Indiana Pacers: 1-5 Start Signifies Early Trouble
By Shane Young
6-0.
That was the Indiana Pacers’ record through the first six games of the season last year. It included wins over Toronto, Chicago, and Cleveland — three teams you wouldn’t imagine the Pacers defeating now.
Just one year later, the “Blue Collar” bunch finds themselves at 1-5, with a huge chance to diminish to 1-6 after a Saturday matchup vs. Washington.
But, it’s what happens. It’s the direct result of having your best play-maker move a few hundred miles over to Charlotte, and your best overall scorer snapping his limb in a Team USA scrimmage. Oh, it’s also the result of having three crucial producers for your team down with injury to begin the season.
David West (ankle) hasn’t played a single regular season game, and that’s troubling when he’s your vocal chief, most consistent scoring forward, and initiator of aggression. George Hill (knee contusion) isn’t expect back until December, Frank Vogel claimed last week. Primary backup point guard, C.J. Watson, has been nursing a bruised foot as well. The combo guard they signed in the offseason, Rodney Stuckey, has been ruled out until next week with an aggravating foot injury.
The pain just keeps smacking the Pacers right in the face. In fact, it probably feels as if they’re being smacked with that huge glove David West wore on his hand during games last year.
Indiana had to do something to mitigate the depression and anger. Thus, they went into the free agent market and signed point guard A.J. Price, who was previously with the Cleveland Cavaliers this season during training camp. Cleveland released Price before letting him play in a single regular season game. Price is a familiar face with Coach Vogel, as he was a member of the Pacers from 2009-12, drafted by Indiana right out of college.
In Friday’s game in TD Garden, the Pacers had a chance to gradually improve their record against the Boston Celtics.
It didn’t pan out very well in terms of the ending result, but Indiana didn’t lay down and die like many would’ve expected. After all those major injuries that are keeping guys sidelined for lengthy periods of time, you wouldn’t anticipate a lot of resiliency with their reserves. Nonetheless, they played an intense game on the road, and only suffered a three-point loss to an electric Celtics squad that loves to run. Brad Stevens has those leprechauns running at the fifth-highest pace in the league, getting 96.9 possessions per 48 minutes.
Price didn’t play abysmal in his debut for the season, but it’s impossible to be a game-changer if you’ve just arrived to the team and haven’t been working with them since September. He saw just over 14 minutes on Friday, and scored five points with four assists. The impressive part of his debut was the lack of high turnovers, in which he only recorded one for the evening.
With the Pacers, we knew the style of play would change based on the personnel they were putting on the floor.
It’s not their fault — with all the health setbacks they suffered — and you can’t control the state of someone’s body. You also can’t expect to play to your strengths (inside-out basketball and pounding the paint) when so many of your interior attackers are missing. That’s exactly why we’ve seen the Pacers’ focus be re-directed to the 3-point arc this season.
Last year, with a healthy roster and Lance Stephenson on hand, Indiana ranked 25th in the league in outside shot attempts per game (18.8). They only connected on 6.7 per, which was 22nd overall. That indicates they were around league average in 3-point percentage, as they nailed 35.7 percent of their bombs last year.
Just six games into the season (not really a small sample size anymore), the Pacers have launched 24.7 3-point attempts per game. That’s put them at fourth in the league already.
There’s a couple surprising factors about that change, though.
They’re ranking seventh in the league in 3-point makes per game, at 7.8. However, their efficiency beyond the arc hasn’t been appreciable. Indiana has shot only 31.8 percent from long range, which ranks only 23rd in the NBA. So, they’ve been taking a ton of attempts from the outside, and not proficiently scoring on them. Chris Copeland can be looked at profoundly for the amount of outside shots that’s going up, as he’s taken 47 attempts on the year. Copeland has taken 31.7 percent of the Pacers’ 3-point looks, leading the league overall in tries. He’s second to Houston’s Trevor Ariza, however, in how many actually fall through the net.
Something that’s been surprising with Indiana is that Hibbert has actually looked semi-decent.
Listen, he’s never going to have the offensive skill or determination as a DeMarcus Cousins or Al Jefferson. But, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has helped improve it, and he’s still a physical freak on defense. He’s like King Kong when he’s patrolling the paint and protecting the rim. You don’t want to test him, because only bad things can happen. It will either massively hurt your field goal percentage, you’ll have a big collision, or it’ll cause turnovers. So, opposing guards have just decided not to test him as much.
In the loss to Boston on Friday, Hibbert was effective on both ends of the floor.
Recording 22 points, 11 rebounds, and four blocks, Hibbert was the best player on the court for the entire night. He connected on 8-of-16 from the field, even got to the line six times. Yes, he knocked down every one of them. Unlike most bigs in this league, Hibbert is extremely efficient from the line for his size. On the year, he’s 26-of-33 on his free throws, resulting in almost 80 percent.
The one thing Hibbert did better on Friday that he’s always struggled with was gaining great position. On the block, he was super effective once he got in a good scoring position before receiving the ball:
One important thing you should never do as a big man — or competitor in general — in play down to your opponent. If your matchup is below your skill level and not as aggressive (Tyler Zeller), then you should exploit that matchup weakness and go to work.
Hibbert was able to score easily, and there were many similar opportunities throughout the night.
Hibbert’s rim-protection was extremely beneficial to the Pacers, even in their loss. If you was watching the game and didn’t see the scoreboard during the second half, you would’ve thought Indiana was ahead due to the denials Hibbert was getting.
He makes it seem so effortless once he’s stopping shots from reaching the rim:
Gerald Wallace has been around long enough to know a clever spin move doesn’t take away a 7’2″ center trailing behind the play. Hibbert was able to get stops down the stretch of the game (as you see it’s the fourth quarter) and allow his teammates to get things going offensively. From that point forward, Indiana held Boston to just four points, but couldn’t finish the game with a victory.
The Pacers may be in desperate times here, with their key starters (Hill and West) missing a little bit more time.
Even worse, the schedule only seems to get tougher. Having that terrible loss to Milwaukee on their resume is already a terrible feat. Now, they look ahead to Washington (again), Utah, Miami, Denver, Chicago, Charlotte, Phoenix, Dallas, and San Antonio. Oh, and four of those games are on the road. Can you say “Ouch?” Indiana is 0-3 on the road in the early season, and it’s not going to get healthier.
Getting back on the right track can only come with a home win over the Wizards on Saturday night. Now, even that seems like a tall order for Frank Vogel. Especially with the roster he’s had to deal with.