Saturday, May 3, 2014

Pacers take drama out of Game 7 win

The Pacers defeated the visiting Atlanta Hawks 92-80 to win the first-round Eastern Conference playoff series between the teams 4-3. The Pacers will play host to the Washington Wizards in the opening round of the Eastern Conference semifinals Monday, then also in Game 2 of that series Wednesday.
Forethoughts
The Pacers picked the right time to play their best game of this playoff series. It was apparent from the beginning that the Pacers were not going to allow the Hawks just to have their way in this one.The big concern in this game was that the Pacers would come out strong and emotional and then allow the Hawks to sneak back into the game. But the Pacers used a key second quarter and into the third run to take control of this one, when they outscored the Hawks 28-8.  In fact, this game looked like what many thought most of the series would look like. Yes, the Hawks would shoot a lot of 3-pointers and try to spread the bigger Pacers out. But also the Pacers would make the Hawks pay with bigger inside play and challenge them when they did come inside. But maybe the best thing about this game is the Pacers beat the Hawks they way they should have for once. There was no down to the wire nail-biter where the Pacers season was at risk because one of the Hawks 3-point shooters would have a chance to make a shot. This was a no doubt type of game. The Pacers played with confidence and they left no doubt about which team was better on this day. Now, they have to do it all over again.
Paul George had 30 points and 11 rebounds
in the Pacers clinching win Saturday.
The Big Plays
Well there were several as you would expect in this game, but a couple come to mind here. One was the Pacers first basket of the game. Yes, it was a simple basketball play, nothing spectacular or fancy, but when Roy Hibbert grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back in over the front of the rim, it was la reminder, that hey, the big guy can be relevant here. Then, when Lance Stephenson found George Hill for a layup that gave the Pacers a 51-40 lead early in the third quarter it was the kind of momentum play that got the Pacers going in second half. It was also a play where we saw an excited Stephenson, the Stephenson who was having fun playing the game, and that was a big deal, too.
The Ups
1) The Paul George that showed up in this one was very similar to the one we saw early in the season. He shot the ball with confidence and played important defense on the Hawks' Jeff Teague. What was particularly important was when the Hawks were trying to get back into the game, Geroge was at his best. On three occasions late in the third quarter and then early in the fourth quarter the Hawks had cut the lead to single digits, George answered by hitting key shots each time to put the Pacers' lead back into double digits. In all, George finished with 30 points and 11 rebounds. Nice work.
2) The Pacers' defense was there the whole game, but it was particularly there for the last three quarters. The Hawks hit 9 of 23 shots in the first quarter for 39 percent. For the rest of the game, Atlanta hit 19 of 69 for 28 percent. And sure, they did miss some open shots. However, they missed a lot of challenged shots too. Also, when an offense has to work hard to get the open shot, it's almost like the shooter lets down a little bit when he sees he is open. So, Atlanta can talk about missing open shots, and there is some truth to that. But when a team shoots that bad, the defense has a lot to do with it too.
3) It was good to see Hibbert be a factor on both ends of the court for once in this series. Hibbert's play was probably the difference between the Pacers winning the way they did. or having to find a way to squeeze this one out in the end. He finished with five blocks, and with David West also having six blocks, the Pacers had the kind of inside presence we expected to see for the whole series. In fact, there was a time in this game when the Hawks offense seemed to find a rhythm and the reason for it was because Hibbert was not in the game. Also in this game, Hibbert changed shots and shot selection just because of his presence in the middle. It was good to see an active Hibbert again.
4) Luis Scola and Evan Turner didn't play again. The matchup was simply a bad one for Scola to be able to cover the Hawks pick and pop type of game. Scola will get more time against the bigger Wizards, so it's easy to see what's going on there. The fact that Turner didn't play in these last two games, didn't bother me at all. Not. One. Bit. Never did I ask why isn't Turner in this game (or the last game for that matter)? So, good decision by Pacers coach Frank Vogel again to stick to a rotation that he knew would work, not one he feels his needs to play out of obligation.
The Downs
1) The turnovers are still there, and the Pacers had 17 of them in this game, including six by West. Some of them are OK, like when Stephenson is trying to create in the lane. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but a creating Stephenson is a good Stephenson, so we'll take the turnovers. But some of them were simply bad turnovers, like when West threw the ball over George's head in the corner when Hibbert had good post position in the middle, or George throwing a horrid post pass to Hibbert when Hibbert did not have good post position in the middle.
2) On the Hawks side of things for a second, Pero Antic killed them in this series. His inability to hit an open shot greatly decreased their chances of winning. The Hawks have to be wondering what kind of team this would have been if center Al Horford would have been healthy for the second half of the season.
Next Up
Well, yes, there is a next game, now. The schedule for the series against Washington is the Pacers will host Washington on Monday and Wednesday and then play at Washington on Friday and Sunday. Then if needed, Game 5 will be at Indiana on May 13, Game 6 at Washington on May 15 and then Game 7 at Indiana on May 18. In beating the Bulls 4-1 in their opening round series, the Wizards were led by shooting guard Bradley Beal at 19.8 points, point guard John Wall at 18.8 points and 6.8 assists, center Nene at 17.8 points and 6.5 rebounds, small forward Trevor Ariza at 15.8 points and 8.6 rebounds and power forward/center Marcin Gortat at 10.8 points and 9.6 rebounds. The matchups in this series will be more traditional then what the Pacers faced against the Hawks. That may actually help the Pacers a bit defensively in terms of them being able to rotate and help out in ways they have been accustomed to for most of the season. However, the Wizards, and especially their first five, are much better than the Hawks and they certainly looked to have momentum against the Bulls, so this will still be a significant challenge for the Pacers.
The Prediction
So, yes, it's easy to understand why some will pick the Wizards to move on and face what many presume will be the Heat (thought the winner of the Raptors-Nets series will have something to say about that) in the Eastern Conference finals. The Wizards played well against a Bulls team that had played well during the second half of the regular season. And some will rightly point to the Pacers struggles in the second half of the season and against the Hawks. However, that's all in the rear view mirror now. The Pacers' job now is just find a way to win games. Style points mean nothing. So with that in mind, I'm picking the Pacers to win this series in seven games as well.

No comments:

Post a Comment