Danny Granger called it "the perfect miss," and as strange as that may sound, he was right.

Without that tortuous full revolution of the rim, without the spin around, in and out, the ball wouldn't have been exactly where Mike Dunleavy needed it to be when he reached up with his left hand and tipped in the most thrilling shot of the year, delivering a 94-93 victory over New Orleans in front of a frenzied crowd Monday in Conseco Fieldhouse.

"It was the perfect miss, you know?" said Granger with a big grin. "Mike ran in and got his hand on it. A great win for us. We needed that. I thought it was down, but I missed it perfectly."

As will often happen in the NBA, an otherwise sluggish game got really interesting down the stretch with the teams trading the lead eight times in the final 4½ minutes. That the buzzer sounded immediately after Dunleavy's tip was fortunate because had there been any time left on the clock, the way things were going, the Hornets might've found a way to win.

"We just tried to get Danny a look at the end and my guy kind of helped out on him, so I took off for the basket and was hoping if he missed to tip it in and that's what happened," said Dunleavy. "From my standpoint, for 47 minutes and 59 seconds I played terrible but I kind of made it up at the end for my teammates."

Several heroes for Pacers

Dunleavy was the ultimate hero this night but the glory was widely distributed.

Start with Darren Collison and James Posey, who combined for 33 points and 13-of-18 shooting (.722) in their first regular-season game against their former team. Collison gave the Pacers a big lift in the fourth quarter with eight points and a couple of assists before limping out with what proved to be a minor ankle sprain.

"There was a little revenge there," said Collison. "I wanted to play well against my former team. I wanted to beat my former team. … I'm glad James Posey did his thing, too. He's a heck of a player in this league."

Posey hit five 3-pointers, the last of which answered a three-point play from fellow Xavier product David West and put the Pacers ahead 92-91 with 16 seconds left, prompting the crossed-arms X gesture from the usually reserved veteran.

Continue on to Jeff Foster, the second-oldest (to Posey, by three days) player on the roster, who in his second start had 11 rebounds and tied his career high with four blocked shots.

"Mike came swooping in with the tip, the most athletic play he's made all year, and a great Christmas present for the Indiana Pacers," Foster said.

O'Brien intends to make use of holiday break

The Pacers will have six days between games, with their next outing not until Sunday at home against Memphis, but it won't exactly be a holiday break for the players and coaches.

O'Brien plans to make good use of the time. The Pacers will practice Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, so they'll have two days off.

"This is a good time for us to get better at certain things, polish some things, maybe tweak some sets, put in a couple of new sets," he said. "It gives you a chance to rest up some bruises you have but also get better as a basketball team. We'll be a better basketball team as a result of this period of time."

Might it be characterized as a mini-training camp?

"I hate to be a Scrooge, but I'd love to go double sessions," O'Brien said with a smile. "But I'm not allowed."