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More Injuries, More Adjustments for Pacers

Next man up, sure.

But what happens when you're running out of players to call up?

The Pacers were down to nine healthy bodies by the end of their 106-83 loss to Phoenix on Saturday, forced to play another team's game in their own building. Roy Hibbert went down in the first quarter with a sprained ankle and Rodney Stuckey went down with a sprained wrist in the fourth, leaving them shorthanded and a step slow against a team that would rather run that fight.

It might not be the best time for them to head out for games at Dallas (which scores more points than any team in the NBA) and San Antonio (which allows fewer points than any team in the NBA) but that's their fate, and they've grown accustomed to making do under difficult circumstances.

“We still feel good,” Solomon Hill said after the Pacers dropped to 5-8. “I don't feel we're going to lose confidence just because of a game like this. We just have to keep rebounding, bouncing back from games like this.”

The Pacers bounced back from a 1-6 start to win four of their next five, and bounced back from a 21-point loss to Denver last week with wins at Chicago and over Charlotte, so they've proven they can rebound. But now they might have to rebound, briefly at least, without their leading rebounder (and scorer and shot-blocker).

They were trailing 11-10 when Hibbert jumped to defend a driving shot by Suns' point guard Eric Bledsoe, was called for a foul, and landed awkwardly. He got up, limped around for awhile, and was replaced by Ian Mahinmi. He made a brief visit to the locker room, then returned to the bench, and then returned to the game with 9:23 left in the second quarter, but only lasted til 7:49. By then the Pacers were down nine points, seconds away from being down 12, and treading water in a rushing river.

Stuckey had to leave midway through the fourth quarter when he tried to defend a fastbreak layup by P.J. Tucker and crashed into a baseline photographer. The result was a sprained his left wrist. He and Hibbert are both questionable for Monday's game at Dallas, according to coach Frank Vogel, and neither were available in the locker room afterward.

Hibbert's injury removed the Pacers' best weapon against the Suns, who want to engage teams in your basic Western Conference rat race.

“Everything we do is based around Big Dog being in the middle,” Donald Sloan said. “Once he goes out, it's a big blow.”

“When we lose Roy, we lose our trump card,” Hill added. “Now we're trying to play a fast-paced game … and when we have to change what we do, we're playing into the other team's hands.”

Gerald Green's hands, for example. A Pacers player two seasons ago, Green scored 23 points in 22 minutes, hitting 5-of-9 three-pointers. He scored 12 of his points in the first quarter, in just 4 minutes and 5 seconds. It's tempting to say he enjoyed dumping I-told-you-so's on his former teammates, but he was playing against just two of his former teammates. Hibbert and Ian Mahinmi. And Hibbert wasn't there for long.

It's accurate to say, however, Green was enjoying his work. He gestured to the crowd after hitting shots, and joked with mildly heckling fans after returning to the Suns' bench.

Green is averaging 14.2 points this season, after averaging 15.8 last season. That's in sharp contrast to two seasons ago, when he averaged just 7 points on 36 percent shooting in his only season with the Pacers two years ago. He was traded to the Suns along with Miles Plumlee for Luis Scola the following summer, and has been a new man ever since.

“That's the way I've been playing since I got traded,” Green said. “I play now. I never played when I was here.”

Meaning he didn't play a lot of minutes, which can happen when a guy shoots as poorly as Green did, and struggles to fit into a team defensive concept. Green said last year his trade motivated him to step up his off-season work ethic, realizing that being traded from a team good enough to reach the Eastern Conference finals didn't look good on his resume. He doesn't find motivation playing against the Pacers – after all, he's also a former Celtic, Timberwolf, Rocket, Maverick and Net, not to mention two seasons in exile while playing in Russia – he just finds joy playing the Suns' style of basketball, which allows him to exploit his athleticism.

“I have something to prove every night,” he said. “Not just against the Pacers. I'm motivated by everybody, man. I was out of the league for two years.

“(Coach Jeff Hornacek) is great. Jeff lets me go. Let's me go. He takes me out of that bird cage.”

Sloan, who knows what it's like to be let go by a team, didn't believe Green had no added motivation for the Pacers, though.

“Of course,” he said. “Anytime you get a guy with his abilities, who gets traded or waived, or wasn't playing, whenever they come back, you best believe they're going to do everything in their power to show you what you're missing out on,” Sloan said. “I don't blame him. I take it as the same thing when we play Atlanta or Cleveland (his former teams). Going into those games, I'm thinking, I'm going to show you. He has the same mindset.”

The Suns were on the fifth game of a six-game Eastern road trip, but had a virtual exhibition game in their 26-point win at Philadelphia on Friday. They were as well-rested as a team can be at the end of a road trip, and therefore able to take advantage of their superior quickness.

Before the game, Vogel had praised Hibbert for holding together a Pacers defense that allowed fewer points than all but three other NBA teams. Hibbert's absence supported Vogel's claim. Without him, they had no size advantage to make up for being a step slow. The Pacers allowed a season-high 23 fastbreak points and were outrebounded for just the third time this season. Combine that with a season-low shooting percentage (36.9) and the outcome was inevitable.

“They're a rhythm team,” Hill said of the Suns. “They have pure athletes out there at all times and they play with a supreme confidence. They're almost second to none when they have their fastbreak attack.”

The Pacers face similar Western Conference teams next week in Dallas and San Antonio. They'll likely have C.J. Miles back in Dallas, and David West could be back in San Antonio, but they have rust to knock off. The Pacers will remain in the mode of trying to stay within reach of the playoffs, and developing their reserves.

All of them, the way things are going.

Free agent rookie Shayne Whittington, for example, got to play 6 minutes, 45 seconds in this game, and played well once again. He hit all three shots, grabbed a couple of rebounds, passed out an assist, had two steals, and didn't commit a turnover. Someday, they hope, all of this experience for the young players will pay off with better depth when the injured regulars return.

“Next man up,” Hill said. “That's the motto this year. Another guy has an opportunity to … I wouldn't say shine, but show he wants to be a part of the rotation.”

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