Hornets and Pacers

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

The Pacers play at the Hornets tonight. They happen to be our next
two opponents so hopefully they thoroughly beat each other up in an
epic triple overtime. 

Since we'll be playing the Hornets as their second game in a row and
third game in four nights, I'd expect to see the press come into play
again, though the Hornets look like they have the tools to break it
with multiple ballhandlers on the floor at any time. Their second
unit isn't particularly strong though so I'd expect the same strategy
that succeeded against Washington, pushing the tempo to tire out their
starters and then exploiting their second unit with the pressing unit.
Probably they will try to deny Eddie Jones the ball also like they did
with Carter, though Charlotte has many more weapons than Toronto did.
Phills has been getting to the line a ton too; can Griffin stop him?

Winning this game, or at least playing it close until the end, would
be a huge confidence booster for the Celtics since Charlotte is 
supposedly the best in the East this year. It would go a long way 
towards regaining that home-court edge because the crowd would start
believing in the team also.

The Pacers are one of the few teams in the NBA that can match the
Celtics depth and it seems from the Pacers' first game that Reggie
Miller is benefitting from the new rules, shooting a ludicrous 21
free throws. They'll have the benefit of an extra day's rest and
preparation, as well as the crowd support of a home opener. Still,
the Celtics have played them close over the past few years and I
believe that this is the year that the Celtics beat Indiana, 
especially once Fortson returns. The Pacers are not a particularly
good rebounding team and NY showed that you can run on them 
effectively. But beating the Pacers in the opener of their new
home is going to be a tall order.

Alex