Indiana Pacers: Adjustments Needed In Game 6

The Indiana Pacers are on the brink of elimination. If they want to prolong their season, they’ll need to make a few adjustments for Game 6.

The Indiana Pacers are a flawed team.

The Pacers’ monumental collapse in Game 5, in which they blew a 13-point lead going into the fourth quarter, put a microscope on those flaws for everyone to see.

The primary issue for the Pacers is that they’re too reliant on Paul George. Outside of George, the Pacers are a roster full of average players.

George is the best player in this series and he’s lived up to it. George went off for 39 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists in Tuesday night’s loss. For the series, George is averaging 28.8 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 4.6 assists while playing outstanding defense on the Raptors’ leading scorer DeMar DeRozan.

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The issue with the Pacers lies in the other players, especially the bench unit that can’t survive with George off the floor.

Now that Myles Turner has entered the starting lineup, Solomon Hill is the leading scorer off the bench for the series with 8.2 points per game. While Hill had an impressive run in the last few games of the season, a player of Hill’s caliber leading the second unit speaks more to the failure of the others who come off the bench.

Ty Lawson has been atrocious. After briefly looking good with the Pacers towards the end of the season, Lawson is playing more like the player who was bought out by the Houston Rockets than the player who averaged 15.2 points and 9.6 assists per game for the Denver Nuggets last season.

Lawson is averaging just 2.2 points and 1.8 assists in 11.7 minutes per game in the series. Lawson’s brief playing time proved to be one of the causes of the collapse.

In seven minutes of game action, the Pacers were outscored by 19 points. While Lawson was on the court, the Pacers went 0-for-11 from the field while turning the ball over four times. It couldn’t have been more of a disaster.

Rodney Stuckey and C.J. Miles haven’t fared much better.

Stuckey’s struggled mightily in the series, shooting 30.3 percent from the field, while Miles is shooting even worse at 28.6 percent. Stuckey and Miles are on the court for their scoring, but they’re not scoring, which makes them both detriments to the team’s success when those shots aren’t falling.

Lawson, Stuckey and Miles were on the court during the team’s seven-minute stinkfest while George rested, when they were outscored 19-1.

Part of the problem with that lineup is the players that they’re replacing. George, Monta Ellis and George Hill are the team’s three top scorers from the regular season. When they’re not on the floor, scoring is hard to come by.

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With the season on the line, there is no reason for there to be a time where George, Ellis, and Hill are on the bench at the same time.

This is possible to do while also giving the trio a rest.

The most simple solution to this problem is playing Ellis with the bench unit. Ellis can still start the game, but would have to be taken out of the game earlier in order to stay fresh and provide much-needed scoring when George rests. In a do-or-die game, it would only have to happen for a few minutes each half.

If George continues to play at this elite level, the Pacers can survive with Miles spending a few minutes with the starting unit in Ellis’ place. Miles is a notoriously streaky shooter and playing with George and the starters is more likely to provide better looks for Miles to find his shooting stroke again.

Lawson isn’t even playable at this point and probably shouldn’t see the floor with the season on the line. Lawson is a defensive liability and has been atrocious as a scorer.

The Pacers could instead play Ellis at the point with the bench unit and go a bit bigger than normal by giving Jordan Hill some minutes.

Jordan Hill played 20.7 minutes per game in 73 games for the Pacers this season, but has played only 12 minutes in the series and received a Did Not Play-Coach’s Decision in Game 5.

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Hill played well throughout the season, averaging 8.8 points and 6.2 rebounds while making 50.6 percent of his shot attempts. Hill makes his mark on the boards, an area where the Pacers have struggled.

The Raptors have out-rebounded the Pacers by 5.8 rebounds per game throughout the series. The Pacers are allowing the Raptors to grab a whopping 14 offensive rebounds per night through the first five games.

It’s not clear why Jordan Hill has found himself in Vogel’s doghouse, but it might be wise for Vogel to let him out for a few meaningful minutes.

When Ellis, Stuckey, Solomon Hill and Jordan Hill shared the court for 24 minutes without George being the fifth player of this lineup this season, they outscored opponents by 7.8 points per 100 possessions (per NBAwowy.com).

It’s an admittedly small sample size, but it’s small in part because of Stuckey’s injury issues throughout the season and Solomon Hill’s bit role until the end of the season.

Even if the Pacers make these changes, there are no guarantees that they will force a Game 7 by winning on Friday night. Maybe Paul George doesn’t play at an elite level. Maybe Kyle Lowry starts playing like the All-Star that he is.

It’s nearly certain that the Pacers have to make adjustments if they want to prolong this series and extend their season. Adjustments are what make playoff basketball so great.

Those adjustments often determine who continues playing and who is sent home.

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If Vogel stubbornly refuses to make these adjustments, then the Pacers’ season will likely end on their home court on Friday night.