"It was no disrespect to the Los Angeles Clippers, but Thursday's game was one the Indiana Pacers knew they couldn't let slip away.

Not against a struggling Clippers team that played the night before and has only one victory.

Not when the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat loom as the next two opponents.

The Pacers handled their business with ease, as they scored from outside and Roy Hibbert provided the offense inside in their 107-80 victory at Conseco Fieldhouse.

"We definitely looked at this game as a must win," Pacers forward Danny Granger said.

"The Clippers, they're a team that can win on any given night even though they have a bad record. We just had to make sure we took care of things, because we haven't always done that in the past."

Granger led the Pacers with 22 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

Hibbert had 18 points, eight rebounds and three blocks in a tune-up game before Saturday's matchup against Orlando's Dwight Howard at the fieldhouse.

The Pacers shot 51 percent from the field and a season-best 53.8 percent on 3-pointers. Granger, Brandon Rush and James Posey each had four 3-pointers.

"We find each other, we penetrate to the paint and see the open guy," Pacers coach Jim O'Brien said.

"We're going to make a lot of 3s when we play like that. Our guys take pride in shooting the basketball and it shows."

It took more than a quarter for the Pacers to blow open the game.

Former North Central High School and IU star Eric Gordon scored 11 points in the first quarter to help the Clippers lead by as many as seven points.

Things changed once O'Brien put Granger, who has improved defensively this season, on Gordon.

Gordon scored only eight more points and was 2-of-11 from the field in the final three quarters.

"Once he got going a little bit early, I wanted to try to get him under control a little bit," Granger said about his former Team USA teammate.

"We kept him to a bad shooting night and that was our goal. He was a big part of them being successful, so we had to take care of it.""