The honeymoon is over for Frank Vogel as Jim O'Brien's replacement in Indy. After a 9-3 start, the Pacers have dropped 5 of their last six games and with a win tonight, the Sixers can push their lead over the #8 seed to 6 games with only 19 left to play.
We've seen the Pacers thrice this season, but we've yet to see the new-look Pacers under Vogel. The
last time the teams met, Andre Iguodala was just back from his achilles injury and Danny Granger became the only wing to score 25+ points against AI9 this season. Tonight, I'm expecting a different result.
We've got a couple of fun matchups:
Jrue vs. Collison,
Turner vs. Paul George and of course
Iguodala vs. Granger.
Hibbert has been a disappointment since his quick start, and though he has a tremendous mismatch, I don't expect Indy to take advantage of it.
A couple of things to keep an eye on before my prediction:
- Jrue's containment of Collison's penetration. This was a big factor in the loss the last time these teams met. Jrue needs to keep himself between Collison and the hoop, and as a team, they need to figure out what to do with the pick and roll.
- Jrue's size advantage over Collison. He should get multiple looks in the post early on.
- Jeff Foster's swinging elbows. The last time the teams met, Foster was a very physical force in the paint and several Sixers took exception. If this game starts out the same way, I'm expecting Brand to return the favor on the other end.
- As usual, it needs to be a point of emphasis to keep the Pacers' under-talented, hustling fours off the offensive glass. Josh McRoberts and Tyler Hansbrough should never hurt you, but they can if you don't put a body on them and keep them off the glass.
Prediction: PHI 103, IND 92
The tip is at 7pm, game thread will land 90 minutes prior.
The Pacers are the definition of mediocre. Granger i decent but far from great, Collison is an average PG, Hibbert,... well Hibbert is basically Hawes who can occasionaly finish strong and block some shots, without being able to pass at all. In other words Hibbert is one of the most overrated Cs in the league. All he has basically is size.
I expect a convincing win tonight. Anything short of it would be a bad sign for thing to come.
They'll have to play better than they have over the past couple to get a convincing win in Indy tonight. Hopefully, they don't dig a big hole early again.
Although Hibbert is far from a finished product, I think we'd be much better off having taken him in 2008 rather than Speights (though, admittedly, you could say that about a few players from that draft). Hibbert is a good young piece who has improved each year. Learning to rely more on a post game rather than the mid-range jumper he seems to have fallen in love with would go a long way for him.
Hibbert is neither really young (already 24) nor good. He is a backup C on a truly good team IMO. He can block shots yes, but not at a spectacular rate, which he should be able to do considering his height. He is probably a worse rebounder than Hawes (self-explanatory), slower than Hawes running the floor and defending the P&R (oh - ouu!!!) and shoots just 63% at the rim (which is simply put sad for a guy his size). For comparison's sake Hawes shoots 63.8%.
http://www.hoopdata.com/shotstats.aspx?team=%25&type=pg&posi=C&yr=2011&gp=0&mins=10
While i am not a big fan of Speights, he might actually be a better player than Hibbert (maybe not a better C though because Speights is not a C to me).
Speights, when drafted, had a better upside than Hibbert. Whether he achieves that upside is the risk you take when drafting and hopefully what we're seeing the past few games is the beginning of Speights realizing he has to work hard to get better (and get paid)
I just saw on the Twitter that Jeff Foster is out w/ a back injury. That actually helps the Sixers, imo.
Hey, Brian what do think, 13-7 to finish the season, would be a 45 win season do think thats possible or maybe they finish around the 500 mark? Still considered a strong year but they gotta finish it up strong. Great job by the team every night they play hard you can't question that, they have been in every game this year except a couple.
13-7 is possible after looking at the schedule. I don't think they should finish any worse than 11-9, which would be 43 wins.
looks like the Collins effect (+10 wins) will live on.
I hope so. He's already +5.
If they win 45 games, that in my opinion is a 50-win type of season after the Jordan stink took awhile to wear off. That would be incredible.