Auburn Hills, Michigan. Detroit is not a team to be taken lightly at all. Do not let their record fool you. There are three keys for the Pacers to be able to remain hot. Key one, they must not turn over the ball. Key two, they must play hands-up defense. Key three, they must get the ball over to the “big man” Roy Hibbert. How many times over my career of covering the Indiana Pacers have I heard Bobby Slick Leonard say “get the ball into the big man”? Even if Detroit comes out on fire, the Pacers must weather the storm. We don’t have Reggie Miller any more, so this is where legends are born. This is where legends are made big in the big time. If Paul George wants to be a leader, then this is the game where he is going to have to grow up. It will be interesting to listen to Mark Boyle tonight to see how loud the Palace is. I wouldn’t be surprised if the crowd is pumped up, because their crowd seems to have a lot of venom towards Indiana. I just don’t see why the city of Detroit can’t go to a game and root for their team like they had some class. I have nothing nice to say about the city of Detroit, the Pistons, or the fans. Their fans are a bunch of goons and the only way to shut them up is to play Pacers basketball the way we have been playing. The entire Pacers radio network is always welcome in my home at any time. It is always fun to listen to Mark because of the way he calls the game with Pacers pride, and it seems to me that he wears his emotions on his sleeve. I think the same can be said for Bobby Slick Leonard as well. Some nights, it sounds like Slick would rather be with Frank Vogel on the bench than with Mark in the radio booth! You can’t even tell that Slick is almost 80 years old from the way he sounds. I think that because he has so much passion for his work and he also has a heart that bleeds blue and gold. Slick Leonard is definitely a Hoosier like me. I think the world of you both, Slick and Mark, and I hope you can see that I have a lot of Pacers Passion.
