Indiana Pacers Blog – Page 35 – NBA Blog

John Wall scores 37 in Wizards win over Pacers

On a night when the Washington Wizards celebrated the 35th anniversary of the franchise’s only championship, John Wall played like someone who might someday carry on that legacy, scoring 37 points in a display of speed and flair Saturday to lead the Washington Wizards to a 104-85 victory over the Indiana Pacers.

Wall made 16 of 25 shots, throwing his palms up after making an improbable 14-foot sideways runner and flexing his muscles to the fans on the first row after banking in a fast-break layup. He even blocked a layup attempt by Roy Hibbert, the 6-foot-4 point guard rising to swat the ball away from the 7-foot-2 Pacers center.

Wall also had five assists, four rebounds and two blocks for the lottery-bound Wizards, who have won nine straight at home and are 18-4 at the Verizon Center this season when he’s on the floor.

They were especially motivated to put on a good show Saturday night, with Wes Unseld, Elvin Hayes and the other members of the 1978 team on hand for a halftime celebration in which a new, larger banner was raised and the franchise, at least one more time, was again known as the Bullets…

Hibbert had 25 points and 10 rebounds for the Pacers, who went cold at the start of the second half. The Wizards took a 51-48 halftime lead and turned it into 63-48, with Wall scoring half of the points in the 12-0 run while Indiana was going 4:15 without a point. The Pacers didn’t get closer than seven the rest of the game.

— Reported by Joseph White of the Associated Press

Kevin Durant scores 34, Thunder pound Pacers 97-75

Kevin Durant overcame a bruised left calf to score 34 points and Russell Westbrook added 24 points, leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 97-75 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Friday.

Oklahoma City (56-20) has won three straight to move into a tie with San Antonio for the top seed in the Western Conference.

The win capped an impressive back-to-back sweep for the Thunder, who beat the Spurs on Thursday night. They arrived at the team hotel in Indy on Friday at about 4 a.m., then went out and prevented the Pacers from clinching their first Central Division title in nine years.

But the Pacers (48-28) can clinch the title with a win Saturday at Washington.

Indiana, which had its five-game win streak ended, was led by Roy Hibbert with 22 points and David West with 17…

Indiana will not play another team from the West unless it reaches the NBA Finals. … The Pacers have won only four division titles since joining the NBA. … Durant also had nine rebounds, while Westbrook finished with seven rebounds and nine assists.

— Reported by Michael Marot of the Associated Press

Pacers hold on to beat Clippers 109-106

Roy Hibbert had 26 points and 10 rebounds before fouling out, Paul George added 23 points and 10 assists, and the Indiana Pacers barely completed a sweep of their four-game road trip with a 109-106 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night in a battle of division leaders.

Hibbert, who was serving a one-game suspension from the league when the Pacers lost to the Clippers 99-91 at Indianapolis on Feb. 28, made all eight of his shots in the first half and finished 11 for 14 from the field to help his team extend its winning streak to five and increase its Central Division lead to 6 1/2 games over idle Chicago.

All five Pacers starters scored in double figures, with David West getting 16 and backcourt mates Lance Stephenson and George Hill chipping in with 13 apiece.

Jamal Crawford scored 25 points off the bench for the Pacific Division-leading Clippers, whose magic number to clinch the first division title in the franchise’s 43-year history remained at two. They failed on their third attempt at their 50th victory, which would break the franchise record set by the 1974-75 Buffalo Braves. Blake Griffin had 17 points.

Center DeAndre Jordan, whose games this season have fluctuated between dominant and invisible, played 17 scoreless minutes and went to the bench for good with 6:26 left in the third quarter. The Clippers were outscored 42-25 while he was on the floor…

The loss snapped the Clippers’ franchise-record streak of 10 straight wins against Eastern Conference opponents. … Los Angeles has a better winning percentage when Griffin scores fewer than 20 points (28-14) than it does when he gets 20 or more (20-11).

— Reported by Joe Resnick of the Associated Press

Short-handed Pacers hold off Hawks 100-94

The Indiana Pacers built a team to withstand the perils of a long NBA season.

On Monday night, they showed why depth matters.

With Indiana playing without four key contributors because of injuries, Gerald Green scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half, including a game-saving 3-pointer in the final minute, to help the Pacers fend off Atlanta’s furious fourth-quarter rally for a 100-94 victory.

”I feel good about our depth,” coach Frank Vogel said. ”If a guy goes down, it won’t be the end of the world for us.”

He should.

The Pacers, who haven’t won a division title since 2003-04, maintained their grip on the Central Division race, extending their lead over second-place Chicago to five games with 11 left on Indiana’s schedule. The Pacers’ magic number is now seven and they’re back in the No. 2 slot in the Eastern Conference, a half-game ahead of the Knicks…

Already playing without swingman Danny Granger, who missed another game with patellar tendinosis in his left knee, and forward David West, who has now missed five straight games with a lower back sprain, the Pacers got even worse news about an hour before tip-off when Vogel announced point guard George Hill would sit out with a strained left groin and swingman Lance Stephenson, Granger’s replacement, would miss the game with a strained right hip flexor.

Suddenly, Green, D.J. Augustin and Tyler Hansbrough, who has been filling in for West, were all in the starting lineup. But the Pacers just rolled on…

”We have to play better and I think we have to look at some things, some lineups and things like that, but I think it’s unacceptable to be up 25 points or 22 points at the beginning of the fourth and let it get down to four,” said Hibbert, who had 17 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks. ”That’s just unacceptable.”

— Reported by Michael Marot of the Associated Press

Unclear when Danny Granger will be healthy for Pacers

The $13-million question surrounding the Indiana Pacers and Danny Granger is: when will he overcome his patellar tendinosis and get back on the court to help the team?

There’s no definite answer for that, according to Dr. Christopher Kaeding, orthopedic surgeon at Ohio State University Sports Medicine.

Granger has been sidelined for all but five games this season because of the injury to his left knee. The Pacers will not comment on the injury due to HIPPA laws. Granger has declined interview requests since the team announced he was going to be shutdown again March 6.

Patellar tendinosis, often referred to as “jumper’s knee,” is when the tendon is overloaded and becomes inflamed.

— Reported by Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star

Obama picks Indiana to win NCAA basketball championship

President Barack Obama on Wednesday picked Indiana University to win the NCAA annual men’s college basketball tournament, joining in the “March Madness” office pool craze that sweeps America every spring.

The president, an avid sports fan, forecast that Indiana would defeat the widely favored University of Louisville in the championship game.

“I think this is Indiana’s year,” he said in an interview on ESPN, the sports cable network.

Obama, who began a three day trip to the Middle East on Wednesday, taped the interview on Tuesday.

— Reported by Mark Felsenthal of Reuters

Paul George denies accusation from Daniel Gibson

Indiana Pacers All-Star Paul George defended himself and dismissed any thought that he was a dirty player before the Pacers’ game against the Cavaliers on Monday.

George involuntarily found himself caught in the fallout of Kobe Bryant’s ankle injury when Cavs guard Daniel Gibson over the weekend accused George of perhaps intentionally trying to hurt him last season.

“I’m not a dirty player,” George said Monday. “A young guy doesn’t come into the league being a dirty player. But whatever he wants to say, he can say.”

George was a second-year guard last season when Gibson landed on his foot during a game. Gibson wound up with a torn tendon that needed to be surgically repaired and ended his season. Gibson said his foot still isn’t 100 percent healthy.

— Reported by Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal

George Hill annoyed by lack of Indiana fan support in Lakers at Pacers game

Pacers guard George Hill was bothered by how many Lakers fans took over an Indiana home game Friday night.

“They always say your fans are your sixth man and you feed off that energy,” Hill told Mike Wells of IndyStar.com. “Energy is down and we turn the ball over and we’re hearing cheers. We’re missing shots and we’re hearing cheers.”

The Lakers pulled out a 99-93 victory at Indianapolis despite Kobe Bryant going scoreless in only 12 minutes with a sprained ankle.

“It was like 70/30 out there,” said Hill of the Lakers-to-Pacers fans ratio. “These are the same people that want autographs after the game. We’re out there in the community. We’re doing our job, doing what we’re supposed to do on and off the court. Something has to change.”

— Reported by Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times (Blog)

George Hill: “It sucks. It was 70 (Lakers fans) – 30 (Pacers fans) out there. These are the same people that wants autographs after the game. We’re out there in the community. We’re doing our job, doing what we’re supposed to do on and off the court. Something has to change. I tip my hat to this team. We’ve been trouble free. Been out in the community shaking hands, we’re winning. It shouldn’t feel like an away game, especially with an important like this. Tonight, that’s what it felt like.”

George Hill: “They always say your fans are your sixth man and you feed off that energy. Energy is down and we turn the ball over and we’re hearing cheers. We’re missing shots and we’re hearing cheers. That kind of brings your head down cause you know you’re at home. It shouldn’t be like that. Now we see how it is. We have to move forward, don’t worry about. Stay focus on what’s in this locker room and don’t worry about the rest.”

— Reported by Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star (Blog)

Bryant leaves early, but Lakers beat Pacers

When Kobe Bryant couldn’t be the tough guy on the court Friday night, he resorted to being an MVP coach.

After hobbling around on a severely sprained left ankle for 12 minutes, Bryant retreated to the bench, where he spent the rest of the night contesting calls, waving teammates into the right spots and even drawing something up on a clipboard for Dwight Howard to see.

He wasn’t going to let up – or let his teammates down.

So on a night Bryant was held scoreless for only the 15th time in his 17-year NBA career, Howard finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds, and delivered a tiebreaking three-point play with 90 seconds left that sent the Los Angeles Lakers past Indiana, 99-93.

”It really just continued to swell and I couldn’t put any weight on it, so I called it a night,” Bryant said after getting more treatment on the sore ankle in the training room. ”I told them before the game, ‘I don’t know how much I have, but whatever I have, I’ll give you.”’ …

Metta World Peace finished with 19 points and seven rebounds, Steve Blake made five 3-pointers and finished with 18 points, and Antawn Jamison added 17 points with four 3s…

George Hill scored 27 points, Paul George had 20 points and Lance Stephenson finished with 12 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. But Indiana shot only 37.4 percent from the field and couldn’t make a serious run at Los Angeles after Howard’s big play, primarily because the defense couldn’t stop the Lakers from outside.

— Reported by Michael Marot of the Associated Press

Danny Granger to miss at least three more games

Indiana Pacers swingman Danny Granger will miss at least three more games, according to coach Frank Vogel.

Pacers coach Frank Vogel said Tuesday after practice that Granger, out but all of five games this season, will have his left knee re-evaluated at the end of this week.

“Even if he’s cleared at the end of this week, that’s not going to be him back in game action right away,” Vogel said. “That’s him resuming activity.”

— Reported by Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star