Dentist! We need a dentist STAT!!

What a game last night!

Ever season home-opener should be like the one that was on display at Reggie Miller Fieldhouse last evening. The reigning NBA champs rolled into town and they got a spanking similar to the one that Blockbuster puts on Family Video on a daily basis (that two shots at the youngest Philippsen boy). Besides the 95-79 win for the Pacers, the atmosphere at the Fieldhouse was incredible. I noticed several differences from this year's preseason and the previous three years.

1) There were people there...like, real people. It was amazing. The Mrs. Thug Mrs. and I found our season ticket seats with about 40 minutes before tip-off and the place was about 3/4 full.

2) The opening montage finally is back to normal. No more gospel-singing choir, no Thunderstruck (which was good), it's got the new guys being montaged (MONTAGE!) with old footage of better times from Pacer history.

3) Boomer came down on his rope from the rafters for the first time since that wrestler died several years ago. This used to be a staple thing at every game and it was always sweet seeing a large cat propelling down onto the court just before the starting lineup is announced. I'm glad to see Boomer back in rare form.

4) The crowd cheered. Yeah, that was crazy too. From the Star-Spangled Banner to the final buzzer, it was a playoff crowd. I told the Mrs. that if we could just keep it close, she would finally enjoy a playoff game. And it happened. Danny Granger, who celebrated a contract extension on Friday, lit up the Celts in the first quarter and we never looked back.

5) D-FENCE. This team played defense for the first time since Nov. 19, 2004. They deflected balls better than a lesbian being hit on by Tom at the bar.

6) Granger bit the floor. Literally. He bit it and he lost his two front teeth. We're up 16 in the fourth quarter and effin Paul Pierce squashes Granger when he knocks that ball loose from Pierce's hands and they go diving to the floor. No one in the stands had any idea Granger lost his teeth because he just got up, ran to the locker room and was back on the court before the end of the injury time-out. Gutsy move for a guy who just signed for $60 million the day before. Anyways, I traded in my old Jermaine O'Neal gold jersey for a brand spankin new gold Granger jersey (love this promotion...you trade in an old jersey of a former player and get 30 percent off of any new jersey...say goodbye to my JO, Stephen Jackson, Jasikivious and Fred Jones jerseys and say hello to Roy Hibbert, Brandon Rush, T.J. Ford, Jarrett Jack, Travis Diener, Jeff Foster, Mike Dunleavy, Troy Murphy, Maceo Baston, Stephen Graham and Rasho Nesterovic jerseys!)

Anyways, for a team trying to win back the fans of Indiana, this was a good starting point. We got Phoenix at home on Wednesday, so we'll see if the energy will continue and we go 81-1 on the season or if this was just a one-time fluke and we go 1-81. I could see it going either way.