One win, won loss, one unforgettable experience
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Equal parts exhilarated and exhausted, the Pacers returned home late Sunday night from their historic trip to the Far East.
The box scores showed a win and a loss but the bottom line reflected something altogether more meaningful.
"It was a growing experience," said Roy Hibbert. "We walked The Great Wall together, we went down the slide together, we had dinner together. We had all-around fun.
"I don't think I've ever been on a team where we spent so much time together and we genuinely liked being around one another. I think that will help us down the line this season."
The Pacers routed the Nuggets 126-104 Thursday in the first NBA game ever in Taipei but Denver got payback Sunday in Beijing, riding Carmelo Anthony's 45 point-outburst to a 128-112 victory.
"It was good getting a couple of games on film," said Coach Jim O'Brien. "It was a diagnostic experience from the standpoint of helping us understand what we have to work on offensively and defensively. It was a good cultural experience for the team."
Hibbert's play was the biggest individual bright spot for the Pacers. The young center racked up 41 points on 14-of-24 (.583) shooting, 20 rebounds and 12 blocked shots in two games. He also played 60 minutes and committed just six fouls.
"I'm working on trying to stay in the game as much as possible," Hibbert said. "I'm happy to say I stayed in the game long enough to get some film because most of the time I foul out or I get a couple of fouls and I'm on the bench."
Danny Granger was ejected early in the second quarter in Beijing, picking up two of the Pacers' four technical fouls. The Pacers led 48-41 at the time but were outscored 44-22 over the next minutes, with Anthony scoring 26 of Denver's points.
After holding the Nuggets to .378 shooting and producing 16 steals and 11 blocks in the first game, the Pacers yielded .465 shooting and had seven steals and eight blocks in the second.
"We won one, lost one, showed what we needed to do to win and then Denver responded and gave it back to us in the second game," Granger said. "We need to develop a sense of consistency on the defensive end. In the first game we had a great defensive effort and kind of relaxed in the second game.
"It was a good trip, it was good how the team got to be around each other a lot in kind of a different environment, so it built some camaraderie."
