No defeat in Brooklyn

The Pacers remained the NBA's only undefeated team at 7-0 with a 94-91 victory in Brooklyn Saturday night. It's also now the Pacers best start in franchise history.
The Big Picture
When looking at the early season schedule, this was certainly one of the games that both of the teams had to circle. The Nets made a trade that brought them Kevin Garnett, Paul Garnett and Jason Terry from Boston making them instant contenders in the East. The Pacers were one game away from making the NBA Finals last year. So, you know this game mattered on some level to both teams. The Nets are still learning to play together and at times that unfamiliarity showed, leading to six turnovers in the fourth quarter. The Pacers though now have clearly put a stamp on this early part of the season, letting the rest of the league know they are again one of the league's elite teams.
Likes

Paul George had 24 points Saturday night giving him
20 or more points in the Pacers first seven games.

1)This isn't just for this game, but for the season as a whole, but the third quarter has been huge for the Pacers. Once again Saturday night, they started the second half trailing by two, but came out and went on a 16-5 run and never trailed again. And as Nets radio commentator Tim Capstraw pointed out, once the Pacers can forge an 8 to 10 point lead in the second half, coupled with their defense, they are an awful hard to team to beat. That's certainly been part of the winning formula as they have outscored opponents by a total of 60 points in the third quarter in these first seven games.
2) The Nets' bench outscored the Pacers 20-18 and that was actually a good thing. How so? Well, in the Nets first five game this season, their bench had scored 28 points or more in each of those games. The Nets were without Andrei Kirilenko, but still for the Pacers reserves to play one of the deepest teams in the league to a near draw is a win for the Pacers.
3) One of the early season issues for the team has been turnovers and there have been some signs of improvement and Saturday night was one of those nights. They finished the game with 13 turnovers, which is not an unusually low number, but it sure beats the 18 and 20 numbers that we saw early on.
Dislikes
1) I just can't let this go. Once again the Pacers had the final possession of the first half with just over 11 seconds remaining. This time Coach Frank Vogel decided not to call a timeout. The result was a last second 3-point attempt from center Roy Hibbert. With all due respect to Hibbert's hard work and improved shooting abilities, a good team has to get a better look at the basket. The Pacers have had the final possession of the first half in the last four games. In one of those games Vogel called a timeout and they scored. In the other three he did not and they did not score. Possessions are too valuable to be taken for granted in these games, even if it's an early season game in Brooklyn.
2) Kevin Garnett has long been one of the league's top power forwards and real warrior of battles in the paint. But he is shooting under 35 percent this season and the Nets are off to a 2-4 start and he air-balled a 5-footer in the final minute of the game. They Nets will likely turn it around, but Garnett is 37 and has spent 17 seasons in the league and the Nets may not be able to count on that position to be an area of strength every night.
Afterthoughts
Any road win is good one in the NBA, but it's especially good when you can go in and beat one of the expected top contenders in the East.  Pacer guard Lance Stephenson put it out there at the start of the season that he'd like to see the team start 10-0. It's becoming a real possibility now.
Next Up
The Pacers will go for win No. 8 when the Grizzlies visit Bankers Life Fieldhouse Monday night. This also won't be an easy one as you know the Grizzlies' Mike Conley and Zach Randolph will want to play well in their home state. But the Pacers have a habit of making good offensive teams look bad, don't be surprised if that happens again.