The Brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills on that fateful night of Nov. 20, 2004, was a blow to the Pacers' franchise. But gems can be discovered even amid rubble, and James Jones was one of them. Jones is a 10th-year NBA veteran now taking a seat at the end of Miami's bench, but his career was in many ways launched by the brawl. A second-round draft pick (49th overall) by the Pacers in 2003, he had played in ...

Rest is one thing. Rust is another. The Pacers' best ally for stealing a game in Miami during the Eastern Conference finals series that begins on Wednesday might be the schedule. The Heat have had a seven-day break, while the Pacers' win over New York on Saturday allowed them to take one day off and then have two days of preparation. “It's good,” Paul George said of the Pacers' schedule. “Going into this ne ...

Game 1 in Madison Square Garden was a disaster for Sam Young, whose stat line looked like something out of a Jayvee game: no points, three turnovers, a foul and two rebounds in 5 minutes, 47 seconds. Pacers fans nearly set Twitter on fire after that game, calling for him to be benched for the remainder of the Pacers' playoff series with New York. Or, perhaps, thrown in jail. Pacers coach Frank Vogel wasn't ...

A rare opportunity awaits the Pacers when they play New York at Bankers Life Fieldhouse Saturday night – an opportunity their fans have witnessed just twice in the 37 seasons they've been playing in the NBA. The only times the Pacers have closed out a series with a homecourt victory after the opening round of the playoffs occurred in 1998, when they eliminated New York in Game 5 of the second round, and in ...

NEW YORK – George Hill missed Game 5 of the Pacers' playoff series with New York on Thursday with a concussion suffered in Game 4 on Tuesday. Hill was ruled out about 4 p.m. after an undergoing an examination. He had participated in the team's shootaround that morning after taking a pain reliever upon reaching the court at Madison Square Garden. Hill's status for Game 6 on Saturday, if necessary, is uncerta ...

The mission of the Pacers' front office over the summer was to improve the bench. And while there were times during the season their success could be questioned, the playoffs have offered positive proof. There's no need for Donnie Walsh or Kevin Pritchard to defend themselves. The numbers make the case for them. In the six games of last season's second-round series with Miami, the Pacers' reserves combined ...

It's not a subject anyone wants to discuss in too much detail with playoff games still to play, but it looms on the horizon. David West, the Pacers' acknowledged locker room leader and vital power forward, becomes a free agent at the end of the season. Without question, losing the 32-year-old guru would be a blow to a team that appears to have such a promising future. Pacers' management officials want to ke ...

There's no mistaking Donnie Walsh's loyalties when the Pacers and New York reunite for their second-round playoff series. He's worked for the Pacers all but three years of his career as an NBA general manager and team president, and works for them now. But he can't help but feel some pride in the Knicks as well. In fact, it would be understandable if he occasionally let slip a “we” or “us” when referring to ...

The Jim O'Brien coaching era won't go down as a highlight of the Pacers' NBA history. Given the task of rebuilding a team broken up by Ron Artest's trade demand and off-court issues, his teams finished 36-46, 36-46, 32-50 and 17-27 before Frank Vogel replaced him at mid-season. O'Brien – whose retirement from coaching was announced Friday in Dallas, where he had been an assistant coach – will forever be the ...

Your name is Paul George. You are 23 years old. You are in the third season of your NBA career. You were just voted the league's Most Improved Player. You are averaging 21.6 points and 10 rebounds in your team's playoff series with Atlanta. You are paid $2.5 million for your work. So, when someone makes a crack about the ice bags strapped to your knees and thighs following the Pacers' shoot-around on Friday ...