Quick Hits from Around the Central Division

Responsibilities elsewhere on SBNation.com have made it difficult to give the previews their full attention today, but rest assured, we’ll get there. In the meantime, some thoughts from around the central division.

Indy Cornrows would like to see the Pacers get out and run this year:

Pressure and pace are going to be two keys to gathering W’s this year for the Pacers. Preferably applying pressure at the defensive end leading to fast, easy buckets at the offensive end, keeping opponents in chase mode. The Pacers exemplified this strategy perfectly in their win over the Nuggets in Taipei.

Of course, it could happen in the reverse order where pushing the offensive pace will take a more deliberate offensive team, like say Detroit, out of their comfort zone allowing the pressure at the defensive end to be more effective as the opponent tries to keep up. I’d prefer defensive pressure leading to offense but either way the Pacers need to keep the pace up.

The mighty, mighty Mike Wells ponders the idea of slowing down the offensive pace in order to leave more energy for the defensive end. The slow-down-for-defense argument makes sense but I’d much rather add a player or two to the rotation for a few minutes to keep fresh bodies running up and down the floor. If the team slows down the tempo to help at the defensive end it eliminates an advantage, thus creating a straight matchup with the opponent and on most nights the Pacers would be at a talent deficit trying to match up toe-to-toe with other teams around the league.

Plus, it’s way more fun to watch and I’m selfish like that.

Meanwhile, in Cleveland, Lebron James will give 1 million dollars to anyone that can prove he’s ever said anything bad about Cleveland:

I have never said anything bad about Cleveland. If anybody can find one article in which LeBron James says something bad about Cleveland, then please bring it to me and they get a million dollars, cash.

While elsewhere on the internet, Need4Sheed offers a preview of tonight’s Pistons-Mavericks preseason game.

And Blog-a-Bull recaps the Bulls’ most recent preseason game, a win over the T-Wolves, and offers some quick thoughts.

More to come on the Central Division later this weekend.