Posts tagged ‘Pacers’

Now we can all be relieved.  This team is no longer has the chance of hindering its long term success by making the playoffs as the 8th seed.  With a disappointing performance against the Wizards.  And why?  Not the return of Agent 0, Not the All-around performance of Antwan Jamison, Not a Streaky Deshawn Stevenson, but Roger Mason.  Roger Mason….let that set in.  Roger Mason puts up 31 points against this team including shooting what seemed to be lights out from the 3 point line. (It was actually only 7-9, only.)  And there go this teams playoff hopes, finally.  I say finally because this team scrapped and held on to the possibility of being a playoff team for much longer than I thought they would.  So long that at some points, I thought they actually might do it.  Luckily for all Pacers fans, Larry Bird and Donnie Walsh, they did not make the playoffs.  Give me the Lottery!!!!  Enough of hanging on to the false hope of the playoffs being the path to an NBA championship.  Don’t get me wrong. It is the path to the title, but not when you have the talent of this Pacers team matched up against a well rested Celtics team with the Big Three.  The Hawks just got beat by 10 basically by the Boston reserves alone.  A quick 4 and out is not nearly as good as what looks to be atleast the 11th pick in the draft.  Again, Give me the Lottery!!!  With some luck, this team might even be able to squeak out a pick in the top 10.  With how deep this draft is, that would be amazing.

Coming up in the next podcast:

-A Recap of the Game against Washington

-A Brief look at how the Knicks v. Pacers rivalry has drastically dropped off, but could be rejuvenated in the future

-Off season moves that should be made/need to be made

In this episode:

-Pacers Have Guts

-Game analysis of Atlanta

-Playoffs still possible

I mentioned this in one of the episodes, but wanted to type it out to get my point across.

Just here me out on this first.  I realize this team has had more off-the-court incidents than any other team in the NBA.  Most people would say that is the reason the Pacers are so bad now.  I would agree with them that it is ONE reason why.   The other reason, in my mind, is the loss of Jonathan Bender.  This team and franchise was looking at him as their next superstar.  He was supposed to step into the shoes of Reggie Miller.

Bender had all the qualities of a rising superstar.  He had an outside jumper that he could shoot over anyone, athleticism, quickness, a good basketball IQ.  He was a tough matchup when he was playing and would be one of the toughest matchups in the NBA if he was still playing.  He would be 26 reaching his prime with 8 years of NBA experience under his belt.  His 6′ 11″ frame would  be impossible to guard.  Not even Bruce Bowen would be able to shut him down.  If you put a typical 2 guard on him (6′6″), he could shoot over them.  If you put a guy with his size on him, you would be rolling out the red carpet for him to drive to the hoop.  He showed a good combination of penetration and quality shot selection as a youngster that was oozing with superstar.  He would easily be averaging atleast 2o points and 5 rebounds a game.  Atleast 20 & 5.  Most likely he would be an all-star and the team’s go-to guy.  The only player comparable to him with size, speed, and athleticism is Lamar Odom.  But Bender can shoot better than Odom, is more athletic than Odom, and more assertive than Odom.  So basically he is a better version of Lamar Odom.

The reason I think he is a huge reason this franchise is in a downfall is because of the team’s depence on him to be the next big time player.  When you lose a player with superstar potentia, it is devastating to a franchise.  Even with last year’s trade with Golden State, the team would have a killer lineup that would be perfect for Jim O’Brien’s offensive system.  They would be starting Tinsley, Bender, Dunleavy, Granger and O’Neal.  Talk about a lineup that could run and shoot.  The Pacers could spread the floor with Bender, Dunleavy and Granger around the perimeter.  Tinsley could penetrate with multiple options to kick it out to for threes.  Also, Jermaine would be able to easily get one-on-one isolations in the post and without a double team because of the lineups shooters.  That would be a high scoring, high flying, WINNING lineup.  The Pacers, even this year, would easily make the playoffs with him.  They would most likely be a 3 seed behind two of the toughest teams in the NBA.  They would be one role player away from making a title run.  That’s how much of a difference Bender would make.  He would have this team competitive.

When a franchise loses a player of that quality, it is difficult to recover.  They are now looking for a new face to the franchise and a new superstar because Bender had to prematurely end his career.  Hopefully they’ve found a blossoming one in Granger and can draft another to try to take the place of a player that no one would have been able to stop.

On a night where someone rolled an ankle what seemed to be everytime down the court, the Pacers emerge victorious 114-107 against Seattle. The reason is purely Mike Dunleavy. Dunleavy left the game in the 2nd quarter after rolling his ankle. I don’t know if you noticed, but he looked like he could hardly jump after that.  On top of that, he got elbowed in the nose by Jeff Green in the third and left the game for that also.  In addition to tallying two injuries and multiple limps, Dunleavy led the Pacers with 32 points.  He was hitting everything.  He took people off the dribble and finished on the interior.  He made pull up Js.  He made three pointers (4-5 in fact).  He shot 62.5% from the field on the night (his best shooting night since January 9th)! He actually showed signs of a go-to player, which is something he shows rarely.  Recently he’s been doing a better job of trying to put the team on his shoulders.   

Somehow this team was able to overcome going 7-24 from 3-pt land and allow Seattle to shoot 50.6% from the field and still win.  Everytime I try to criticize this team on a game-by-game basis trying to look for possible trends, etc.  They just come out the next game and do exactly opposite of what I just pointed out was a weakness.  Tonight against Seattle, they took care of the boards and even had more free throw attempts than Seattle.  Instead they are back to playing terrible defense.  This team is so inconsistent, as if you haven’t already noticed.  This win atleast solidifies to me that the team is not yet on the bottom rung of teams in the NBA, but they are as close as you can get. You never know, they could go on a 19 game winning streak and improve from a mediocre team to one of the conference’s best just like the Rockets in the West.  The only problem…they only have 18 games left.