense. There's that word again, but the Pacers make a habit of playing it well and Friday night was no exception. They have held their opponents to 80 points or less in six of these games and to 90 or less 10 times. The Wizards, though they were shorthanded, came in as a high scoring team averaging right at 100 points per game, but were nowhere close to that Friday night. The Pacers didn't let John Wall do much in this game with eight points and nine assists. Every time Wall tried to force the pace on the fast break, there was someone there to at least slow him down. Wall's had an excellent season averaging nearly 20 points and nine assists a game, but the Pacers defense is so good that you wouldn't know it without looking at his season stats.
The Downs
1) Admittedly, we have to search a bit for something on this game. There was that second quarter where the Pacers built a 15-point lead then let it slip to four. The Pacers were outscored by seven in the quarter as they had some stretches where they seemed to get out of their offense, and Washington, too, made some effort to pick up the defensive intensity. At least the Pacers did stretch the lead back to seven at halftime.
Afterthoughts
This was not an earth shattering win by any means, but it was important to beat a shorthanded team handily at home. The Pacers never let this game get interesting in the fourth quarter once again throwing another dart in those "last two minutes is all the matters in the NBA" theories. If you missed the third quarter of this game, then you essentially missed the game. And yes, it must be noted that Paul George scored 23 points and that Pacers have yet to lose when he scores 20 or more.
Next Up
The Pacers start what looks to be their toughest road trip of the season when they play at the Clippers Sunday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. They then go to the Trail Blazers on Sunday, Utah Wednesday, then San Antonio and Oklahoma City on Friday and Saturday. They then return to home to the heat on Tuesday, Dec. 10.
The question we all like to debate here is what can the Pacers do in this six-game stretch? First, let's hope they can avoid a 2-4 mark. I think that would be disappointing to them as well as all involved in the Pacers organization. A 3-3 mark would be OK, Maybe not quite what they wanted, but not a disaster considering the schedule. My pick is that they will go 4-2 in these six games. This is a good team that plays defense every night. We'll get to see how good that defense is in the coming days. And yes, what about 5-1? While I can't predict that in good conscience, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they reached that mark in the next six games. This is a very good team here and they realize it too, which is probably the most important thing of all.