Basketball Daily

The early afternoon game on Sunday proved to be good for the Indiana Pacers who beat the visiting Chicago Bulls at the Conseco Fieldhouse.  The All-Star Danny Granger is set to be out a month or more due to injury along with 2 other key players named Dunleavy and Tinsley.  This didn’t stop the rest of the team, who picked up the slack and came through with a nice win at home.  The final score ended at 98-91.

Leading the Pacers in scoring was Troy Murphy with 27 points on 8 for 16 shooting.  Right behind him was T.J. Ford with 19 points on 8 for 21 shooting.  Both Marquis Daniels and Jarrett Jack contributed 16 points each to the fray.  Surprisingly, the Pacers took care of the ball quite well committing only 10 turnovers as they are one of the worst in the league for turning the ball over.  This was a great win for the team due to all of the injuries suffered.

On Friday, December 19th the Los Angeles Clippers won in a dramatic double overtime game.  It was quite bizarre as the Clippers struggled the whole first half of the game.  L.A. didn’t even take a lead until the 9 minute mark of the third quarter.  From then on it was a seesaw battle in the closing minutes of the fourth and into both overtimes.  The Indiana Pacers gave a great fight being so short handed and they almost pulled it out, but the Clippers would get the win eventually in a score ending 117-109.

With almost an hour of game time, all of the Clippers starters ended up in double figures with Zach Randolph heading the pack with 34 points.  Al Thornton ended with 25 points, Marcus Camby with 20 points, Baron Davis with 18 points and Eric Gordon with 15 points.  There was only two bench players that scored for L.A. including Mardy Collings and Jason Hart.  The Clippers now move to a quite dismal record of 8 wins and 18 losses.

The powerful and dominant Amare Stoudemire drops 51 points, a career high, against Larry Bird’s Indiana Pacers.  The Pacers seemed to have control throughout the game, but late in the third quarter the Phoenix Suns turned up the defense and started scoring with relative ease.

Amare had a career night with 51 points on 17 for 21 shooting.  He also had 11 rebounds, 5 steals, 2 blocks and 6 assists, with 15 for 15 free throw shooting to accompany the stellar play of the power forward.  The Phoenix team as a whole shot very well at 55% field goal shooting.  TJ Ford and Danny Granger both had game highs that ended with 23 points each for the Pacers.  The game ended with a score of 113-103.