Pacers Preview: Indiana Needs to Go Small to Improve Offense

What could be worse for a struggling team than playing the San Antonio Spurs?

How about an angry, motivated San Antonio Spurs team.

That will be the task facing the Indiana Pacers on Friday night, as they "welcome" the Spurs to town. Yes, it will be another homecoming for George Hill, the standout guard from IUPUI which is just a few blocks from Conseco Fieldhouse.

While it will be nice to see him again, it could be a disaster for this Pacers team that has been struggling for the better part of the last month.

The Spurs have had two rough games this week, starting with a visit to the Garden in New York. The Spurs gave up 128 points to the Knicks, and suffered a fairly tough loss on the road. They then took to Boston, where they played in one of the best games in the league so far this year, only to lose that one at the buzzer.

Manu Ginobili had the ball with his team trailing by just two points with under five seconds to play, but chose to try to win it with a three pointer instead of taking it to the rim. They wanted no part of overtime in that game.

Rajon Rondo was everywhere in that game, shredding the Spurs defense as he tallied 22 assists on his way to another triple double. He also had six steals, flirting with a quadruple double.

That lack of defense by the Spurs is exactly what Indiana would like to see on Friday night. The Pacers have had one of the worst offenses in the league this year and everyone is to blame. Nobody has been shooting the ball well at all, and they are getting virtually nothing from the big men on the offensive end.

That was one of the reasons why coach Jim O'Brien went with a smaller lineup against the Knicks last weekend. A lot of it had to do with match-ups, but some of it was also due to the lack of offense they were getting from Hansbrough, McRoberts and Jones.

If they want to put a spark into their offense, this is the way to go in my opinion. When you put Granger at the PF spot, there is room for the other wing players (the strength of the team) to get on the floor and produce. Guys like Dunleavy, Paul George, Posey, and Rush can now be on the floor with Granger and Collison.

Obviously, Granger won't be able to guard some PFs around the league, but how many of them can actually guard him? They aren't going to rely on one-on-one match ups on defense, they are better when playing help defense.

It will be interesting to see what lineup O'Brien brings on Friday night. Granger might have trouble guarding Blair, but don't you think Blair will have more trouble trying to guard Danny? This is all assuming that Duncan and Hibbert will be matched up. I think he should at least try to go with the small lineup against the Spurs and maybe try to push the tempo more.

This Spurs team could be tired, after the two grueling games they have already played this week. The Pacers haven't played since Sunday afternoon, so they should be fresh, especially the younger guys like Paul George, Rush and Collison.

If things don't work out with the small lineup, you can always revert back to putting in McRoberts or Hansbrough. With these next couple of games though, you can at least experiment and decide which lineup works best for you for the remainder of the season. The Knicks were a great team to use this lineup on.

The Spurs will be a good test to see if it works or not. After that though, the Pacers will head to Atlanta, where the small lineup could be the perfect fit. Josh Smith is more of an athletic PF than the traditional guy like Gasol/Duncan. Granger would be the perfect option to play at PF for that game.

I hope O'Brien makes the right call and goes with the small lineup on Saturday.

Granger also proved that he could rebound at the position, as he grabbed a career high 17 rebounds in New York. When he isn't guarding perimeter players outside, he can stay near the paint and fight for the boards. The lack of rebounds and points from the guys at the PF spot have really inspired O'Brien to go with this lineup in my opinion. I think it will pay off, for the rest of the season anyway, until they can sign a PF this coming offseason.

As far as the next two games go, I think the match ups might favor Indiana more if they go with the smaller lineup. Looking at the Spurs, you could see Rush on George Ginobili and Hill, Paul George or Mike Dunleavy on Richard Jefferson, and Granger on Blair, which could really help the Pacers on offense.

If they decide to take Blair out, their other option would be Matt Bonner, but that would probably be considered a downgrade from Blair.

As for the game in Atlanta, this could work out very well. If Rush is okay on Joe Johnson, Paul George could be on Marvin Williams (two tall/lean, lengthy guys) while Granger and Josh Smith went at it. They could move Horford at the PF spot and fill in the spot at Center, but even if Granger struggled on defense, he would have an advantage on offense. Horford isn't a true center anyway.

Side note, he is the guy I think the Pacers should go after this offseason. Having him at the PF spot on this team would be a huge lift for the future.

I'm not saying this small lineup is going to work every time against every team, but it really works well on a lot of teams, and could really help this struggling offense. Granger's versatility and the depth of the wing players on this team is something they are going to have to focus and rely upon for the next few months if they want to grab a playoff spot.