David West has talked up the defensive performance of the Indiana Pacers after they beat the Orlando Magic 97-87 on the opening night of the NBA season.
The game had been tight going into the final quarter, but an impressive reserve line went on an 11-point streak to put the game beyond the Magic, while the Pacers also had the defensive efforts of Roy Hibbert and West to thank following a number of good blocks throughout the game.
"We talked about protecting home court and trying to build our ability to beat teams here on our home court. We're happy to come out of here with a win," West told reporters after the encounter.
"We knew Orlando was a young scrappy team with the ability to score points in bunches. I just thought in the third quarter we were able to settle our defense down, get them under control and work from our defense and out.
"We talked about trying to contest everything at the rim and obviously protecting our paint, which is something we didn't do well in the pre-season."
The game also saw an impressive performance from Indiana's Paul George who scored 24 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished five assists for his side.
