You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story

[georgiafan]

nice job holding Durant down after his hot quarter. Did you change any of the settings like double team etc ?

The poor suns always hated on by 2k it seems

[trekfan]

Quote: Originally Posted by georgiafan

nice job holding Durant down after his hot quarter. Did you change any of the settings like double team etc ? The poor suns always hated on by 2k it seems

I didn't change any defensive settings on Durant -- I altered my sub patterns some to help mitigate things, and that seemed to throw off the Sonics. Durant just never found that groove after halftime, momentum was there for the taking in the third and neither of our teams could grab it.


As for the Suns -- I can't figure them out. I think Phoenix has to blow it up or something, cause the team just doesn't work. Gonna be a real challenge to get them right.

[trekfan]

Ch. 58

It was our final game of December and the year 2019 and we got to face the Boston Celtics. The vaunted Celtics … there were people in the NBA who worshiped the ground the Celtics walked on. “Greatest franchise ever” and “blue-collar” and “gritty” were always words thrown around to describe them. Boston bothered me for a lot of reasons — of course, as a competitor, I could respect the long history of that organization. They were integral to establishing the NBA as the super-league it was.



But, *hit, they retire numbers of EVERYONE. “Were you a bench warmer on Bill Russell’s fifth championship? Did you sneeze the one time you got on the court? We’ll retire your number!”



When someone retires as many numbers as the Celtics (and the Lakers) did, they take away the meaning of retiring that number.



Add into that the fact they flaunted the number of title the organization won on the back of every jersey (a feature Gramps refused to embrace for us: “It’s a pride thing, an organizational pride thing — none of those guys wearing those jerseys won 17 titles. We don't need that junk.”) and I was looking to prove a point. Everyone recognized Kyrie Irving for helping Cleveland win a title, he was routinely named to All-Star and All-NBA teams, but he hadn’t done it all himself — he had LeBron.







The game started out with an electric opening introduction by our PA guy and then tipoff. We came out and it was an instant duel between Irving and myself … Kyrie was at the height of his powers and, to this day, he’s the man with the sickest handles I ever played against. He had the ball on a string and could do anything you wanted to it.



But Irving was also far too easy into baiting into taking shots. He LOVED to shoot the ball and didn’t enjoy passing nearly as much as I did … which worked to our advantage. Irving took the first three shots for the Celtics and hit two of them putting them up 4-0. I attacked the rim and got a quick And-1.



Then, I started firing off passes and those passes spawned more passes. We were making the extra pass — we’d run a screen, I’d pass to the screener, and then the screener would pass out — one, fluid motion of beautiful offense.







The Celtics weren’t fast enough on the switches to get back. We rained threes in the first half thanks to the extra pass and I kept the defense honest by getting inside; dunks, layups, and my personal favorite the mid-range pull-up. Irving was an ace scorer, but his defense was lacking … and I made sure to take advantage of that.



At the half, we led by 10 and we were eager to get back out there to increase that lead. Everyone was feeling the thrill of making the pass and guys were enjoying themselves. McHale didn’t even give us a speech or any real instruction, just wrote “PASS” on the whiteboard and grabbed some Gatorade.



In the third, Victor came alive — at least a little — he spent most of his night shutting down Jaylen Brown (who was angling for a big contract that Boston was seriously going to have to weigh against their cap sheet) but he had a spurt in the third where he put together a stretch you just loved to see: a dunk, a steal, and another dunk — he was feeling it.







In the fourth, we subbed in the deep bench guys and rode them pretty much the entire quarter. JULIO came in and did what he does: he was fearless in shooting the ball and though he missed most of his shots, he hit a gorgeous three that confused the *uck out of the Celtics.







Look at Tatum’s face: that man is thinking “Holy *hit, this white kid just nailed me” and he doesn’t know what to do. People constantly underestimated JULIO because of his looks, because of his lack of playing time at Kentucky his one year there … but, given a chance, the guy could play. He was fearless.



The starters just watched as the bench guys held onto to the lead and we got the win. Irving scored more than me, but I had way more assists; I was ridiculously pleased by that.

[trekfan]

Ch. 59

In early January we welcome the Cavs to the Fieldhouse and, boy, was it a marquee matchup. Both teams were on fire and looked like they were in their stride — LeBron was having another good season (averaging 21.2 PPG, 8.8 RPG, and 7.4 APG — classic LeBron numbers, albeit a bit lower at this stage of his career — he was 35 after all). King James was, once more, leading the Cavs to regular season success but we all knew he was eying the playoffs. For the first time in what felt like years, LeBron seemed to have help at every position — Bledsoe and Melo both were averaging 18 per game, Wade was chipping in about 13, and Thompson was gobbling up boards and getting putbacks as he did.

But Thompson’s contract was up at the end of the year and all signs pointed to the Cavs letting him walk — they could grab a veteran center for cheaper in the flooded big man market (the position was stocked with so many cheap youngsters and veterans that it really squeezed the money-making ability for the guys still in their prime). We were only a game ahead of the Cavs and Cleveland was looking to make a statement in our building.

It was going to be a show.

In the first, Cleveland jumped out ahead thanks to an early 14-5 run. It was disheartening to see us come out so flat, but I guess that’s partially my fault — I celebrated my birthday the day before and, legally allowed to drink now, I … well, I might have overdid it just a tad and my teammates might have been right there with me. What can I say other than I was young — stupid, but not criminally stupid.

So we were all a little off our game and it showed in that first few minutes of the game. Once McHale took a timeout, chewed us out, and we all got some Gatorade in our system, we went to work. I busted out some trick layups …

And the crowd got back into it. I fed Jabari early and often, as Melo was lighting us up but wasn’t playing effective defense against Jabari — our guy was just too damn fast. Unfortunately, Melo was a veteran and compensated for his lack of defense with offensive savvy: otherwise known as whining at the refs for fouls and getting those fouls called on Jabari.

By the end of the first Jabari had two, McHale sat him, and we were down 33-27. It felt bad but when the Pit Crew came in, they made the Cavs bench look like a bunch of JV squad members. Sabonis got some extra play time and the big guy hoisted up triple after triple and made more than he missed. He and Corey Joseph helped claw us back, get us the lead, and keep the Cavs back.

At the half we had the lead and Cleveland looked lost.

In the third, I picked up the pace. With Cleveland stunned and reeling, we took it to them repeatedly — the extra pass was our friend and we slung the ball around and around. It was infectious and after a particularly nice feed, I celebrated right in Bledsoe’s face … and he just glared.

In the fourth, we were up by 24 points and both teams had sent in the deep bench. McHale kept Victor out there, let him run the whole show and Victor went OFF in the fourth — playing against lesser competition, he feasted on easy looks and we — the bench, the crowd — enjoyed the show Victor put on for the home team. If there was anyone who understood Indiana basketball like I did, like Gramps did, it was Victor — he thrilled us with his skills and it was fun to watch.

We dominated the Cavs and we kept them under 100 points, which meant no practice the next day (that was the deal McHale made at the beginning of the season to get us all to put in a little extra on defense — it worked well for us that year). LeBron wasn’t pleased, but it was just the regular season — we’d see them three more times and it wasn’t anything to worry about yet for him.

[georgiafan]

Looks like your back on the winning ways and your starting lineups been rolling especially Tate. Looks like the Cavs may need to add some youth to keep up with the Pacers.

[trekfan]

Quote: Originally Posted by georgiafan

Looks like your back on the winning ways and your starting lineups been rolling especially Tate. Looks like the Cavs may need to add some youth to keep up with the Pacers.

It was a fun beatdown. Cleveland really ran all over me in the first, but their subs came in and they just got throttled -- by the time the starters got back in it, we were rolling along and doing so in an unstoppable way.


I'm at the trade deadline now and finishing up the last of the deals -- big write up on that and a revisit of the 2016 NBA draft (seeing where everyone stands). Stay tuned.

[RMJH4]

Two serious wins. Tate is putting up ridiculous stat lines at the moment. Very good to see, he is getting the team back on track. Oladipo needs to be more consistent for you though.

[trekfan]

Quote: Originally Posted by seaboh

Two serious wins. Tate is putting up ridiculous stat lines at the moment. Very good to see, he is getting the team back on track. Oladipo needs to be more consistent for you though.

You know, I think Oladipo would get more points and scoring if there were less mouths to feed on this team. There's going to be some drama in the offseason for the Pacers I feel, but we'll get to that eventually. I love Victor, he's the perfect compliment to Tate (and when he gets a chance to run the point at certain junctions in the game, he's super fun) but there will be changes in the offseason for Indiana -- it's hard to keep guys together, especially young guys, who want to strut their stuff and prove their worth.