Indiana Pacers forward Danny Granger welcomes fewer playing minutes
Aiming to make his primary scoring threat more effective, Indiana Pacers head coach Jim O’Brien reduced the playing time of forward Danny Granger, and the USA Team member gladly accepted
his coach's move.
“I'm all for it,” said Granger. “I think I've been playing too many minutes. Now we have all our wings, so I won't have to worry about having to carry a lot of minutes.”
The 27-year-old forward, who averaged 21 points and 5.3 rebounds in 37.2 minutes in their first six games this season, agreed with his coach's assessment that he will be more effective if
he has fewer minutes, after having a tough grind with the USA team during the summer.
In their game against the Denver Nuggets on 9 November, the former New Mexico stand-out only logged in 27 minutes, but he still managed to score 19 points on 8-for-10 shooting from the field,
helping the Pacers score a huge 144-113 win over the Nuggets.
And with Granger having limited minutes, the Pacers were also able to give Brandon Rush enough playing time to get himself back to his old form after serving a five-game suspension.
Rush, who was the Pacers’ starting shooting guard last season, but was suspended after violating the league's anti-drug policy, had a rousing season debut in their game against the Nuggets.
The 25-year-old guard scored 16 points on 6-for-11 shooting from the field and grabbed seven rebounds in 30 minutes of playing time.
“I felt pretty good out there. I thought my wind was going to be kind of iffy, but I was fine once I got my second wind,” said Rush, who also impressed Jim O’Brien with the improvement in
his offensive game.
“If you look at Brandon's last four months of last year and how he worked this summer, he really worked on his attack game,” O’Brien said. “That's the difference.”
The Indiana Pacers will try to bag their second straight victory when they host the struggling Houston Rockets on Friday 12 November.
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