The secret to Danny Granger's recent success just might've been that elbow to the face in the final minute of the Charlotte game on March 16. Granger missed the next outing, a five-point loss in Cleveland and ever since he returned has been ablaze.
In the six games since bonk to the noggin, Granger has averaged 31.0 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.83 steals, shooting .529 from the field and .452 from the 3-point line. This, of course, includes his career-high 44-point outing against Utah Friday.
"Everybody keeps telling me that," said Granger. "Maybe something got knocked right in my head that was wrong before. For the most part since I got that blow to the head, spent the night in the hospital and then I get hot. I don't know. I can't figure it out."
In his 10 previous games, Granger had averaged 23.7 points on .425 shooting.
Of course, no one's actually recommending violence as the answer, next time Granger falls into a shooting slump.
Are they?
Official elimination doesn't change team's plans
In case you missed it, the Pacers officially were eliminated from the playoffs with their 94-84 loss in Atlanta on Sunday.
This does not exactly rate as seismic news and will have little or no effect on how the team goes about its business for the final eight games of the season.
"We've been out of the playoffs for a long time," said Coach Jim O'Brien. "We haven't talked to our guys about the playoffs for a month. In my mind we were eliminated a long time ago.
"We weren't playing well the last couple of weeks because we thought we were going to make the playoffs. We were playing well the last couple of weeks because we played with pride. I had no idea until I read the paper there was even an issue about getting eliminated."
O'Brien already had shifted to a younger rotation, with Josh McRoberts and A.J. Price getting regular minutes off the bench. Considering Brandon Rush and Roy Hibbert have started all year and Solomon Jones has picked up some time of late, the Pacers have actually experienced a rare double – winning six of their last eight while leaning heavily on their young core.
"We're still playing like we have something to prove," said Hibbert. "Unfortunately, we lost yesterday but we're still playing with a lot of heart. …
"We have nothing to lose. We might as well just go out there and play hard."
Fast breaks …
When Bill Ingram of Hoopsworld.com took stock of the Pacers' season, he wasn't nearly as critical as others locally.
Ingram considers the three-year rebuilding plan to be "more or less on schedule," points out the development of Roy Hibbert and Brandon Rush and considers the franchise's positioning for the free agent market of 2011.
His conclusion? "Keep the faith, Pacers fans," Ingram writes. "There are good times ahead, even if you have to take some lumps along the way."
Ian Thomsen of SI.com wrote a lengthy piece on Granger's background that is both engaging and revealing.
Granger, for example, tells the story of taking a bullet in the leg when he was in the wrong place at the wrong time during his youth, as well as the tales of relatives that were victimized by violence, as a backdrop to the strong relationship with his father that helped him get through those tough times.
He also talks about his college career and the decision to focus more seriously on basketball by transferring from Bradley to New Mexico – a decision his father opposed, as well as surprising his father by getting married over the All-Star Weekend in Phoenix last season.
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