Roy

Hibbert

The Pacers starting five will be D.J. Augustin, Paul George, Gerald Green, David West and Mahinmi. Obviously, the opening night lineup should be drastically different and include George Hill, Danny Granger and Hibbert.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a Hibbert offseason story. This decade, we’ve seen summer stories about him changing his diet, shifting to yoga, and even doing martial arts to help him on the court. Fun summer notes aside, the 32-year-old big man should thrive in his role as a coach to team bigs about verticality and shot blocking.

Hibbert had been great in his previous seven, averaging 15 & 9, but was shut down by the Nets tonight. He should be better on Thursday against Washington.

Hibbert has picked it up after a brief lull and should be in all starting lineups.

George has righted the ship after a relatively shaky stretch a few weeks back, and should be in all lineups unless Frank Vogel announces that he’ll be resting players. The Pacers have home-court advantage in their first round series all wrapped up. Roy Hibbert added 12 points with five rebounds in 23 foul-plagued minutes in the win.

Hibbert is headed into restricted free agency (his $3.7 million qualifying offer is a foregone conclusion), giving him extra motivation to “be a dominating presence” throughout the playoffs. He sat on nine blocks for the final 18 minutes of the game and made just 3-of-11 FGs and 2-of-4 FTs, and we’d expect him to come out angry after Indy’s disappointing loss.

The game was a blowout, which limited Hibbert’s playing time, but his recent slump is an ongoing concern. Forget that tonight’s dud came against all-powerful Dwight Howard -- Hibbert hasn’t grabbed more than 10 rebounds or scored more than 13 points in any of his past six games. We’re still anticipating a bounce-back, so stay patient.

We thought it was a little fishy when reports indicated that Collison could have been able to play after just a one-game absence, as groin injuries tend to linger. The Pacers still have to win a few more games before they can lock up the No. 3 seed, but one has to think they’re not going to push Collison back unless he’s totally ready. We’re calling Hill a must-own player until further notice. Roy Hibbert went for 10 and 12 with a steal and two blocks, Danny Granger scored 18 points with a full line, and David West added 10 points and six boards in the win.

Indiana won by 35 points and none of their starters played 30 minutes, since the game was completely over by halftime. Darren Collison had a ridiculous +/- rating of +47 in his team-high 29 minutes.

That makes three straight double-doubles for Hibbert, who is worth starting at center in all fantasy leagues.