After a tough loss to the Houston Rockets the night before, the Indiana Pacers, lead by Danny Granger, buckled down in the second half to defeat the new look Cleveland Cavaliers, 99-85.
A much stronger effort by the Pacers tonight on the defensive end, but as always, there’s still plenty of room for improvement.
Danny Granger was hot tonight, scoring a season-high 34 points on 13-21 shooting (5-8 from downtown). Mike Dunleavy added 20 and Roy Hibbert chipped in with 16 points and 13 rebounds.
This was much more like it for the Pacers. They shared the ball, hustled hard and played good D when it mattered down the stretch. Road victories were a rarity for the Pacers last season, but so far this season they are 0.500 on the road (and at home).
Coach Jim O’Brien used a 10 man rotation tonight, meaning Dahntay Jones continued to sit on the bench, along with rookie Paul George. I like the use of James Posey off the bench, but they really need to give George some minutes for him to develop. I say get rid of Solomon Jones and give his minutes to George and Hansbrough.
Well, a tough stretch is about to come up. From Tuesday the 16th of November till the end of the month, the Pacers will play Atlanta, LA Clippers, Orlando, Miami, Cleveland (again), Oklahoma City, LA Lakers and Sacramento. A crucial part of the schedule — if they can come out of it at 8-8, then I think the team will be in good shape for the remainder of the season.
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