Chicago Bulls shift lineup again
Chicago Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg decided the time was right for another change.
With Indiana pulling into town with a guard-heavy lineup, Hoiberg sent Tony Snell back to the starting lineup, replacing Doug McDermott. The reasoning was to give the Bulls a better shot on defense.
It turned out the Pacers didn't play as small as they usually do, because point guard George Hill was out with an upper-respiratory infection and Rodney Stuckey sat out with a sprained ankle.
Indiana started Chase Budinger with guards Monta Ellis and C.J. Miles, along with Paul George and center Ian Mahinmi. McDermott probably could have handled one of those defensive assignments.
As it turned out, Snell gave the Bulls a nice spark by knocking down his first 2 shots from 3-point range. Then McDermott jumped off the bench and scored 7 points in 10 minutes during the first half.
Pacers shift style:
Before Monday's game, Indiana's Frank Vogel talked about how his team has moved from two extremes in just one season. The Pacers used to be big and geared for points in the paint. But when power forward David West joined San Antonio as a free agent last summer, the Pacers traded center Roy Hibbert to the Los Angeles Lakers and went all in on a guard-based lineup.
After Paul George, Indiana's next four top scorers are all guards: George Hill, Monta Ellis, C.J. Miles and Rodney Stuckey. Hill and Stuckey didn't play Monday.
"It's fun," Vogel said. "It's a challenge, there's no question, but it's been a lot of fun. I like when we go through these spurts where we just explode offensively.
"We look really tough to guard and we've got big guys chasing us around the 3-point line and that's an exciting part of what this year's approach has been about. But I like the defensive benefits we're getting from it as well."
George back from break:
Indiana's Paul George has come back strong from his gruesome broken leg suffered in a Team USA exhibition game on Aug. 1, 2014. In the previous five games before playing the Bulls, George averaged 30 points.
"He was determined to get back to playing last year," Frank Vogel said. "He was 100 percent healthy but not 100 percent explosive.
"He worked this summer and carried it over into training camp; wanting to carry the load. He worked harder than anybody on our team in training camp. I couldn't be more proud of his work ethic, his determination and the whole thing."
Bull horns:
The Bulls wore gray, sleeved uniforms Monday night, which were billed as Chicago pride. It wasn't clear what exactly the style had to do with the city. … Pau Gasol was given the Global Impact Player Award from the NBA Players Association before the game.