Pacers Win Third Straight, Blast Trail Blazers 100-87

With Jim O’Brien no longer the coach of the Indiana Pacers, the team obviously has had to get acclimated to the coaching style of interim coach Frank Vogel.

Since Vogel has taken over, the Pacers have gone 2-0 and have been especially aggresive on the boards, soemthing that was almost non-existent when O’Brien was the coach. Suffice it to say, Indiana has as a coach someone who is no-nonsense in his approach – and so far, it has worked.

Nevertheless, the Pacers hosted the Portland Trail Blazers at Conseco Fieldhouse Friday night; they domijnated for three quarters and coasted to a relatively easy 100-87 over Portland.

The Pacers shot 56 percent in the first quarter and would take a 32-25 lead going into the second; they would waste a 13-point lead in the second quarter, but would recover nicely, shooting 53 percent and taking a 60-54 lead to their locker room at the intermission.

Indiana would get hot starting the third quarter; a 3-pointer by Mike Dunleavy pushed their lead to 11, and a layup by Josh McRoberts gave the Pacers a 67-56 lead and caused the Trail Blazers to call a timeout.

The Pacers regained their 13-point lead on a flip in the lane by McRoberts; Paul George weak-kneed Rudy Fernandez with a crossover dribble and converting the layup, giving Indiana an 86-72 lead entering the final period. Danny Granger scored 11 in the quarter.

A putback by Roy Hibbert stretched the Pacers’ lead to 93-73 with about nine minutes left to go in the game; they would reach 100 points on a pair of free throws by Darren Collison with just over three minutes remaining and would coast the rest of the way.

Granger led the Pacers with 25 points, along with 9 rebounds, an assist and a steal while Hibbert chipped in 15 with 6 rebounds and a block. Tyler Hansbrough came off the bench to add 13 with 8 rebounds and a block.

The Trail Blazers were led by Fernandez from off the bench with 19 points, along with 3 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and a block while Andre Miller, Nicolas Batum and LaMarcus Aldridge each added 14 – with Miller grabbing 4 rebounds, dishing out 3 assists, along with a steal and a block while Batum grabbed 4 boards, dished out 2 assists, along with a steal and a block. Aldridge grabbed 10 caroms, dished out an assist, along with 4 blocks.

Indiana (20-27) plays again on Sunday afternoon when they travel to Newark to take on the New Jersey Nets while Portland (26-24) makes the short flight to Cleveland to face the Cavaliers on Saturday night.

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