Game 55: Super Bowl Rematch!

Indiana 101 (18–36)  |  New Orleans 107 (29–26)

Ok, fine. It's not really a rematch at all. Neither of these teams is currently championship bound, but regardless of that fact, tonight's game was pretty exciting. The pace was unbelievable, as both teams employed the popular "4 seconds or less" offensive scheme leading to something like 400 possessions (math team is still confirming that last figure).

En route to a win, Darren Collison became the first Hornet not named Chris Paul to log a triple-double since Baron Davis' performance against the Kings back in '05. Dimes (or the "Blur de Bee" as the jumbo-tron calls him) finished with 18 points, 12 assists, and 13 boards plus a block and 3 steals for good measure. DX wasn't far behind with 29 points, 7 assists, and 9 boards.

Despite strong showings from most of the team, the Pacers made a late push and, for a bit, looked poised to overtake the Bees. How, you might ask? Turnovers. We were giving the ball away. Like STDs from a hooker. Most of that came from Dimes (more on that later), but Mek and Peja found time to contribute as well. When you give 24 points off TOs and you only take 8, problems will likely occur.

But credit the Pacers: they played a real physical game all night. They got us off-balanced and forced us to make mistakes. And when we turned up the pace to try and side-step that tactic, the mistakes kept coming. Of course, so did some awesome plays (Dimes was breaking ankles all night), but still: it almost caught up to us.

More (fascinating observations!) after the jump.

• The Hornets may have fatigue to thanks for their fading in the second half. Only 9 guys dressed and Aaron "I'm 7 feet tall and that's about it" Gray only played 2 minutes, presumably because every time he touched the ball, he put it on the floor. (When you're that tall and you get the ball under the rim, you just put the ball back in the hoop. Why are you dribbling? Why didn't you learn this in rec leagues at age 10 like the rest of us?)
  
• Despite his fantastic showing, Collison was actually pretty close to a quad-double in a less than desirable way. His 8 turnovers on the night bring his average (as a starter) to 3.8/game. Seems like the Blur could use a little slowing down at times.
• Mek had a solid night. 13 points, 13 boards, 1 assist, and 1 block. Of course, he went 1 for 5 from the stripe, so there's still room for improvement. Still, it was nice to see him play starters minutes. he's got some great post moves, and I still think we under-use him.
• For the Pacers, Hibbert looked great. 13 points on 9 shots, 6 boards, 4 blocks, and 2 assists in only 31 minutes. By the by, when did that dude become a shell of his former self? Dude's been working out. He's going to be force when they let him play more than 30 minutes a contest.
  
• Danny "Metrie, Brah" Granger finished the night with 29 points, 6 boards, 3 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. Thankfully, he practically punted the first quarter of the game, going 0 for 5 with 1 board.
• I still don't like Dahntay Jones. And I probably never will.
• With 2:47 to play, Dunleavy entered the game having scored only 7 points on the night. I chortled that he would be the savior of the game, and then he promptly score 8 points in 1 minute. Lesson: do not chortle at Mike Dunleavy.
  
• This has nothing to do with the Hornets or tonight's game, but did anyone get a look at the Cavs game tonight? Jamison went for the wrong kind of "memorable" in his debut by going 0 for 12 in a loss to the Bobcats. Oh, but he did sink his only 2 FTs. So, that's good. I guess.
• Sorry for dropping the ball some on recaps lately. The whole Super Bowl thing just crashed right into Mardi Gras and no one really came up for air until yesterday. So yeah, sorry about that. See you guys Sunday (tip is at 6:00pm central instead of 7:00, just FYI).

Composed to: The Who's Who's Next

Opponent's Take: Indy Cornrows

Pacers vs Hornets boxscore