Those were my words in the headline there, not Roy Hibbert’s. If you’ve ever talked with Roy, or heard him speak, you know he’s an all class true professional. I’m a blogger though, so I kinda changed him saying: we lost our way a little bit but we’re slowly regaining it – to read: Roy Hibbert thinks his Pacers got their swagger back. So now that we’re clear on that…
I’ll also mention that the Indiana Pacers are playing a little better here of late. Last night, Indiana handed the Miami Heat their 13th loss of the season by way of a 105-90 win at home, and the Pacers seem to be starting to click on all cylinders again. Their now 29-19, and I’m not sure there’s too many teams looking forward to matching up with Indiana in a first round playoff series.
In a recent conversation with David Aldridge, the Pacers big man spoke on all that.
This from NBA.com:
After years of depending on Danny Granger, this season’s Pacers were, and are, deep and loaded at every position.
But Indiana lost consecutive games earlier this month to Chicago, Miami, Atlanta and Orlando — any of whom the Pacers could see in the first round. A home-and-home loss to the Knicks followed two wins, and even though the Pacers righted things somewhat last week with three wins, they still are looking for their footing again.
“At the beginning of the season, we played with a toughness from start to finish,” Hibbert said, “pressuring the ball, making it hard for guys in the low post to score and rebounding extremely well. We lost our way a little bit, but I think we’re slowly regaining it.”
The Pacers’ defense is still solid; they remain eighth in the league in points allowed and opponents’ field-goal percentage allowed. Their length, with the 6-foot-10 George at two guard, the 6-foot-9 Granger at small forward, the 6-foot-9 West at power forward and 7-foot-1 Hibbert in the middle — makes for difficult shooting.
“We’re built to play against any team,” Hibbert said. “We had some hiccups against Chicago and Miami. But when we do what we have to do, at each position, we have people I believe can neutralize or keep any superstar under their average. We’re a team that doesn’t have any superstars. It has real good players, no superstars. We pride ourselves on that.”
I don’t know how far they’re capable of going in the postseason, but I’m looking forward to finding out. They’re taller than anybody at positions 2 through 5, they have a true, old school center in Roy, Darren Collison is as fast as anybody in the League, George Hill’s back, they roll out Paul George, David West, Danny Granger, they’re just a good team. Frank Vogel is the man as well, and its good to see the Pacers putting some things together here right now. They playoffs will be only more compelling with Indiana playing to their true potential, and I’m glad it looks like they’re starting to do that.
