Keep It NBA

Indiana Pacers:
Pacing Back to Relevance

By Rangga Sobiran, Keep It NBA contributor

After successfully stealing away Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals from the Miami Heat, the Indiana Pacers followed it with another important Game 3 win at home Thursday night; pushing themselves ahead in this series 2-1 with home court advantage. Despite the Pacers’ impressive regular season which saw them booking the third best Win-Loss record in the Eastern Conference (42-24), good enough for fifth best in the league, no one picked them over their Central Division rival, the Chicago Bulls, and title favorite, the Heat, to make the Eastern Conference Final; especially considering how young and inexperienced the make up of the team is. A Derrick Rose and Chris Bosh injury later, people may be forced to change their opinion.

It has been an uplifting season for Pacers’ fans; but that might be an understatement considering how far this franchise have come along since what happened in 2004. Eight years ago, the Indiana Pacers was one of the best teams in the NBA after closing the 2003-2004 regular season with a league best 61-21 win-loss record; still the best in franchise history since its establishment in 1967 as a member of the old American Basketball Association (ABA). Despite being knocked out of the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals (4-2) by the eventual champion, the Detroit Pistons, Pacers fans then had every reason to be optimistic for their team’s ability to reach greater heights in the future.

Coached by Rick Carlisle, the 2002 Coach of the Year who won his first championship last year coaching the Dallas Mavericks, and boasting a core of talent consisting of approaching-prime yet still relatively young players such as All-Star forward/center Jermaine O’Neal (26); key member of San Antonio Spurs’ 2003 championship team, guard/forward Stephen Jackson (26); New York playground legend, point guard Jamaal Tinsley (26); the 2004 Defensive Player of the Year, All-Star forward Ron Artest (25) who last year legally changed his name to Metta World Peace; and Pacers legend, shooting guard Reggie Miller (39) to provide veteran leadership; the Pacers thought they had everything in place for immediate and future championship contention.

Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worst during the team’s 2004-2005 campaign, the infamous Pacers – Pistons brawl incident, known as the Malice at the Palace, happened; a small altercation between players on the court that turned into a massive brawl between Pacers’ players and Pistons’ fans involving a scene where the controversial World Peace (ironic as it may sound) chased down Pistons’ fans onto the stands. Six Pacers got suspended including O’Neal (15 games), Jackson (30 games) and World Peace (remainder of the season), the team’s top three players; and everything went down hill soon after that. Despite making as far as the Eastern Conference Semifinals that year as a sixth seed (44-38), the team was never able to overcome all the internal and external pressure that came with the incident. After barely making another playoff run in 2006, again as a sixth seed (41-41), the Pacers continued to sink into obscurity; missing the playoffs from 2007 to 2010 and posting a pedestrian 139-189 Win-Loss record over the stretch (.428 Win-Loss Percentage). Even when they finally made their way back to the playoffs last year (2011) as an eighth seed (37-45), they were seen as nothing more than just mere fillers; however, as media and fans later realize, the 2011 playoff run turned out to be the spark needed to put the franchise back on its feet.

After another slow start, the Pacers managed to finish the 2010-2011 regular season strong; they began winning more games since, then assistant coach, Frank Vogel took over the head coaching job and won enough games to clinch the final playoff spot. In the playoffs, the Pacers had to play the Chicago Bulls, the team with the best record in the NBA that year, making them the underdog in the series. As expected, the Bulls were too much to handle and the Pacers fell to their old rival in five games. However, everybody who watched that series would tell you that it was closer than the result indicates; the Pacers made it tough for the Bulls on both ends of the floor resulting in four games decided by only six points or less in which they managed to steal one.

This new-found confidence the team discovered after proving to themselves that they can play with the best teams in the league, became the enabler which finally unlocked the potential that recently announced Executive of the Year, Larry Bird, saw when he assembled this new generation Pacers team. Equipped with a roster featuring a mix between rising young talents such as the physically imposing 7 foot 2 inch All-Star center Roy Hibbert (24), do-it-all athletic swingman Paul George (21), aggressive scoring point guard George Hill (25), lightning fast point guard Darren Collison (24) and the MVP of the University of North Carolina’s 2009 NCAA championship team, power forward Tyler Hansbrough (26); and established players such as All-Star small forward Danny Granger (28), two-time All-Star power forward David West (31), and former Sixth Man of the Year, Brazilian combo guard Leandro Barbosa (29); the Pacers are enjoying their best season in seven years playing a brand of basketball that relies on high energy, collectivity and discipline on both ends of the floor.

Do the Pacers stand a real chance against the Heat? Considering the home court advantage and seeing how successful they have been the last two games in creating mismatches to exploit the big hole created in Bosh’s absence, the odds certainly work in their favor. Are the Pacers a legit championship contender? Probably not ahead of more established teams like say the Oklahoma City Thunder or the San Antonio Spurs. However, NBA.com analyst John Schuhmann brought up an interesting statistical fact to note on Episode 77 of the NBA Hangtime Podcast that fourteen of the last 15 NBA championship team shared similar statistical characteristics in which all ranked top eleven in both offensive and defensive efficiency during the regular season. This year there are only five teams that fit the description (in no particular order): Oklahoma City Thunder, Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls, San Antonio Spurs, and last but not least, the Indiana Pacers.

So maybe they do belong in the conversation after all.