Indiana Pacers F Danny Granger
The Indiana Pacers open the regular season Wednesday night in Atlanta, with a major preseason question perhaps still a bit unanswered.
The Pacers, who went 4-3 in the recently-completed preseason, spent the offseason focused on improving a defense that hampered them at times last season. They allowed an NBA-high 111 points in the preseason, but Pacers Head Coach Jim O'Brien said the more important defensive statistic is field-goal percentage.
The Pacers improved that in the preseason, as noted by Indianapolis Star Pacers writer Mike Wells this weekend.
"Opponents shot 42.9 percent, which was good enough for seventh in the league, against the Pacers," Wells writes as he outlines five areas that stood out on the preseason. "That's an eight-spot jump from where the Pacers finished last season."
O'Brien tells Wells,"We've got a long way to go, brother, a long way to go. We've just got a long way to go, just like every team in the NBA. We have things we have to get much, much better at."
Wells says what stood out in the preseason was that Roy Hibbert needs the ball in the post, points allowed are "irrelevant," the Pacers are having trouble getting healthy, they must stop fouling and that F Danny Granger needs a second scorer.
It's a good list, worth reading as the Pacers turn their focus to the regular season.
Other Pacers news and notes:
* Pacers.com writer Conrad Brunner also says defense is the key. Here.
* Some perspective on last week's firing of Director of Player Personnel Mel Daniels from eightpointsnineseconds.com. Here.
* Cliff Brundt of the Associated Press previews the Pacers' season with defense as the focus. Granger tells Brundt: “It’s been long enough, us being out (of the playoffs), especially with the track record the Pacers had the past 15 years or so. We got a lot of our fans back, and we really want to get this thing back to where it was.” Here.
* Matt Beardmore previews Pacers-Hawks for Hoopsword.com here, with Pacers President Larry Bird discussing -- guess what? -- defense.
PACERS NEWS ON EXAMINER
* Mel Daniels fired. Here.
* F Tyler Hansbrough returns in restricted capacity. Here.
* F Danny Granger may miss regular-season opener. Here.
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