Hibbert reminds us he can be offensive force too

The Pacers improved to 12-1 with a 106-98 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers Saturday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
The Big Picture
Sure, the Pacers won and all and that's a good thing, but this game was a reminder that as team, they can always play a little harder. They needed a 15-2 run midway through the fourth quarter to put this one away against a pesky Sixers team.
The Ups

Pacers center Roy Hibbert can be a force on
offense too as he scored 27 points Saturday night

1) Many have written plenty about what Pacers center Roy Hibbert means to the team's defense. He had six more blocked shots Saturday night against the under-sized Sixers bringing his season total to 56 for an average of 4.3 per game. Just how long Hibbert can keep that average above 4.0 remains to be seen, but even if he stays close to that, it's a pretty major accomplishment. What we sometimes forget in all of this deserved Defensive Player of the Year talk, though, is that Hibbert, when called upon, can be a pretty big force offensively. I remember back in his first or second year in the league and the then Jim O'Brien-coached Pacers were at Phoenix, who had Amare Stoudemire as their so-called center back then. To be fair, Hibbert was still in the project stage and nobody really knew for sure what the Pacers had. And in a rare moment of coaching common sense for O'Brien, he put Hibbert in the game, who set himself up on the low post on offense and scored three straight baskets against Stoudemire. It was then in that moment, with Hibbert's size and ability to have some touch with the ball around the basket, that I knew he had a chance to be a plus offensive player. Over these last few years, Hibbert has become much more than that on offense. He has worked to become adept with both his right hand and left hand around the basket and he's worked to develop the footwork that is required to get those shots off. Also, he's the Pacers best offensive rebounder and as many have mentioned before, you know Hibbert is going to bring the effort every night. So when the team needed him to step up and be a scorer Saturday night, he was that, too, with his 27 points, while throwing in 13 rebounds. He's not just a last option on offense, he's someone they can count to score when they need him too.
2) Paul George didn't have his best game of the season by any means. In fact, the Pacers won with him scoring less than 20 points for the first time this season as he finished with 19. But what George is beginning to do is develop a knack of hitting big shots at big times in games. He's ended third quarters a couple of times this year by hitting shots at the buzzer. But his 3-pointer from the corner put the Pacers in the lead for good and was as big of a shot as any in the game. That's yet again, a mark of very good player. George seems to have that sense of knowing that his team really needs him to step up and hit the big shot and he did it again Saturday night.
3) It's not often that I give other teams' players credit, but you have to give a big thumbs up to Sixers rookie guard Michael Carter-Williams. He finished with 29 points, seven steals and six rebounds. But he also already has a sense of knowing when to step up. When pretty much all of us thought the Sixers were done after the Pacers built an 11-point lead by the end of the third quarter, Carter-Williams led a comeback that at one point had the Sixers leading 85-81. If you didn't know before Saturday night, now you know, he's the real deal.
4) You have to love modern technology. When you're in the middle of nowhere in a cabin at a Boy Scout camp like I was Saturday night and can still watch the game on a mobile device, that's definitely a big thumbs up.
The Downs
1) One dent in the Pacers armor in the last couple of games has been in allowing offensive rebounds. Against the Sixers the Pacers allowed 23 offensive rebounds and that was with two of the Sixers starting big men out in Spencer Hawes and Thaddeus Young. Sure, the Sixers were shorthanded so there were some guys who normally don't get big minutes who wanted to make a good impression and that they did. Normal reserves Daniel Orton and Lavoy Allen combined for 10 of those offensive rebounds. Sure, a team is going get a good bounce here and there, and even work hard to get some its own offensive rebounds. But 23, as I'm sure Pacers coach Frank Vogel would agree, is way too many.
2) This hasn't been a problem this season, but it was Saturday night. The Pacers had that 11-point lead to end the third quarter and then pretty much stopped playing in the early parts of the quarter as the Sixers regained the lead. That lack of killer instinct was missing in this game and the Pacers should have known, that unlike many teams who get down double digits to start the fourth quarter, the Sixers aren't going to stop playing hard. The Sixers erased a big deficit late in regulation Friday night to win in overtime. Sure give the Sixers some credit here, but the Pacers, too, hopefully learned they can't let off the gas pedal either.
Afterthoughts
It was a game where you know, the Sixers outworked the Pacers for much of the night and any Indiana basketball fan has to appreciate a team that does that. The Pacers are a hard working team, too. It was just a reminder that they can't let up. The Pacers too, didn't panic when they got down in the fourth quarter and stayed with their offensive game plan. That, too is a sign of maturity and big reason why they are one of two one-loss teams (along with San Antonio) in the league.
Next up
The Pacers play host to the Minnesota Timberwolves Monday night. In past years, it's been a game on the schedule that you could pretty much chalk up as a win, but that's not the case now, The Timberwolves are all healthy at the moment with power forward Kevin Love, point guard Ricky Rubio and shooting Kevin Martin

playing well, Minnesota is at 8-7. No, Minnesota is not great, but the team is not a pushover either.