INDIANAPOLIS — Roy Hibbert had 16 points and 14 rebounds to help the Indiana Pacers defeat the Detroit Pistons 91-79 on Monday night in the season opener for both teams at the renamed Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

David West, Indiana’s big free agent addition, had 11 points and 12 rebounds, even though he made just 3 of 12 field goals. Tyler Hansbrough had 15 points and 13 rebounds and Paul George added 12 points.

Danny Granger, Indiana’s leading scorer last season, finished with 16 points on 6-for-18 shooting. The Pacers shot just 37 percent from the field, but got away with it because they outrebounded the Pistons 53-40. Indiana had 18 offensive rebounds and 14 second-chance points.

Jonas Jerebko and Rodney Stuckey each scored 17 points for the Pistons, who never led.

Indiana led big early, but Detroit made a push in the second quarter before back-to-back 3s by George and Darren Collison increased Indiana’s lead to 47-34.

The Pacers led 52-38 at halftime and kept rolling at the start of the second half. Collison hit a baseline jumper off an offensive board by West, then followed it with a 3-pointer to push Indiana’s lead to 59-42. Hibbert dunked and was fouled after a nifty inside feed by Granger. His free throw pushed Indiana’s lead to 62-42 four minutes into the second half and forced a timeout by the Pistons.

Detroit played a bit better right out of the timeout, but a bucket by Hansbrough and a fast break layup by Dahntay Jones pushed the lead back to 20 and forced another Detroit timeout with 4:42 left in the third.

This timeout didn’t work so well for the Pistons. Jones hit a long baseline jumper, then George Hill’s steal and dunk pushed Indiana’s lead to 74-50. The Pacers led 76-58 at the end of the third quarter.

A 3-pointer by Granger pushed the lead to 85-61 with 7 minutes left in the game. Pacers fans gave the team a standing ovation in the final minute.

Notes: Pacers C Jeff Foster sat out with a back injury he tweaked during the preseason. … Pistons C Ben Wallace was loudly booed during pregame introductions. Wallace played a key role in the brawl in 2004 that eventually forced the Pacers to rebuild. … Indiana F Jeff Pendergraph missed the game with a sprained right knee. … Indiana outscored Detroit 16-4 from the free-throw line in the first half. … Indianapolis native George Hill had four points and four assists in his regular-season debut for Indiana.

Roy Hibbert had 16 points and 14 rebounds to help the Indiana
Pacers defeat the Detroit Pistons 91-79 on Monday night in the
season opener for both teams at the renamed Bankers Life
Fieldhouse.

David West, Indiana’s big free agent addition, had 11 points and
12 rebounds, even though he made just 3 of 12 field goals. Tyler
Hansbrough had 15 points and 13 rebounds and Paul George added 12
points.

Danny Granger, Indiana’s leading scorer last season, finished
with 16 points on 6-for-18 shooting. The Pacers shot just 37
percent from the field, but got away with it because they
outrebounded the Pistons 53-40. Indiana had 18 offensive rebounds
and 14 second-chance points.

Jonas Jerebko and Rodney Stuckey each scored 17 points for the
Pistons, who never led.

Indiana led big early, but Detroit made a push in the second
quarter before back-to-back 3s by George and Darren Collison
increased Indiana’s lead to 47-34.

The Pacers led 52-38 at halftime and kept rolling at the start
of the second half. Collison hit a baseline jumper off an offensive
board by West, then followed it with a 3-pointer to push Indiana’s
lead to 59-42. Hibbert dunked and was fouled after a nifty inside
feed by Granger. His free throw pushed Indiana’s lead to 62-42 four
minutes into the second half and forced a timeout by the
Pistons.

Detroit played a bit better right out of the timeout, but a
bucket by Hansbrough and a fast break layup by Dahntay Jones pushed
the lead back to 20 and forced another Detroit timeout with 4:42
left in the third.

This timeout didn’t work so well for the Pistons. Jones hit a
long baseline jumper, then George Hill’s steal and dunk pushed
Indiana’s lead to 74-50. The Pacers led 76-58 at the end of the
third quarter.

A 3-pointer by Granger pushed the lead to 85-61 with 7 minutes
left in the game. Pacers fans gave the team a standing ovation in
the final minute.

Notes: Pacers C Jeff Foster sat out with a back injury he
tweaked during the preseason. … Pistons C Ben Wallace was loudly
booed during pregame introductions. Wallace played a key role in
the brawl in 2004 that eventually forced the Pacers to rebuild. …
Indiana F Jeff Pendergraph missed the game with a sprained right
knee. … Indiana outscored Detroit 16-4 from the free-throw line
in the first half. … Indianapolis native George Hill had four
points and four assists in his regular-season debut for
Indiana.

The Indiana Pacers became the latest NBA team to cut personnel expenditures during the NBA lockout, giving three of its scouts their walking papers. From the Indy Star: “The Indiana Pacers have let go of scouts Brian Winters, Leonard Perry and Joe Ash in a cost-cutting move because of the NBA’s current lockout. Winters is a former NBA and WNBA coach. He scouted Paul George, the No. 10 pick in the 2010 draft, while George was at Fresno State. Ash spent eight years with the Pacers, including part of the time as director of scouting. Perry joined the Pacers as an assistant coach for Rick Carlisle in 2006.”

Paul George a pleasant Pacer surprise

By MIKE GANTER, Toronto Sun

Last Updated: March 11, 2011 10:01pm

The same kind of excitement and hope for the future that Ed Davis is giving the Raptors these days, Paul George is giving his Indiana Pacers.

George, taken three picks before Davis in last year’s draft, is a recent addition to the Pacers starting lineup and is loving it.

“It definitely helps the confidence,” George said before Friday night’s game against the Raptors. “I just want to keep this going well.”

George was a bit of a surprise as the No. 10 selection, but only because he didn’t have the lengthy resume most of the other lottery-pegged picks had.

George got a late start in the game and was all but ignored coming out of high school. He has more than made up for lost time since, first starting in his two years at Fresno State and then knocking it out of the park during various workouts prior to the draft, pushing his stock north. His freakish athleticism has the Pacers smiling. The thinking is he has only started to scratch the surface.

His 6-foot-8 frame and outstanding leaping ability make him a tough match for most shooting guards in the league.

It hasn’t been all roses for George since the got to the NBA. After starting the year averaging 20 minutes a night in his first give games, the Pacers coaching staff lost confidence in George and his minutes started to dwindle.

It got worse as he did not see a second of court time from Nov. 23 until Dec. 29.

“The season has had its up and downs, but for the most part I dealt with the adversity early on and it turned out to be a positive and I think I’m helping my team in a good way,” George said.

Indiana head coach Frank Vogel can barely contain himself when the subject is George.

“The one thing about Paul George that you can’t really evaluate in the draft of anything like that is he’s one of the best listeners that I’ve ever coached,” Vogel said, “not just executing a certain game plan or something like that, but if you teach him something, he does it and you don’t have to teach him again. He just picks things up like a sponge and grows and improves and that’s a big part of why we think he has a big upside.”

George said those early troubling times made him realize how much he wanted basketball and how much more committed he had to be if he was going to make a go of this.

“I went from playing to not playing to not even dressing,” George said of the low point of his season. “That was really the point in time when I really lived in the gym. I would stay after practice and go in on off days and lift. I knew this was something that I wanted to do and not playing was something I definitely didn’t want to do. So I had to really ask myself what I wanted. It took myself to push myself on those days.”

Now it’s all paying off for both George and the Pacers.

But the very best thing about being Paul George right now? Any time he wants he can get the undivided attention of a basketball legend whether it’s on the team plane or between games or practices.

Pacers president Larry Bird makes himself readily available to his promising rook and George takes advantage as much as possible.

“It’s pretty much on me,” George said of the opportunity. “Larry always has his door open if you want to talk to him so any chance I’m feeling like I want to learn something or ask him something I can always go to his office.”

The only problem then is explaining to his own father that the Bird access does not extend to players’ families.

“It’s surreal,” George said. “Every time I tell my dad I’ve been talking to Larry Bird he flips out. He tells me to put him on the phone.”

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Pacers needed a win, so Danny Granger couldn’t afford to miss a free throw.

Granger scored 27 points, going 16 for 16 from the line, and it was his clutch foul shooting early and late that helped Indiana hold off the Golden State Warriors, 109-100, on Tuesday night.

“Granger did what a good player does,” Warriors coach Keith Smart said. What that meant Tuesday was making all eight from the line in the fourth quarter as the Pacers snapped a two-game home losing streak.

“This was a good win, not necessarily a big win,” Pacers forward Tyler Hansbrough said. “We really needed (the victory) after those two losses.” Darren Collison scored 11 points for Indiana, eight in the third quarter, when the Pacers outscored Golden State 37-26 to turn a three-point deficit into a nine-point lead.

Hansbrough finished with 14 points to lead balanced Pacers scoring off the bench, with Paul George scoring 12 points in a reserve role and Dahntay Jones adding 10. That trio combined for 15 fourth-quarter points, and Hansbrough also had six rebounds.

“Tyler and Paul were huge in that stretch in the fourth quarter,” Pacers interim coach Frank Vogel said.

Reggie Williams had 25 points off the bench for Golden State, which rallied from a double-digit, first-half deficit to lead by nine points late in the second quarter before faltering.

Vogel called it a “great win for our team. That’s a win that falls in line with the identity we want for this team,” Vogel said. “Our tempo was great in and carried us in the fourth quarter.” George scored 10 points in the first 6:05 of the fourth quarter. He scored six points on three consecutive fast-break situations in the period.

“Paul does a great job of recognizing change of possession and sprinting out — not cherry-picking,” Vogel said. George’s flurry turned a six-point lead into an 87-75 advantage.

“The fourth-quarter flow felt pretty good for me and the team,” George said.

The Pacers took control by shooting 13 of 25 in a third period that featured nine players scoring, with Hansbrough and Darren Collison each scoring eight points.

Stephen Curry had 20 points, six rebounds and seven assists for the Warriors, who lost their fourth consecutive game.

Granger scored 11 first-half points and Roy Hibbert added 10 as the Pacers dominated early, never trailing in the first quarter and leading by as many as 13 points late in the first quarter.

The Pacers then struggled in the second, shooting 5 of 23 (21.7 percent) as the Warriors pushed into the lead and pulled ahead by three at halftime. David Lee had 19 points for the Warriors.

“Tonight, we did a great job answering their runs,” George said. “We were able to fight them off and ultimately get a win.”

Williams shot 10 of 14 for the game. The bench scored 22 of the Warriors’ 27 points in the second period. Golden State went on a 21-1 run in the period to turn a 36-25 deficit into a 46-37 lead, but allowed Indiana to shoot 51.2 percent from the field in the second half.

“I’ve got two teams right now: a great offensive team and a good defensive team,” Smart said. “I have two of them in the middle, and I have to figure out how to splice that and turn them into one again.”

The Pacers also out-rebounded Golden State, 24-17, in the second half.

“I think we’re focused on what we’re trying to do,” Curry said of the Warriors’ defense. “We have a lot of effort. We have to look at film and see what teams are doing. I’m trying to find an answer. I don’t really have one.”