The Indiana Pacers were playing for high stakes the past three seasons, especially the past two. This season, they’re going to be playing to barely get into the NBA playoffs. Oh, how times change.
What Went Wrong Last Season?
The Pacers endured one of the most bizarre and spectacular collapses of an elite regular season team in league history. This team still did finish first in the Eastern Conference, but after setting such a high standard and appearing to be the team to beat in the East, Indiana fell apart. The Pacers were 46-13 on the morning of March 4 and then lost 13 of their last 23 games to finish 56-26. The Pacers then lost three of their first five playoff games in the first round to a poor Atlanta Hawks team which finished the season at 38-44.
What also stood out about the Pacers’ nosedive late in the season and in the start of the playoff series with Atlanta was that Indiana was losing decisively. It fell by 11 to Memphis on March 22, 12 to Chicago in the next game, 13 to Washington a few days later, 14 to Cleveland a few days after that, and 26 to San Antonio on March 31. In the playoffs against Atlanta, the Pacers got crushed twice at home and were down 3-2 in the series, trailing the Hawks by three with about three minutes left in the fourth quarter. Indiana pulled off that win and took the series in seven games, but the team still wasn’t completely whole. The Pacers lost by only six to Washington in Game 1 of that second-round series. They managed to win three games, taking charge twice in Washington for Games 3 and 4, but they returned home in Game 5 to get smashed, 102-79.
The Pacers eventually won that series and then played a near perfect game in Game 1 against Miami in the Eastern Conference Finals, but as soon as the Pacers seemed as though they had solved their problems, they disintegrated. They lost three straight to Miami and committed a large amount of turnovers in a Game 3 defeat. In Game 4, Miami built a lead of over 20 points while the Pacers went through the motions. Indiana barely won Game 5 at home only because LeBron James played very limited minutes due to foul trouble, but in Game 6, the Pacers collapsed. Indiana fell behind by 26 points at halftime and by more than 35 points in the second half. The humiliation of a blowout on the road made the season an unquestioned failure for the Pacers.
Then came a horrific offseason in which superstar wing Paul George suffered an injury when playing in Las Vegas for the United States men’s basketball team, an injury that will leave George sidelined for the whole season. The Pacers immediately went from a title contender to a fringe playoff team. How will this group respond?
Offseason Changes
The Pacers lost Lance Stephenson to the Charlotte Hornets, and they filled his absence with veteran journeyman Rodney Stuckey, a net loss for the organization. Indiana should have had a plan in place to get someone as good as Stephenson, but it didn’t, and so with George out and Stephenson having an inferior replacement, it’s hard to see how the Pacers’ changes leave this team in an improved position.
Projected Finish
The Pacers could make the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs, but that’s their ceiling. They’ll probably finish just ahead of the Detroit Pistons in the race for ninth place, but they’ll probably get beaten out by Brooklyn and Charlotte for eighth. They’ll stay home.
Pick: 9th In the Eastern Conference
