Celtics vs. Pacers Preview: The Roy Hibbert Scouting Trip (Maybe)
The Boston Celtics head to coach Brad Stevens’ home town of Indianapolis in search of a first: Stevens’ first win in Indianapolis as an NBA coach, to be specific.
While in town, they really should pay attention to Pacers’ center Roy Hibbert, one of the players I desperately wish Danny Ainge would try and make a play for during the upcoming offseason.
Celtics Vs. Pacers Preview: Boston’s Future Big Man?
It may be a shot in the dark, certainly, since the Indiana Pacers would have been a favorite to win the Eastern Conference Finals this year had Paul George not suffered his horrific injury during a Team USA scrimmage as the team tuned up for the FIBA World Cup. With George expected back to start the 2015-2016, there is no reason to think that Indiana will be anything less than a powerhouse in the East, so the odds of Larry Bird shipping Hibbert out of town are slim.
Live Feed
Sir Charles In Charge
That doesn’t mean that Danny Ainge should not assemble a package in an attempt to win over Larry Legend. While Hibbert’s scoring (11.3 PPG) and rebounding (6.7 RPG) are not head-and-shoulders above the contributions that the Celtics get from Tyler Zeller (9.8 PPG and 5.3 RPG), his impact on the defensive end cannot be understated: Hibbert averages 1.8 blocks per game, and limits shooters within five feet of him to 47.8% shooting – tops in the NBA.
(How would you like to be the intern in charge of tracking THAT statistic?!?)
Enjoy these highlights from Hibbert’s 7 block performance against the 76ers earlier this season.
Hibbert is listed as questionable for tonight’s game, which is good news and bad news for the Celtics: good news in that the players will find it much easier to score down low, and bad news because a sitting Roy Hibbert cannot exactly be scouted, now can he?
Brad Stevens Looking For First Win Back Home
Meanwhile, coach Brad Stevens would like to see his team begin to put together a nice little winning streak following its come-from-behind 89-81 victory in Brooklyn Wednesday night. Since the Pacers are banged up and could be without its starting backcourt of Rodney Stuckey (groin) and George Hill (groin), and the afore-mention Hibbert (ankle), this is as winnable a game as this iteration of the Boston Celtics is likely to see this season.
Stevens and his coaching staff seem content to allow Evan Turner to start at point guard, bringing rookie Marcus Smart off the bench. That’s fine, I suppose – but for the life of me I still can’t figure out what the Celtics are doing with James Young. One game after scoring a career-high 13 points against the Charlotte Hornets, Young was inactive against the Nets, and appears to be headed for the same fate tonight:
Jameer Nelson and James Young will remain on the inactive list for tonight's #celtics game vs. #pacers
— gary washburn (@GwashburnGlobe) January 9, 2015
I suppose if Boston goes on a tear and makes the playoffs, we’ll applaud this decision. And when a bag of money falls out of the sky on my front lawn, I guess I’ll appreciate all of the terrible spending decisions I made in my life!
The game tips off at 7 p.m. Good news for those of you with a night life: you’ll be out and about by 10 p.m.! Follow us @houdiniceltics and let’s see if the Cs can put together a little winning streak here in 2015!