Indiana Pacers swingman Danny Granger (Tom Strattman/AP Photo)
INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Pacers needed this.
They needed it for the timing, yes, and they needed it for a bit of confidence in a season in which confidence and good feelings have been rare. Having a victory before the toughest road stretch of a tough season doesn't hurt, either.
But while those were positives in a 100-90 victory over the Chicago Bulls in front of a sold-out crowd of 18,165 at Conseco Fieldhouse Saturday, the bigger positive was this:
The Pacers played well. Not just Danny Granger.
And not just Troy Murphy.
The Pacers played well as a team. They forced turnovers. They passed well.
They got penetration. They moved without the ball.
They looked fresh, and were rewarded with a victory, and just because that hasn't happened as much as they hoped this season doesn't mean they can't enjoy it when it does.
“Good win for our team,” Pacers Head Coach Jim O'Brien said. “We did a lot of positive things.”
Most notable on Saturday wasn't Granger, although the swingman did score 30 points on 10 of 21 shooting.
But Indiana on Saturday was about more.
The Pacers finished with 23 assists, never trailed after the first quarter, and in his postgame meeting with the media, O'Brien talked about liking how the Pacers were moving without the ball, and about how penetration and getting players deep toward the basket was a good thing.
A real good thing.
“We've been trying to put our focus on moving the ball,” Granger said after the Pacers' second victory in nine games. “We did it tonight.”
Said O'Brien, “We're getting better at that. As the year goes on, you'll see us getting better and better. We're making aggressive scoring cuts.”
The victory, the seventh this season for the Pacers against a team .500 or better, came in the middle of perhaps the Pacers' toughest stretch of a difficult season. They recently lost three games on a four-game road trip, then lost to Milwaukee, 112-110, upon returning home Thursday.
They open a four-game West Coast trip against defending NBA Champion Los Angeles Tuesday.
“It definitely felt good out there tonight,” Pacers F/G Dahntay Jones said. “We moved the ball well, using our small lineup and our reduction in number of turnovers. We have to be more consistent like this on a daily basis.
“We have a tough schedule ahead of us the next couple of weeks. We can do some good things.”
The Pacers led by 12 late in the third quarter and with the Bulls committing six of their 21 turnovers in the fourth quarter, Chicago could cut the lead below double digits just once in the fourth quarter.
“It's important for us to go out and play hard every night with more consistency,” said Pacers C Roy Hibbert, who finished with 12 points and seven rebounds. “It was fun tonight, going out and playing hard. We've got to start playing like we did tonight, coming out with momentum and playing consistently. That means we have to stay focused.”
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