Cavaliers 107, Pacers 73: Conduct Detrimental to Winning

The Pacers witnessed LeBron and the Cavs run by them for an easy win, 107 - 75. With JO modeling a little prep school look on the bench, the Pacers fell behind early and stayed down the whole way. So, there isn't anything worth noting from the actual game, here's the AP recap. To let you know how bad it was, the Pacers TV crew named Darrell Armstrong the Pacers' Player of the Game for his 13 points in ten minutes. Yes, the player of the game only played ten minutes!

The big news from this game came as the second half started when Stephen Jackson was nowhere to be found. OK, he's been dinged up a little, maybe he strained something and needed the rest of the night off. Nope, the Pacers announced Carlisle tossed him from the bench in the second quarter for conduct detrimental to the team. Last time Pacer officials made a statement like that, Ron Artest never put on a Pacer uniform again.

Life in Pacerland seemed so tranquil last night. Jack and Tins led the team to a big win without JO. A few guys stepped up from the bench and appeared ready to fill the void for JO in the short term. Then, Iverson trade rumors start flying around with the Pacers mentioned a suitor, the team gets knocked to the canvas early in Cleveland, and Jack stirs up a fresh hornets nest.

Hmm, no Rick Carlisle post-game comments on the TV broadcast. OK, now we're left to speculate. Even if there was detrimental conduct, it didn't appear to be an overt act. Why not say Jack tweaked a hammy? Why immediately come out with the conduct detrimental? Paging Bill Belichik. This story is just starting so I'm sure there will be more to come.