INDIANAPOLIS — Pacers center Roy Hibbert had not spoken to the playoff media from the interview podium before. So he asked teammates whether or not he should do it.
Well, whether he was a logical choice to do so was a no-brainer.
“This is his best playoff game ever, probably,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said.
Hibbert noted people sometimes wear “crazy getups” to the interview room. And he had planned for it: “I said to myself before the game, I’m going to have a great game tonight.”
So he did. He was the best player on the court as he demolished Knicks counterpart Tyson Chandler for the second time in three games, scoring a game-high 24 points, grabbing 12 rebounds and leading the Pacers to an 82-71 victory — and a 2-1 series lead — over the Knicks in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Thus, he was the obvious podium choice. And Hibbert was ready for the crazy getup thing: He had a monocle. His teammates and Pacers employees advised against it.
It was the only way Hibbert was stopped all night. Not bad for a guy whose confidence was in the gutter earlier this season.
“He’s a worker. He worked his way through it. He’s constant in that regard,” teammate David West said. “He doesn’t want to settle and he wants to maximize everything within his ability. When people were getting down on him and he’s having some tough games here and there, and we’re losing some games and everybody is putting the sole blame on him, I thought he handled it the best way possible.”
Hibbert handled the Knicks even better last night. He led the 53-40 slaughter on the glass with eight — count ’em, eight — offensive rebounds.
“There are three types of offensive rebounds,” Hibbert said. “There’s one where you can tip in, which I got a couple of those tonight. Another one where you can get it, two hands bring it down and pitch it out. The other one is when you back tap it. Tonight it was the first one for me where I was tipping them in the basket.”
The Pacers had said they wanted to get Hibbert more involved offensively — he had just seven shots in Game 2. The Pacers lost. Last night, he got 18. You know what happened.
“He got a lot more touches, and he was a little bit more aggressive in tonight’s game than he was in the first two games, and we didn’t go double, so he made us pay for that,” Jason Kidd said.
The big man made them pay over and over. Hibbert’s crowning shot was a tip-in of a D.J. Augustin miss with 6:46 left to put Indianapolis up 15.
“The mantra I had before tonight, was ‘Tonight’s my night. Tonight’s my night.’ Luckily my hooks were falling, and around the basket I was being active,” Hibbert said. “First and foremost, I wanted to help Paul George out on [Carmelo Anthony]. I was trying to be there every possession that he had the ball.”
Anthony scored 21. Enough said.
“He was phenomenal,” George said, “with the way he protected the rim on the defensive end and gave us a huge impact on the offensive end.”
Add it all together, and he almost got to wear a monocle.