.:| RFTA • Back In Black |:. Vote new team!

[kibaxx7]

Here's my application

Basically I copied from my last application.

No problem man, look forward to the NCAA games section.

awesome 'caps man (and i've pretty much hated on Indy since the 'Brawl' team dispersed and was replaced by ex-Warriors scraps lol); definitely following but just waiting patiently for you to start the reg season already

Thanks bro. Writing a season preview now, will post it today, so look for the season to start tomorrow. Couldn't do it before because my grandmother had an accident and I'm taking care of her, the Pacers had to wait.

Man, you suck with free throws!

Anyway, can't wait for the regular season. Make sure to trim down the recaps a bit, you must finish the season.

Yeah, free throws are my nemesis... specially Hibbert and Granger... Wade's perfect, I always make FTs with him. Are you sure about trimming the recaps? That's the shortest I've ever done, lol.

[Lamrock]

I just do real player FT% for free throws. Makes it more realistic. I personally think the recaps are fine as is, though I just now noticed that you had photos. Keep it up.

[Cartar]

I really like the length of the last recaps, it doesn't have to be so long everytime, only when some very interesting game happens. Also, this saves your time a lot (probably).

[kibaxx7]

Larry Bird has spent the better part of the past six years trying to change the culture of his franchise from that ugly night in November 2004 when members of the Pacers charged into the stands during a brawl with the Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Now, the culture of change is focused on the style of play that the Pacers take onto the floor. In other words, after proving that they can put up points with the best of them, now they want defense to mean something more. This should be the year to forgot that brawl.

“It's been about re-connecting with our fans, about getting the kinds of players and personalities that make you feel good about cheering for them and being associated with them,” Bird, the president of basketball operations, said. “There are times when you can settle for being good enough with what you have, or you can make major changes because it's best for the long run. With this new squad, we've got a group of guys in our locker room that you can get behind and trust in.”

To that end, the Pacers' had 21 million in cap space this past June for offseason acquisitions, and Bird didn't hesitate to splash all the money. He dropped the first free agency bomb by signing former Heat, Marquette standout Dwyane Wade and his teammate Udonis Haslem, and then added swingman from Switzerland, Thabo Sefolosha, and former Wizard and Maverick, center Brendan Haywood. But perhaps the most important signing of all was the new head coach: legend and former Pacer, Reggie Miller.

“The goal this season is not to give up on a style or change anything about the way we want to push the tempo, run with the ball and score,” said Miller. “We want to incorporate some defense into that style. We want to get up on our opponents, apply the pressure and force turnovers and mistakes by the other guys. I'm not saying that we're suddenly going to turn into a team that's holding opponents to 85 or 90 points every game. That's not going to happen when you're running with the ball. The focus is on lowering our opponents' field goal percentage, making them work harder to score points.”

After a 4-2 preseason, Miller said he was pleased with the Pacers' high-octane offense, which was paced by Wade and Danny Granger. But Miller knows all that scoring prowess doesn't mean a thing if the Pacers can't apply the brakes on the opposition from time to time. “I liked the way the guys have learned to move the ball and play at a fast pace. But if you're going to be a team that has success in playoffs, or in our case, gets back into the Playoffs, it's playing solid team defense that's going to take you to that next level.” The newcomers will bring much-needed depth and allow Reggie to switch his lineups to make defensive adjustments.




The one-man show performed by Wade the last two years was the kind not normally witnessed in the NBA. No doubt, this two years were an ego stroke for Wade: he certainly got a charge from flashing an all-around game while being doubled and tripled and pressing LeBron for league MVP honors. In that sense, Wade had one of the best seasons of any non-MVP winner. Not many have his all-around skills; he will certainly look to lead Indy back to the playoffs and get his first regular season MVP award.

A longtime starting forward for Miami, Haslem was relegated to a backup role last season, a "difficult and uncomfortable" decision by coach Erik Spoelstra. Michael Beasley took the spot Haslem has held for five seasons; he came off the bench for much of his rookie year but, has been a mainstay with the first-team since, including in Miami's 2006 championship season -- with an outstanding series against Dallas in the NBA Finals -- and that was a major reason to leave Florida and join Wade in Indianapolis. He's a steady forward, but no star in the post. He may be on the downside but playing alongside Wade might recharge his strength.

Sefolosha spent two and a half seasons with the Bulls, where he primarily came off the bench; he has fit in with the Thunder since the day he was acquired, and Oklahoma City has helped define his role: a long and lanky defensive guru. The signing of Haywood will help. The Pacers will be a much better defensive team (relatively speaking) with him on board, thanks to his rebounding and blocking skills. When he is healthy, he is a force to be reckoned with on both ends of the floor; a luxury backup for Roy Hibbert. But if he gets in foul trouble, of if he misses part of the season as he did the past two seasons, the Pacers are in trouble because then only Nazr Mohammed and Jeff Foster are available. Both haven't averaged more than 5 minutes last year.

And don't forget Indiana's huge luck in the draft lottery, that landed them Kentucky star John Wall. Wall has the size and physical tools to become an incredible player, no doubt an All-Star: at least once or twice a game he will make a brilliant play that shows the amount of potential that he has. Not many players at his position have the combination of speed and athleticism that he possesses, and also has an extra gear which allows him to turn the corner or to explode by defenders in the open court; we already saw that in the preseason. Despite that, he is still a very raw player. As a defender, he has the length and lateral quickness to become a stopper, but at this point he is not very dedicated on that end -- Indiana's direction -- but the Pacers couldn't pass on him at 3rd overall.

Talent? Oh, there's talent. Real, legit talent with Granger, Wade, Wall -- and that's just the backcourt -- , to go very further when May comes. This revamped squad has 5 months to know each other at the max, and they could be a really pleasant surprise.

Projected Record: 55-27

[kibaxx7]

I just do real player FT% for free throws. Makes it more realistic. I personally think the recaps are fine as is, though I just now noticed that you had photos. Keep it up.

Yeah, I think I'll go with realistic FT% too. I had a lot of photos, man. Thanks for the reply

I really like the length of the last recaps, it doesn't have to be so long everytime, only when some very interesting game happens. Also, this saves your time a lot (probably).

Thanks man. It does save time, recap-wise, but the website takes some time to do, despite the .ufo file I have (Photoimpact's own psd file). Might stay with the recap length, but drop the website and write it here (something like this one).

Thanks everyone for the feedback and following, believe it or not, I'm at 35 days (close to my record of, I don't know, but 35 days is surely close to the top)

[Azzdogs]

Really looking forward to the start of the season.

[kibaxx7]

TV: Sun Sports, FSI | Time: 7:00 PM
Preview | Recap | Game Info | Full Play-by-Play | Watch Highlights

• Pacers Insider :: The revamped Indiana Pacers are hoping a change in defensive philosophy will help them reach the playoffs for the first time in five seasons when they host the Miami Heat this Thursday night in the season opener for both teams. Improving the defense was a point of emphasis for Indiana in the offseason, and that's why they locked up Wade, defensive specialist Thabo Sefolosha, tough forward Udonis Haslem and glass monster Brendan Haywood, drafted Kentucky's John Wall and West Virginia's Da'Sean Butler, and also organization legend Reggie Miller to be the new head coach. “We enter this season having looked at what we thought was a weakness from the standpoint of the defensive end. We drafted and signed guys that we believe have the capability of helping make that a strength of ours instead of a weakness,” Miller said. Pacers player development coach Thierry Tirieux added that “we are talking about defense for a while here. When you watch all these guys play at a high level, you see what they're really made out of. All of them showed a lot in the preseason.”

• Heat Insider :: 2009-10 was an experimental season for Miami. Wade again had to play the one-man team role, despite sophomores' Mario Chalmers and Michael Beasley improved play. The Heat are loaded with young and barely-tested talent, but make no mistake: despite acquiring Jamal Crawford -- who can play two positions and any tempo, but has questionable shot selection -- and rookie Michael Washington from Atlanta, this team would beg for 30 wins. And the only way that suspicion changes is if at least two of this four guys take a bold step up.

• Key Matchup: Dwyane Wade vs. Jamal Crawford

• X-Factors: Brandon Rush / Michael Beasley

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[kibaxx7]

Really looking forward to the start of the season.

There it is. Season starting tomorrow!

Hope everyone likes the previews. Some of you will tell me to cut some text on them, but I'm really happy with the outcome, practicing my writing skills... I'm open to any criticism / suggestions for it.

Look all Pacers news and inside stories in these prevs

[|)e8*]

I hope you lose the first game. Anyways I predict you will get the 8th seed.

[Lamrock]

I don't like that you have them, but what good does it do criticizing them? They are well-written, look nice and are your specialty. Hopefully you can pull it off a la Mafia.

[Azzdogs]

Wade going up against the Heat. What a perfect way to start the season.

[Fresh8]

I hope you don't try to play every single game...

[Lamrock]

He'll probably try and do full recaps (and previews) for all 1230 games around the league.

[Fresh8]

I hope you don't do that either...

[Martti.]

The previews look great as they always do. You can play every game if you want, but don't to so extensive previews on all of them.

[Clutch]

dude the previews are thorough as usual but this was more than enough,

• Key Matchup: Dwyane Wade vs. Jamal Crawford

to say it's a lock blowout win for Indy

[kibaxx7]

I hope you lose the first game. Anyways I predict you will get the 8th seed.

Wade going up against the Heat. What a perfect way to start the season.

I'm aiming more than 8th seed, but thanks Yeah, huge start against the Heat.

I don't like that you have them, but what good does it do criticizing them? They are well-written, look nice and are your specialty. Hopefully you can pull it off a la Mafia.

I hope you don't try to play every single game...

He'll probably try and do full recaps (and previews) for all 1230 games around the league.

I hope you don't do that either...

Love your advices, Lamrock, really. I tried to do all 1230 with the Wiz, incredibly, the thread was a mess. The idea is play all 82, something I've never done before, but if I see I'm getting bored I'll sim some games, that's not a problem. God helps me to do something like Mafia. I made a test sim yesterday and went 61-21... I want to have fun, I think that's the most important, right? At the same time I practice my writing and some other things.

The previews look great as they always do. You can play every game if you want, but don't to so extensive previews on all of them.

Thanks man. Yeah, I made it extensive this time with a locker room story (Augustin as 6th man), as it is the opener. I'll surely cut it down for coming games with some other news, injuries, that stuff.

dude the previews are thorough as usual but this was more than enough,

• Key Matchup: Dwyane Wade vs. Jamal Crawford

to say it's a lock blowout win for Indy

Lol yeah, I think it's a sure win... but both Wade and Crawford will score surely 25+, it will be a nice duel. If Augustin can get a nice performance too, it's a sure win. Thanks bro!

[kibaxx7]

Preview | Recap | Boxscores (IND :: MIA) | Team Stats | Full Play-by-Play

Dwyane Wade scored 21 points to lead his revamped Indiana Pacers to a 103-99 season-opening victory Thursday night over a Miami Heat team missing both Wade and Udonis Haslem; coincidence, both are in Indy. These are teams that took very different approaches this offseason. The Heat essentially stayed pat, re-signing Jermaine O'Neal, Rafer Alston and Dorell Wright to new contracts, while the Pacers continued an overhaul that began when they traded away Troy Murphy and T.J. Ford away, with 21 million in cap space, signing Wade, Haslem, some others and also drafting John Wall. Wade had plenty of help, with 19 points from Danny Granger and 10 from Brandon Rush. Five Pacers scored in double-figures, led by Wade and Granger, and centers Roy Hibbert and Brendan Haywood with 12 apiece. Haywood missed half of last season with Dallas because of an injury, but he looked fit and aggressive, and finished with 12 boards and 2 blocks in 5/6 shooting.

The Pacers are opening the season without offseason signing Thabo Sefolosha, who is recovering from a left knee tendinitis. When healthy, he is the Pacers' top defender -- after Wade -- . Sefolosha has offered varying estimates for when he might be back this season, and Pacers coach Reggie Miller was vague when asked about his new Pacer's rehabilitation. “There's no timetable, it's a due process. He's on course, and he's disciplined and diligent about it,” Miller said. “We'll just have to see as it goes along.” During a pregame ceremony, Sefolosha was not introduced to the crowd. When play began, he sat on the sideline wearing a sports coat. A row behind Sefolosha was Pacers guard A.J. Price and veteran Jeff Foster, all three in the Pacers inactive list.

Wade -- whose teammates elected him the team' captain, Miller announced before the game -- made a 16-foot fadeaway jumper over Jamal Crawford to put the visitors ahead 25-12 with 1:33 left in the first period; Indiana was in control with a 28-16 score. But the Heat recovered in the second quarter with a 9-0 run, effectively settle a back-and-forth game. Neither team looked quite ready to go in that second quarter, that lacked any rhythm and ended with Indiana leading only 49-44. In the third quarter, the Pacers went on 10-0 run, and were leading by 16 points, with half the points scored by Granger -- the team's 2nd captain -- to take a 78-62 lead with 4:14 left. But Miami's Michael Beasley scored the last six points of the third quarter in a 8-0 run to give Indiana a 8-point edge heading to the fourth (78-70). The Heat's last lead was 92-91 with 5:13 left, but Indiana ended the game on a 12-7 run.

Crawford led Miami with 19 points, four boards and five assists, while Beasley added 16. Both O'Neal and Michael Washington scored double-doubles for the Heat: 15/13 by the former Pacer, 18/11 by the rookie from Arkansas. The Pacers returned only five players from last season's opening-night roster: Granger, Hibbert, Rush, Foster and Tyler Hansbrough, the fewest number of holdovers in franchise history. “We're not going to be a finished product now,” Pacers development coach Thierry Tirieux said. “This is going to be an evolving thing: clean up and improve, and continue to put in things whenever the group is ready for it. We know all predictions put us as playoff contenders, but we are nowhere near that yet.” Still, on this night, it was enough.




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[Clutch]

quality recap man

hmm, just kinda sucks (for Wall that is) that you have Wall, Granger AND Wade; I know it made sense and all, but would've been interesting to see just Wall & Granger as the future stars so Wall could have more of an impact and become the face of the franchise; 3rd option that he is, he realistically shouldn't/won't be in the running for RotY come the end of the season

anyway, FLASH's team now. So says Reggie

[Lamrock]

I agree with that, Part of it is because I hate Wade, but it also just makes it less interesting. Besides the fact that Wade would never sign in a place as shitty as Indiana, it just makes your team too powerful.

Nice recap though. I'm having a hard time finding motivation for big recaps for mine. May go The X route...

[kibaxx7]

hmm, just kinda sucks (for Wall that is) that you have Wall, Granger AND Wade; I know it made sense and all, but would've been interesting to see just Wall & Granger as the future stars so Wall could have more of an impact and become the face of the franchise; 3rd option that he is, he realistically shouldn't/won't be in the running for RotY come the end of the season

Yeah, I know. Would be great if he goes for the ROY award, but with Wade and Granger leading, wouldn't be realistic, as you said. So, I'm gonna wait until 82 games are over.

I agree with that, Part of it is because I hate Wade, but it also just makes it less interesting. Besides the fact that Wade would never sign in a place as shitty as Indiana, it just makes your team too powerful.

Nice recap though. I'm having a hard time finding motivation for big recaps for mine. May go The X route...

Wade is one of my favs, so couldn't back off when he was available. I love big recaps despite it takes more time. Miami was harder than I thought, twice I had a 16-point lead cut to 3, and then me trailing by 2.

Note: Chopped the 1st game preview a little -- for a future Augustin article -- , added the recap link, and a really short Heat background preview. If you check the 1st page, I added the Video Vault section (with videos from the last 5 games) and there's also the calendar from Season 1, in case anyone didn't see it before.

[Azzdogs]

The game recap is awesome. The detail is extradonary and the video is just crazy.

[kibaxx7]

TV: FSI, CSN | Time: 8:00 PM
Preview | Recap | Game Info | Full Play-by-Play | Watch Highlights

• Wizards Insider :: Communication it’s a simple thing that most people are too stubborn to do. It’s the reason relationships and understandings break down every day. And it’s the reason the Wizards lost against New Jersey yesterday: they didn’t communicate on the last play of the game. This season's team -- without Antawn Jamison, Caron Butler and many others -- is nothing like last season’s team. They had defensive intensity and rebounding; the strong assets of that team. Despite this revamped team, they were up 26-16 after the first period. The Nets settled down after a frustrating first 15 minutes, trailing 32-21, but after a timeout they went from giving up wide-open threes to forcing the Wizards to beat them inside. The result? A 68-62 lead after three quarters, despite Devin Harris' 1/10 from beyond the arc and Courtney Lee and Quentin Richardson combining for 8/22 from the field. In the last play, with 10.6 remaining and New Jersey up by 2, Andray Blatche inbounded for Matt Barnes, who saw Gilbert Arenas on the right side of the court for a 3-pointer but didn't see Keyon Dooling; the point guard from Missouri stole the ball and let the time fly for a 89-87 win. Harris led the Nets with 22 points, and Lee and Richardson had 14 apiece. Arenas had 26, 9 rebounds and seven assists for the Wiz, and Troy Murphy added 13 and 8 boards staying perfect from the field -- 4/4 shooting, 3/3 from 3-point land, 2/2 from the charity stripe.

To make things worse, Nick Young suffered a twisted ankle in the last period and didn't return, and is listed day-to-day. It's still uncertain if he will play tonight.

• Pacers Insider :: Reggie Miller has coached the Indiana Pacers for only 7 games -- 6 of them, preseason contests -- , but in all that time, he says he's never seen his team play a better quarter than it did in the first period yesterday afternoon against Miami. He'll receive few arguments from the Heat -- not after the Pacers needed a little more than three minutes to have a 10-0 run and build a commanding 16-point lead. But after that, Indiana hung on down the stretch to leave Florida with a 103-99 win after seeing that 16-point lead turn into a 2-point deficit, twice. “I'm quite sure a lot of people picked us to lose after being trailing after such a big lead, but we picked us to win,” Pacers point guard John Wall said. “That's all that matters.” It also mattered that backup center Brendan Haywood played almost the entire second half as starter Roy Hibbert sat out most of it because of foul trouble. As the team walked into its locker room at halftime, Wall took Haywood aside and said, “Take over and dominate.” Haywood responded to the challenge as he scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half, and collected 9 of his 12 rebounds to fuel the Indiana 16-point lead once again. “We were getting what we deserved,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said afterward. “I love our team on paper. But one of the guys at halftime said, 'We're better than Indy'. 'No, you're not', I said. They had a 16-point lead on us, two times, despite they relaxed and let us come back. 'They're better. Indiana's better than us right now with that squad.'”

In other news, Wall “will look to step up after a disappointing performance”, in his own words, against Miami; Pacers swingman Thabo Sefolosha is still inactive and has no timetable for his return, after he suffered a left knee tendinitis in a team practice before Indiana's preseason opener at Denver; and rumors fly over Conseco Fieldhouse after an article from The Oregonian suggested that “Rudy Fernandez might be in his way out to Indianapolis. The Pacers would send Gerald Henderson to Portland in exchange for the Spaniard and the Blazers' 2011 first round pick.”

• Key Matchup: Gilbert Arenas vs. John Wall

• X-Factors: Josh Howard / Roy Hibbert

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[|)e8*]

Nice win! Would you mind posting the Final Score next time?

[cavs4872]

Pretty cool seeing Wade visit his former team to open up the season. Nice double-double from Haywood coming off of the bench, and solid win. I really like the video too.