The Indiana Pacers spent the past few years trying to run up the score with a lot of 3-point shooting.
As entertaining as that was at times, the Pacers' emphasis on offense led to deficient defense.
The Pacers say that has changed.
For the first time in years, the Pacers can win if they don't shoot well. They just have to defend well.
The Pacers are third in the league in field goal defense (41 percent) and points allowed (89.3) this season.
"I just know right before the playoffs (last season) we came together on the defensive end," point guard Darren Collison. "A team like Chicago, that's extremely (good) on the defensive end, we saw how they're a unit.
"We want to be able to carry that over to ourselves."
Tonight's opponent, Philadelphia, leads the league in points allowed (85.6) and field goal defense (39.5).
Pacers coach Frank Vogel said "very little" has changed with Indiana's defensive scheme from last season.
The players simply have bought into it.
The Pacers have given up at least 40 percent shooting in only three of their eight games. They lost two of the games, including a 35-point debacle to the Miami Heat, who shot 53 percent from the field.
The Pacers are the first team since the Boston Celtics in 2008 to hold five of their first eight opponents to less than 40 percent shooting, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Pacers accomplished the feat one other time (2002) in franchise history, according to Elias.
Vogel doesn't let his players get away with poor defense.
He held a film session the day after the Pacers' loss in Miami in which he detailed how they let the Heat dictate the action.
"We want to play with a disposition defensively," Vogel said. "We wanted to really try to pressure the basketball and take Miami out of their offensive rhythm and timing."
It took a quarter -- and for Boston to do it to them -- but the Pacers played aggressive defense and made the Celtics work for most of their points. The Celtics shot 39 percent.
"We understand what we were able to do to Boston in breaking their timing and rhythm, and that's what you need to do to win on the road, what you need to do in the playoffs and take you far in the playoffs," Vogel said. "It's something you need to do when you're playing at home, too, against any opponent."
The Pacers' improved defense didn't go unnoticed by the Celtics.
"They were in our air space," Celtics coach Doc Rivers told Boston reporters after the game. "We always talk about owning the air space. That's who we are. And they were us -- for the entire game. I just thought they did it better than us."
The Pacers put together their best defensive performance of the young season Saturday night when they held Charlotte to 28 points on 10-of-46 shooting in the second half after giving up 30 points in the first quarter.
"We just didn't flip the switch," forward Danny Granger said. "We just hadn't been playing at the capability that we have been able to in the past. We allowed too much in the first half. We weren't stepping up, we were letting our guys get by us. Things we haven't been doing the first seven games."
Call Star reporter Mike Wells at (317) 444-6053.
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