Pacers coach Frank Vogel didn't take it personal that he finished third in the Coach of the Year voting.
He knew that despite having a successful season, San Antonio's Gregg Popovich and Chicago's Tom Thibodeau were more deserving.
Vogel's just happy to finish near those two coaches.
"It's very humbling," Vogel said. "I have so much respect for both of those coaches."
Vogel led the Pacers to their best winning percentage -- .636 -- since the 2003-04 season. The Pacers finished with the third-best record in the Eastern Conference and fifth-best record in the NBA.
The Pacers, the No. 3 seed, lead their best-of-seven series against Orlando 2-1.
Still, Vogel doesn't want to take all the credit. He thinks assistant coaches Brian Shaw, Jim Boylen and Dan Burke deserve some, too.
"It's been a team effort," Vogel said. "I have the best crew of assistant coaches in the NBA. We coach this team as a team, so to get a few votes for Coach of the Year, they deserve every bit of credit that I do."
Game 4 of the series is Saturday afternoon at Orlando.
NOTES, QUOTES
Barbosa still trying to get stroke back
--Guard Leandro Barbosa continues to struggle from the field because he's still dealing with problems with his left ankle, which caused him to miss the final game of the regular season. Barbosa is shooting 7-of-21 from the field in the series. "It's impacting me," Barbosa said. "I like to turn a lot of corners when I have the ball in my hands. Sometimes I feel like I can't do that and get my balance, especially to shoot. It's kind of a little hard, but it's okay because it's the playoffs."
--Winning on the road hasn't been a problem for the Pacers. They finished 19-14 on the road, which was good enough for fourth best in the league, during the regular season. Wednesday's victory was their sixth straight win on the road. "It's something we established early this year," coach Frank Vogel said. "We understood the importance of winning on the road and being a great basketball team. To go on a deep playoff run this season, we knew we had to establish that road toughness and build on the small success we had early. It's helped us build that confidence and swagger that we can come into any building and beat any team."
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I thought we were aggressive from the beginning. They made some adjustments and we were able to deal with them on the move. I thought we took their air space and made them uncomfortable." -- Forward David West.
ROSTER REPORT
PLAYER NOTES:
--C Roy Hibbert had his best offensive game of the series, scoring 18 points to go with 10 rebounds and three blocks in 28 minutes.
--F David West had his least-productive offensive game of the season. But luckily for him, the Pacers didn't need him to score. West was held to four points on 2-of-9 shooting in 35 minutes.
--F Danny Granger is making his two missed free throws late in Game 1 a distant memory. He scored a game-high 26 points on 9-of-16 shooting, including 5-of-9 on 3-pointers.
