Indy took our 10 point road win, spit on it, rubbed it out with their boot, and shoved an 11 pointer in our eye.  Despite shooting an absurd percentage from the field in the first half, our hometown boys took a mere 3 point lead into the break.  While our offense couldn't sustain that sort of production, the defense sure did their best to let the Pacers score as much as possible.

Allen Iverson played 34 minutes, Louis Williams played 28.  But poor little Jrue Holiday only got 16 minutes on the court.  But he's a starter! Shut up, Meg.  Louverson's (Yep) deficiencies extend further than letting his/their man/men score.  A perfect example of this was towards the end of the game when the Pacers already had a 4 point lead, but Iverson was still in.  He's guarding Earl Watson, not known for any sort of offensive prowess, but E-Dub beats him to his left towards the basket.  This drew the double team from Thaddeus Young, who perhaps overcommitted, prompting the right pass to Thad's wide open man: Brandon Rush, who nailed the wide-open three and put the game out of reach.

Again and again, we shouldn't have signed Iverson.  But even if we accept that, there's still no excuse for him to be averaging 32 minutes per game at age 34 on a bad (bad) team with the PGOTF (point guard of the future) on the bench (but he's starting!).  There's even less of an excuse for him to be in at the end of games when we need defensive stops.  I hate to say it again and again, but that's the coach.  Jrue averaging 15 minutes per game this month is on the coach.  Despite the nudge by upper management to start him and Brand, he hasn't changed, this team hasn't turned any sort of metaphorical corner, and we are not destined to be anything other than mediocre for the next three years.

And now for your Run-On Stat Sentence Ramble of the Night:  Andre played good, Elton and Sam were okay, Thad was pretty bad, Lou was better than average, we shot well from beyond, we still haven't figured out how to properly double team, no one's happy with the rotations STILL, how the hell did Dahntay Jones score 17 off the bench without a three, Speights barely played, why are Ivey and Smith on the roster instead of cheaper, younger D-Leaguers, and our free throw shooting is far too inconsistent. Whew.

15-29, and if we go .500 the rest of the way (a stretch considering how we've played so far), we finish 34-48.  My patience for the same mistakes with no sort of important improvements (young development, better rotations, somebody being fired) has almost completely drained.  Happy Tuesday folks.