Each Wednesday, the second part of our Under The Microscope series looks at a different player in the National Basketball Association and examines them in the context of a game that week. Wednesday night the Indiana Pacers beat the Detroit Pistons in overtime, and we kept track of Danny Granger. Here's a look at how Granger's night ended up. You can read part one of this week's UtM here.Final Line: 24 points, 6-20 FG, 10-11 FT, 10 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block
The Phrase Is: Getting it done the hard way.
The Story Of One: Man, Granger's got a sweet shot. It wasn't necessarily falling tonight, but man-alive, when it hits it's the sound of slot machines firing out quarters. His length allows him to hesitate at the top of his shot, which is naturally high anyway, and it gives him options in motion. On his first shot he burst around a wing screen, pulled up, adjusted to a higher release point and dropped it through. He used the same ability on his final field goal, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.
Defensively, Granger is that prototypical NBA player that is able to play solid defense without looking like he's playing solid defense. He followed Rip Hamilton tonight for the most part, while Mike Dunleavy and Prince faced off. Hamilton ended with 9 points on 4-of-13 shooting. Granger was very controlled with his defensive decisions, fouling when appropriate, challenging, and mostly staying with his man. He was active without overextending himself. Granger showed an excellent ability to cut off the entry pass.
Granger finished with four missed assists, mostly thanks to Jeff Foster and his amazing ability to do very little right. In the first quarter, Granger hesitated, again at the top of his jumper, and shot a one-handed pass straight to Foster down low, between three defenders. Foster badly missed the layup. This is a recurring theme.
The other issue Granger struggles with is Jarrett Jack. Jack is a scoring point in this system, and when he's on the floor, he and Granger are sharing the same space. Jack doesn't manage the offense in a way that's conducive to Granger's opportunities. However, when T.J. Ford, oddly enough, is at the point, the opportunities arrive.
Granger needs to work on his burst in the lane. He's got great footwork, spinning Tayshaun Prince out of his boots on one play, but too often, he was unable to finish at the basket. But Granger wasn't able to elevate to finish, and even though he showed a great ability to get in between defenders, he rarely finished in the paint.
Now, the flip side to that, though, is that he was nearly perfect at the line. So many players take it for granted, but that made up close to half of his points. He was able to create opportunities at the basket, and many of them ended with hard fouls.
The most impressive thing about Granger, though, was his final shot in regulation. Down two, the Pacers inbounded to Granger, instead of going to someone else (over their last two close losses, they fooled with Mike Dunleavy and Travis Diener). The Pistons then used their last remaining foul to give. The Pacers went right back to Granger. He popped out from an off-the-ball screen low to the top of the key, measured Tayshaun, crossed him over, stepped back, and drained it over his arms. Perfect.
Granger is becoming one of the premier players to watch in close-game situations in the last two games. He's a good rebounder and a defender. And when the rest of this team grows together, Granger is going to be capable of some real magic.
Just like he had tonight.
