Although accidents happened along the road, Indy kept speeding towards the Playoffs.
Undeniably, the true underdogs of the NBA for the past few seasons is the Indiana Pacers. During the past season, we thought that trading Paul George, who is considered to be one of the most iconic Pacers players of its franchise’s history, was a rebuild phase for the team. We knew that the 2017–2018 season in the Eastern Conference was sought-after due to the Boston-Cleveland deal (unfortunately, an unexpected loss for the Cavs), the surging Raptors continuing to show its dominance, Griffin to Motor City, and Giannis continuing to blossom his basketball abilities; but no one saw the PG-less Pacers would still race their way to the Playoffs coming. No one expected to see Victor Oladipo develop to be an All-Star caliber player (averaging with estimates of 23 PPG, 5 RPG, 4 APG, and 2 SPG)—and this played a huge success to the Pacers unexpected rebuild. Not only that, their roster is packed of young talent, with vets in the mix like Thaddeus Young, Lance Stephenson, and Darren Collison. In my opinion, the Indiana Pacers was the surprise team of that season—they even managed to push LeBron’s Cavaliers to the limits as they reached Game 7. Although the series was not in their favor, people believed in the Pacers’ future ahead.
Fast forward to this season, they are still a force to be reckoned with. Oladipo was a sure-fire All-Star, and was playing one of the best seasons again in his career, dropping 18.8 PPG, 5.6 RPG, and 5.2 APG in 36 games. The duo of big men by Turner and Young were tough inside to grab boards and defend the rim (Turner with 7.3 RPG, 2.7 BPG, and a good defensive rating of 103.8; Young with around 6 RPG and a defensive rating of 105.5). They got good facilitators on the court, with Collison and Joseph filling in the 1. Plus, an array of good shooters and natural scorers are in the mix for the team as well, such as Bojan, Doug, and Domantas. In team performance, they put their opponents to just shoot at 45.1% from the field, with just around 85.8 attempts per game. You can’t fool them as well in their homecourt, as they avearage around the 70s in their current win rate.
The Pacers seem to have been a great start in the season so far, until an unfortunate case for Oladipo as his knee injury kept him out for the season. Still, instead of losing hope, the Pacers still went by their team philosophy, under the guidance of Coach Nate McMillan and his staff. As I read the article from SB Nation about the secrets of success behind the continuous roll of the Pacers despite Oladipo out of the scene, their defense stood out the most—playing good D and still managed to end up in the top four teams with the lowest fouls committed, they force a lot of turnovers (15.6 is the average per game), and continued to utilize all their talents with a balanced offense and defense. With the addition of Wes Matthews, they just got more depth, and Bojan became their leading scorer—tallying 18 PPG whilst shooting 43% from deep, and made “Bogey Time” a thing in Indy.
Currently sitting at fifth with 45–32 in their win-loss column, they are the recent team in the East to clinch a Playoff spot, and their potential match-up with the Celtics is going to be a good one to watch! They may be seen as the underdogs in the match-up due to the resurgence of Boston’s core, but it’s too early to say that since they like to surprise their audience with what they are capable of doing. With few games left before the postseason, the Pacers can still do damage and continue climbing up the ladder. The ceiling is still high for them, but their continuous focus in the system is what brings them to what they are right now. Time will tell that they will no longer be considered as underdogs of the game.
Thank you SB Nation, NBA.com/Pacers, and NBA Stats for providing details in my opinion.
