2018 NBA Playoffs: Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Indiana Pacers preview

Can Victor Oladipo keep it up?

It’s hard to try and make an argument that Victor Oladipo hasn’t taken a leap. The 2017-18 season was a turning point in his career. He is literally putting up a personal-best mark in every single statistical category possible. He’s scoring more, shooting better percentages, defending better and assisting better. There’s no regular season award more locked up than Most Improved Player this year.

But regular season basketball isn’t playoff basketball. There have been plenty of All-Star caliber players who haven’t been able to get it done in the playoffs. One of the best examples is James Harden. He’s without any doubt one of the best players in the league, and yet he hasn’t been able to translate that success into the playoffs with the Houston Rockets. Kyle Lowry is another who frequently gets brought up as a player who struggles in the postseason. There’s something about playoff basketball that even star players can’t handle.

Oladipo is coming from a situation where he played in the playoffs with Russell Westbrook and he didn’t play well at all. Playoff Oladipo averaged 10.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game. He was a net negative who couldn’t help his team get out of the first round. As we can see with his time in Indiana, he’s a changed man. The question is, is he going to continue to be a changed man in the playoffs, and will it be enough to bring his team to victory over a player who has been to the Finals six years in a row?