The Mind of Mullin: POSTGAME: PACERS

Thursday, December 18, 2008

POSTGAME: PACERS - 12/17/08

Crawford's mid-range pull-up jumper was deadly

MVW: Jamaal Crawford

The Good
Jamaal Crawford: 38 min, 11-26 fg, 9 reb, 4 ast, 29 pts
Marco Belinelli: 39 min, 8-16 fg, 5-8 3pt, 4 arb, 4 ast, 1 stl, 21 pts
Stephen Jackson: 39 min, 8-14 ft, 3-3 ft, 6 reb, 3 ast, 3 stl, 20 pts
Andris Biedrins: 23 min, 6-13 fg, 10 reb, 2 blk, 16 pts
Kelenna Azubuike: 37 min, 6-12 fg, 2-3 3pt, 9 reb, 2 ast, 1 blk, 18 pts
Ronny Turiaf: 24 min, 4-4 ft, 4 ast, 6 blk
DeMarcus Nelson: 20 min, 7 reb

The Bad
Stephen Jackson: 39 min, 4 to
Andris Biedrins: 23 min, 4 to
Marco Belinelli: 39 min, 4 to
DeMarcus Nelson: 20 min, 1-6 fg

The Ugly
Ronny Turiaf: 25 min, 2 reb

Team Statistics
Warriors : Pacers
pts - 120 : 127
fg - 45-100 (.450) : 47-106 (.443)
ft - 18-23 (.783) : 27-29 (.931)
3pt - 12-28 (.429) : 6-17 (.353)
reb - 49 : 57
oreb - 13 : 20
ast - 20 : 19
to - 16 : 12
stl - 6 : 12
bs - 11 : 6
fastbreaks - 19 : 34
points in the paint - 42 : 62

Boxscore
Highlights
Popcorn Machine's GameFlow

Biedrins gets his 16th double-double of the season

Notes

starting 5: Crawford/Belinelli/Azubuike/Jackson/Biedrins
Murphy, Dunleavy, and Ford out for Pacers
Jackson with a nice assist from 3 pt line to Belinelli
Jackson hits a 3pt; let's hope his slump is over
Biedrins looking very active; rebounding and scoring; defense collapsing on him fast, causing near turnovers and forcing perimeter scoring
Azubuike with step-back jumper
Belinelli misses first 3pt attempt
Crawford's mid-range game is almost as good as Ellis'
Turiaf in for Biedrins (foul trouble); misses jumper badly
Morrow in for Crawford 3:55 left in 1Q
Morrow hits open baseline jumper
Azubuike shooting great from 3pt range after a bad start to the season
Brandan Wright in for Azubuike near end of 1Q
GSW 29 IND 40 end of 1Q
Wright with oreb and flip in
Azubuike turning the ball over; gets wide open 3
Crawford continues to hit midrange jumper
Morrow steals the ball, dribble clumsily on the break, passes up the wide open 3pt shot; still not playing with confidence
Belinelli makes another nice finish on a drive
DeMarcus Nelson called up; gets 2 off of Belinelli ast; retooled jump shot
Biedrins sits with 3 fouls, 5:20 left in 2Q
Belinelli continues to shoot well, hits 3pter to start the 2nd half
Crawford draws a foul on a 3 pt shot, misses ft
nice hustle on the offensive glass by Azubuike and Biedrins
Biedrins picks up his 4th foul at 7:39 3Q
Belinelli ties game at 81 on fade away; Belinelli looks like he's an NBA quality starter
Warriors' inability to defensive rebound is why Pacers are leading
Belinelli with another flashy dish for Biedrins dunk
Belinelli drains yet another 3, tying game at 99
good ball movement and unselfish play
Granger hot and carrying the Pacers; unstoppable
athletic buckets by Steven Graham; Warriors can't get a stop
Jarret Jack hits big 3, Crawford misses his 3; Pacers up by 6
Belinelli w/ career high 21 pts; a keeper or a trade asset to facilitate salary dump or upgrade in draft position
Warriors lose 120-127 improving lottery odds
always good to see a competitive game that ends in a loss where one of the young guys has a great game; chemistry seems to be developing as well
disappointed that Nelson continues to sit Randolph and Wright all or most of the game in favor of a rebounding and defensive challenged small-ball unit

Belinelli looks like he truly belongs in the NBA

Postgame Quotes

Don Nelson
On Tonight's Game:

“I thought we competed the best we could. I thought it was anyone’s game for a while. We didn’t expect to play with such a small lineup. But with Murphy (Troy) out, they went small and then we had to. Their small team played better than ours. We expected them to run the floor and it was a pretty good battle.”

Jamal Crawford
On Tonight's Game:

"I thought offensively we gave ourselves a chance. But we were down one a couple different times and we didn’t capitalize or get the big stop or the big score. We just didn’t close it out."

On Trying To Turn Things Around:

"We just don’t want the young guys to get down. When you get results with winning, the hard work is paying off. Since we haven’t been winning we have to keep going forward and hopefully they’ll keep their heads up."

On Danny Granger:

"It’s confidence. I’ve always thought in the past he was a really good player. But now he’s being more vocal with his teammates and you can see he’s the leader of this ball club.”

Stephen Jackson
On Tonight's Game:

"They made shots. Danny (Granger) had a terrific game. We had a difficult job guarding the pick and roll tonight. That definitely hurt us. They set a lot of screens where they got open and they knocked them down."

On The Warriors:

"We have a young team. We’re going through a lot with injuries. Young guys are trying to find their roles and how the NBA goes. There’s a lot we’re going through right now and just trying to find a niche. We just need to get some momentum going for ourselves. This was a bad way to start a road trip but we have to get ready for the next one."

On His Place On The Team:

"I’m just trying to stay positive and be aggressive. I have to play well and shoot well for the team to win. I’ve been struggling a little bit. Everybody struggles sometimes, somewhere. It’s just about me continuing to be humble about the game and continuing to work on my shot and hopefully I can get out of it.”