Player of the Game
DANNY GRANGER
Who else? He scored 25 of his 33 in the second half, finishing with five rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Plus-Minus
Name Game Season
Dunleavy -9 -80
Ford DNP -173
Foster DNP -9
Granger +9 -35
Hansbrough DNP -56
Head DNP +1
Hibbert +11 +21
D. Jones DNP -251
S. Jones -1 -141
McRoberts -12 -71
Murphy +16 -278
Price 0 +13
Rush +16 -193
Watson +5 -128
Noteworthy
  • The Pacers went 8-8 in March, their first .500 month since going 7-7 last March. In three seasons under Jim O'Brien, they're 23-22 in March.
  • Indiana finishes the month of March 6-0 at home and that is its first undefeated month at home since April 2004 when they went 4-0 at Conseco Fieldhouse.
  • After shooting 16-43 FGS (.372) in the first half, the Pacers connected on 23-40 FGS (.575) in the second half, including 12-18 (.667) in the fourth quarter.
  • The Kings outrebounded Indiana, 49-35. The Pacers have been held to less than 40 rebounds in five of the last eight games.
  • The Pacers hit 12 3-pt FGS, their sixth with double-digit 3-pt FGS in the last eight games. Indiana shot 7-13 from 3-pt range in the second half.
  • With 12th double-double tonight, Tyreke Evans tied Darren Collison for second in the NBA among rookies.
  • Troy Murphy is now tied for eighth in the NBA with his 35th double-double tonight on 19 points and 13 rebounds.
    • Hustle Board
    Points in the paint:
    Pacers 40, Kings 38
    Second-chance points:
    Kings 18, Pacers 10
    Fast-break points:
    Kings 8, Pacers 4
    Points off turnovers:
    Kings 19, Pacers 16
    Starters scoring:
    Pacers 80, Kings 61
    Bench scoring:
    Kigns 34, Pacers 22
    Stat of the Night
    This was Jim O'Brien's 100th victory as head coach of the Pacers. His record is 100-139.
    Up Next
    The March schedule concluded, the Pacers play the first of two Final Four weekend games Friday against Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat in Conseco Fieldhouse (7 p.m., Fox Sports Indiana, 1070 The Fan).
    Related links
  • Blog replay
  • Video
  • Box score
  • Recap
    • END RESULT
    On the occasion of his 100th victory with the Pacers, Coach Jim O'Brien had a little fun at his own expense.

    "Irrelevant," he said with a smile, his choice of adjectives no accident. "Totally irrelevant."

    The Pacers reached that particular milestone with a 102-95 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday before 13,339 in Conseco Fieldhouse, a game delivered once again by Danny Granger. The surging star scored 25 of his 33 points in the second half, 11 in a 22-4 run in the third quarter that wiped out a nine-point halftime deficit and put the Pacers ahead for good.

    IMPACT
    The Pacers won their eighth straight home game, their longest since winning their final eight home games of the 2003-04 season, and sixth in seven overall to improve to 28-47, 20-16 at home. The Kings dropped their fifth straight game and fell to 24-51 overall, 7-32 on the road.

    QUOTEWORTHY
  • “We continue a very nice run at home. It’s nice to establish a home court advantage. We were very sluggish the first half and our guys came out with a strong third quarter, got the lead and put them away." – Jim O'Brien
  • "We’re trying to keep a team on the court around Danny (Granger) that can space the court. And that’s a big deal.” – O'Brien
  • "We made it a point to pick it up and play with a little more energy in the second half. We moved the ball well, got stops, got boards and got the win. This is a way we would like to play for the rest of the year.” – Granger
  • “I think we’ve concentrated a little more and our effort and hard work to knock down shots has resulted in Ws." – Troy Murphy
  • "Chemistry the last month has been great. We just want to finish this out with a strong edge. We need to play well because this is a team that has a lot of talent and didn’t do that well the first part of the year.” – Murphy
  • "Danny is really, really good. He actually missed some open shots and made some guarded shots." – Kings Coach Paul Westphal
  • "We didn’t come out with the same energy we had in the first half. They were the home team and took advantage of it. They came out and made shots. Danny came out and had a great second half." – Kings guard Tyreke Evans on the second half

    KEY MOMENTS
    Sacramento appeared to be in full control for much of the first half, using a 14-6 run in the second quarter to open a 50-35 lead. But the Pacers chipped it down to 56-47 at the break and came out of the locker room with a different intensity level, particularly on defense.

    Holding the Kings to 2-of-14 shooting, the Pacers put together a 22-4 run with Granger scoring 11 to take a 69-60 lead they would not relinquish. The Kings cut it to 79-76 early in the fourth but Granger and Murphy hit consecutive 3-pointers to spark a 13-2 run that was capped by an A.J. Price 3-pointer and the Pacers built the lead to 92-78 with 6:16 left.

    The Kings scored eight in a row in the closing minutes to reduce the margin but never threatened the outcome.

    BY THE NUMBERS
    Granger was deadly in the second half, hitting 10-of-14, including 3-of-5 from the 3-point line. Overall he was 13-of-20, 4-of-7 from the arc, with five rebounds, four assists and two steals for his fifth game of at least 30 points in the last six. Murphy had his 35th double-double with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Roy Hibbert had 10 points, six rebounds, four assists and three blocks and Earl Watson had 10 points, five assists and five turnovers. The Pacers shot 47 percent overall and were 12-of-26 from the 3-point line but were outrebounded 49-35.

    Three Kings had double-doubles. Jason Thompson had 18 points and 11 rebounds off the bench, Tyreke Evans 17 points, 10 assists, four steals and seven turnovers, and Carl Landry had 17 points and 10 rebounds. Beno Udrih had 18 points. The Kings shot .424 overall, .395 in the second half.


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