Game 24 – Game Day: Utah Jazz (13-10) @ Indiana Pacers (16-7)

There is no rest for the weary as the Utah Jazz, fresh off of bad effort in New York, face the Indiana Pacers. Unlike the Knicks, who were just too much for us, the Pacers are a very solid club – and they aren’t going to be missing George Hill and Jeff Foster any more than the Knicks were missing Amare Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony last night.

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What’s Going on With the Pacers?

The Indiana Pacers are 16-7 right now, and they are 2nd place in the Central Division. They are a middle of the road scoring team (15th in points per game, 17th in offensive rating); however they are 4th best in opponents points per game and 5th best in defensive rating. No doubt a large part of this is due to Roy Hibbert anchoring their defense in the way many Jazz fans drooled over. Hibbert is having a stellar season, 14 / 10 / 2 / 2. His free throw percentage has dropped nearly 10% from last season, but I love how he’s able to play 30 minutes a game and foul only three times. He’s a big force, and I guess I’m a traditionalist – I give him a lot of the credit for their interior defense. Their defense is a lot more than just Roy though. They have five guys averaging over 1.0 steals a game (and two more at 0.9 spg) – and their quick hands have resulted in being the #9 team in steals this season. They are also #9 in blocks. And opponents only shoot 41.7 fg% against them.

The Pacers have won 7 out of their last 10 games, a stretch that included wins against the LA Lakers (in LA), the Chicago Bulls (in Chicago), against the Orlando Magic (in Orlando), and Dallas Mavericks (in Dallas). They have been winning games, and now get the hapless road team (us) for them to feast on. Their offense isn’t like ours. They are 29th in the league in assists, but they are great from the foul line (2nd best). They are also 9th best in 3pt %. Their offense is diversified, but they don’t really share the ball as we do (we gun for assists). They do share it though, no one takes 16 shots a game, and seven players take at least 7 shots a game. Most people are aware of their super talented guard Darren Collison and scoring forward Danny Granger – however it’s Paul George that we need to worry about. In the last few games he’s gone for 30 / 9 / 5 / 5, 24 / 4 / 2/ 1, and 13 / 7 / 5 / 3/ 2  he’s doing it all.

After the jump – a look at the Jazz

What’s Going on With the Jazz?

Yeah, I don’t want to get into it.

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Previous Meetings:

Last year the Gordon Hayward show game into Indy and the Jazz had a nice win. We were a different team then – kind of. We went 0/6 from deep in that game. So maybe we’ll win tonight as well?

Buckle up.

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