Granger's progress providing punch for Pacers

The Pacers defeated the visiting Toronto Raptors 86-79 Tuesday night. The Pacers are now an NBA best 28-6 on the season while the Raptors fell to 16-17.
The Big Plays
Not that this game was over after the first quarter by any stretch, but the Pacers did have one of their key moments early on here. They finished the first quarter with a 14-2 run to turn a 13-8 deficit into a 22-15 lead by the end of the quarter. The nice thing about it was that so many players had a hand in it with Danny Granger making a 3-pointer, Roy Hibbert getting a dunk off an offensive rebound, Luis Scola making one his jumpers from the elbow and Lance Stephenson hitting a jumper and George Hill getting it started with a jumper and a traditional three-point play. The Pacers also used a 16-5 run from the end of the second quarter into the beginning of the third quarter to turn a one-point advantage into a 12-point lead and the Hawks were never closer than six points after that.
The Ups

Danny Granger continues to make key contributions for the Pacers.

1) Danny Granger is taking steps forward and that showed again Tuesday night. He scored 13 points off the bench and has now scored in double figures in five straight games. The former all-star is by no means back to his old self yet, but that fact he is getting some consistency and is becoming a player the Pacers can depend on is a big step. After playing just five games last year due to a knee injury, Granger is now proving how meaningful he can be to this team. The Pacers may or may not have won this game without him, but he certainly made a major contribution to this victory. If Granger's improvement continues, that will make him a major factor in the playoffs as the Pacers bench often struggled to find scoring options in those games last year. That's when they will really need Granger and hopefully by then he'll be a lot of steps closer to his all-star level at that time than he is right now.
2) One advantage the Pacers had in this game they they exploited was center Roy Hibbert in the middle. The Raptors clearly couldn't handle him and you might even say they employed a bit of a "hack-a-Roy" defense. The good news for Pacers fans is that Hibbert responded by hitting 12 of his 13 free throw attempts on the way to 22 points. He also had eight rebounds and three blocked shots. Just another example of how this team doesn't care where the offense comes from, as long as it leads to a win.
3) Rasual Butler hasn't played any significant minutes since Granger returned to the lineup and the Pacers were considering cutting him before the guaranteed contract deadline Tuesday. And sure, with Granger looking healthy and playing well, you could see where it might not make sense to keep Butler on the squad. But the Pacers made the right move in keeping Butler around. When he did get significant minutes before Granger came back, he proved to be a capable player off the bench and his shooting from 3-point range was a factor in a couple of wins. He also spent the entire 2012-13 season in the D-League, so you know he cherishes his spot on the roster and will do whatever the team needs. He had earned his right to stay on the roster and it was good to see the Pacers reward him accordingly as he is a nice insurance policy in case of injury.
The Downs
1) The weather has been a real downer for the past few days and it caused a lot of havoc around this game. First, there was the small matter of the teams actually being able to get into Indianapolis, and the Raptors did finally arrive Tuesday. They had been in Florida and no one could have blamed them if they thought they were back in Canada when they got of the plane in Indy. Then, too, there was the matter of whether to have the game or not because of fans' ability to get to the Fieldhouse. The Pacers announced that if fans had purchased tickets but could not make it Tuesday, they could exchange those tickets for another game. Let's hope they held true to that promise in 100 percent of those legitimate cases. Sure, some people were a bit frustrated that the league would have a game because of the conditions, but a lot of factors go into it. Of course, yes, money is one of them as the game had over 16,000 tickets sold. No need to be naive about that. But also there are factors like matching up the teams' schedules and the availability dates for the arena.
Afterthoughts
This is generally not considered a big game on the schedule when you look at how things are shaping up this season. But considering the Raptors were 10-4 in their last 14 games coming in, and had played the Heat down to the wire before losing in Miami on Sunday, and had ended the Pacers five-game winning streak on New Year's Day, it was kind of a big game for the Pacers. These teams may or may not meet at some point in the playoffs, so it was important for the Pacers to not led the Raptors gain a bit more confidence against them.
Next Up
The Pacers play their fourth game in five days when the travel to Atlanta for a 7 p.m. game tonight. The Hawks were hit with some tough luck when they lost center Al Horford to injury for an indefinite period a couple of weeks ago. But they are still a formidable foe. Paul Millsap has stepped up and scored 20 or more points in four of their last eight games and has had 10 or more rebounds is six of those games. He is averaging 17.6 points and over eight rebounds a game. The Hawks also have Jeff Teague at 16.9 points and eight assists, Kyle Korver at 12.2 points and guard Lou Williams at 10 points. The Pacers would seem to have a definite edge inside, so we'll see if it's something they can take advantage of in Atlanta. The Hawks, who are 18-17, have a bit of an edge in that they had Tuesday night off.