The Indiana Pacers, once just a cute story, have something special going
They’re here, they’re serious, and they aren’t going away. In a playoff race that has mostly gone chalk, the Indiana Pacers are here to crash the party.
It started innocently enough.
After winning in Ohio against a sleepwalking Cleveland Cavaliers team to begin the season 5-3, everyone smiled coyly and waited patiently for them to fall on their face.
After beating Toronto to get to 11-8, there was talk about them hanging around the playoff race into March, maybe April if they were lucky.
The wheels appeared to come off when their star went down with an injury in December, and they lost all four games in his absence to fall to 19-19. The cute story was finally coming to a close.
Except it wasn’t.
Time and time again, the Indiana Pacers have defied expectations this season. It’s about time we started taking them seriously.
Standing pat…with good reason
With a record of 14-6 and a net rating of +5.9 — good enough for sixth in the league — since Victor Oladipo‘s Jan. 6 return, the Indiana Pacers aren’t just a cute story anymore.
At the All-Star break, the NBA’s Little Engine That Could sits a half game out of fourth place in the Eastern Conference playoff standings. Only 10 of their remaining 24 games are at home, and given their sub-.500 road record, that’s a bit concerning.
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Still, over the last five weeks, they finally appear to be putting it all together.
Offense hasn’t been a problem all year, and it remains their strength. Only the Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Toronto Raptors and Cavaliers score more points per 100 possessions.
It’s the defense that has finally come around. When they sat at 19-19, the Pacers had fallen all the way to 23rd in defensive efficiency. Since Oladipo came back, they’ve been ninth, and second in the league with 9.2 steals per game over that time. Good defense usually translates on the road, which should make the remaining games away from Bankers Life Fieldhouse a bit easier to handle.
Throw in the fact that Indiana has the easiest remaining strength of schedule in the league, and there’s reason to think a first round home playoff series is more than attainable.
Comfortable and confident
Despite the fact that their name came up in some trade rumors prior to Feb. 8, the Pacers were more than comfortable staying the course. Part of the reason for that may have been the special brew they have cooking within the locker room.
According to Clifton Brown of the Indy Star, Pacers President Kevin Pritchard heard quite a bit of advice as to how he should approach the trade deadline:
"“I had six players come up to me, and this has never happened to me as an executive, and say, ‘Keep this team together.’ That carried a lot of weight with me.”"
He also sang the praises of Al Jefferson, noting how he truly has the ear of a team whose stars are young but seems have found just the right mix of freshness and experience.
It would still be an upset if Indiana got out of the first round. That’s what happens when you go up against teams who have been there before. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.
For a team that was expected to begin engaging in some serious tanking efforts by this point in the season, it’s enough to make the fanbase positively giddy.
Next: 2017-18 Week 18 NBA Power Rankings
The fun is about to begin for real.