Game Time: Indiana vs New Jersey

*Partial game, I switched off late in the third quarter to watch the Bulls-Cavs matchup

Indiana are without two of their starters tonight – Mike Dunleavy and Rasho Nesterovic

New Jersey are without their point guard Devin Harris

First Quarter

• Pacers lead 10-4 off a quick push by TJ Ford, and dish to Foster for a Foster layup
• Daniels with a strong drive and finish
• Timeout … missed a few moments there.
• Back to back long jumpers as Vince Carter nails a three pointer in transition on the left wing.
• Indiana leads 17-16, 18-16 off a FT
• Vince Carter nails another three pointer, this time from the top of the key. Eight straight points by Carter. He’s heating up.
• Troy Murphy responds right back with a three of his own
• TJ Ford showing some activity defensively to knock Carter’s dribble as he double down on Carter’s attempted drive.
• Carter misses a jumper, kept alive by Najera.
• Lovely ball fake as Rush fakes the pass to the right, drives hard left, blows by Simmons, takes it to the rim, finishes inside.
• Pacers in transition, Murphy trailing the play, Rush sets him up with a nice soft pass, quick trigger, missed. Murphy stepped into that shot nicely.
• Lopez lost his shoe. Nets decide to take a timeout, let Brook Lopez get his shoe back on. Good work by Lopez to hustle down court and grab a defensive rebound instead of worrying about his shoe …. or lack of a shoe.
• Carter has 11 first quarter points. He’s gotten off to a fast start.
• Indiana lead 23-20
• Nice jumper from Brook Lopez off the pick and pop from 15 feet right wing
• Granger nails a three pointer left wing. Quinn Buckner is delighted with how Danny has been shooting early in the regular season.
• Deiner and Jack are playing together in Indiana’s backcourt. Good decision making by Indy to hold that up and set the offense, nice quick passing, ending up with a corner jumper from Jack.
• Nets are in a zone right now. Jack cutting into the middle, defense collapses, Danny jumps down to the corner off the wing, Jack finds him, three pointer on the way, good.
• Hassell has scored two buckets in a row
• Indiana hold it for the final shot, Rush drives by his man to the rim along the baseline, loses it, no, late call, foul on Lopez.
• 20 second timeout. 3 seconds on the shot clock. Set play coming up, I’d like to see Indiana run Rush off a screen or two and give him a catch and shoot. Inbounds pass by Jack, Pacers line up in a four man queue at the FT area, Granger pops out to the top of the key, receives the pass, he dribbles right, pulls up from 16 feet, miss. Good look.

Second Quarter

• Indiana lead 32-27
• Nice pass fake by Deiner, loses his man, takes a bounce in and shoots it, miss. Nice play by Deiner.
• Jack steals the ball as Dooling mishandles the rock … Indiana run the other way, take a long J, miss.
• It gets frustrating watching Obie’s offense at times. The quick threes on the fastbreak, blah.
• Troy Murphy had 8 points and 5 rebounds in the first quarter
• I love seeing Roy Hibbert play in the NBA. Feels like it’s a long time coming, the forgotten effect of a four year college player?
• Dooling has scored two jumpers
• Nice pass by Hibbert to TJ Ford who went backdoor, defense recovers well, TJ kicks it out, Jack drives right, muscles left as meets the center of the key, and shoots up over the defense.
• Timeout
• Nice pick and roll, Yi takes a bounce to get to the rim, misses inside
• Daniels misses a corner three in transition. Too many jumpshots in transition from Indiana, they’re allowing NJ to hang in, making the game difficult on themselves.
• Hayes gets bailed out by the refs. He was in the no charge area when he drew the foul. Poor call.
• Nets start the possession on the right wing, reverse it the opposite side, Dooling drives into the middle before the defense fully reacts and he gets the runner to go.
• Murphy putting the ball on the floor and creating on two consecutive possessions. Don’t like that.
• Vince Carter nails a wide open three pointer off the drive and kick
• Nice back screen by TJ Ford to free up Daniles for the cut, Foster finds him, fouled before he could get up the layup.
• Jarvis Hayes with the acrobatic runner off the glass from the right hand side of the lane
• TJ Ford driving into the paint, takes the fallaway over Boone, misses, gets the offensive rebound, turns down the putback and passes out.
• Jeff Foster with the putback and offensive rebound in one motion. He’s the best offensive rebounder in the league today.
• Vince Carter making a very difficult fallaway
• NJ lead 46-43 with three minutes to play in the half
• Jeff Foster making himself big, he spreads out in the paint and streches his arm out to receive the ball, Boone can’t get near it, one step, layup. Nice job setting up shop in the paint off the screen and roll.
• Daniels settles for a three, 1-5 from downtown tonight, 2-15 from three on the season …. shot looked flat.
• Vince Carter runs the screen and roll with Boone, nice pass, Boone fouled on the layup. Boone air balls a FT. He bricked a jumper badly the possession before. He front irons the second. Offensive rebound Nets, turnover Nets.
• Final minute
• TJ Ford brings it upcourt, Indiana stagnant on that possession, forced into a long J, miss, offensive rebound Jeff Foster, Daniels cuts to the hole, nice pass, layup
• NJ lead 51-49 off some VC FTs
• Foster with another offensive rebound, to TJ Ford, out to Danny Granger, three pointer, miss. Granger could have held that for the final shot, didn’t do so.
• New Jersey will hold it for a final possession, Vince drives, stops and pops from the elbow, misses

Halftime

• NJ lead 51-49
• Indiana are ahead on the backboards 22-16
• Indiana have 12 assists on 19-45 shooting from the field. They are only 6-21 from three and 5-5 from the line. Only 25% shooting from three and on course for 42 attempts in the game, no wonder those long shots were bothering me so much in the first half.
• New Jersey have 9 assists on 21-42 shooting from the field. They are 5-10 from three and 4-7 from the line.
• Vince Carter leads New Jersey with 20 first half points. Dooling adds 9, nobody else has more than 5 points.
• TJ Ford is 0-6 from the field but has 5 assists and 4 rebounds
• Jeff Foster leads the team with 12 points and 7 rebounds. Murphy has 10 and 5. Daniels has 9, Granger has 7 and Jack/Rush have combined for 10 points off the bench. Indy’s two big men doing good work, and a balanced act from there on.

Third Quarter

• TJ Ford with a nice drive from the corner with three seconds on the clock, gets into the paint, fallaway J at the buzzer, hits it. Nice way to start the half.
• Murphy with a contested rebound in the paint
• Daniels has to force a shot, he puts it on the floor, drives baseline, takes a one armed leaner over two defenders, misses.
• Indiana’s offense has not looked good tonight. Lacks movement. Lacks quick decision making. TJ Ford is starting to dribble more as the game goes on. They’re clearly lacking Mike Dunleavy’s multi-skilled threat from every spot on the floor offensive game.
• Nice block by Granger on Simmons’ floater
• Indiana ahead 53-51 after two and a half minutes
• Granger coming off a screen, nothing on, waits from Daniels to come up top, TJ Ford doesn’t get open on his cut. Nothing happens … missed shot … fastbreak the other way, lob by Dooling to Boone, one handed dunk, miss
• Murphy trails the play, nails a three
• Steal by Danny Granger, he goes coast to coast, gets fouled as he cuts passed the lane, layup, and one.
• Pacers on a 8-0 run to start the second half
• Nice pass over the top to Murphy who was being fronted, he’s fouled inside on the short shot
• Turnover NJ, moving screen on Boone. It was a hand off pass/screen.
• Granger makes two more at the FT line. Four FTs in the quarter.
• TJ Ford runs into Najera in the open court, falls over, looses the ball, NJ have it, Lopez dribbling in cautiously, goes into the paint, Indy have no shotblockers, try to get a charge, foot in the paint, layup and the foul.
• Lovely passing by Indiana to get Murphy and open look from three at the top of the key, miss
• Is it just me or is Vince Carter cursing a lot more this season? Every TV close up I’ve seen he’s “F” this and “F” that.
• Vince hasn’t scored in the second half yet
• Nice pass into Lopez on the baseline inbounds, Hibbert fouls. Hibber turns it over on the other end, bad pass.
• Daniels deflects the cross court pass out of bounds. 7 seconds on the shot clock, in to Dooling, to Vince, face up three, miss. TJ Ford passes it into Hibbert quickly after Roy got great position on the break, short hook, makes it.
• Najera misses a three pointer badly. Air ball.
• Daniels swishes a three pointer on the left wing, stretches the lead back to 10, 11 actually.
• Indy lead 66-55
• Timeout Lawrence Frank
• We just passed the halfway point in the third quarter.
• Drive and kick from Vince to Dooling, three pointer from the corner, good
• Turnover TJ Ford, offensive foul, pushing off
• TJ Ford and Murphy screw up the spacing there, standing alongside one another at the top of the key with only one defender in the vicinity. Force a contested three, miss, offensive rebound, Murphy bags the second attempt.
• Oh pretty dribble to beat his defender, even sweeter pass by Daniels in midair to Ford after drawing the shot blocker for the wide open layup. Fastbreak there.
• Indiana lead 71-60

Okay I’m going to switch over to the Bulls-Cavs game. That looks like an interesting matchup.

Indiana should really win this game. They’ve been toying with an inferior side all game, but they haven’t had enough of a killer instinct to put them away so Jersey are still in with a shout. The game has all been about what Indiana is doing, and not doing ….. rather NJ making it tough.