Time for Pacers to panic?

[JT123]

4 straight loses now. I know the Heat have lost 3 straight, but 2 of those loses were very close. Indian's last 3 loses have been by double figures. :confusedshrug:

[Uncle Drew]

No.

[DuMa]

yes its time for them to unleash Bynum

[moe94]

They need to blow it up.

[Wang Zhi Zhi]

they're just not that good of the team, them playing in the east plus having a huge size advantage over the heat are the only things that makes them contenders

[SavageMode]

Evan Turner... poison. :no:

[JT123]

Good news for them is that after tonight their schedule turns super soft. But it's still a bad sign that they are getting blown out by all the good teams they have faced lately.

[navy]

No.

[WWRWestbrookDo?]

Stephenson has come back down to earth...had a good game today tho

and PG seems to be off...I believe he has a back injury.

[JT123]

Stephenson has come back down to earth...had a good game today tho

and PG seems to be off...I believe he has a back injury.
I think the whole team has come back down to earth. They were a little too dominant at the beginning of the season, especially considering they only won 49 games last year. Watson and Scola are good additions, but they don't make your team THAT much better. :lol

[nashwade]

I think the whole team has come back down to earth. They were a little too dominant at the beginning of the season, especially considering they only won 49 games last year. Watson and Scola are good additions, but they don't make your team THAT much better. :lol

The Blazers syndrome

[Milbuck]

How many teams have been dominant throughout an entire season? With zero slumps and zero letups, 100% constant domination? Not many.

It was unfair to expect the Pacers to become this all-time great team with a legendary defense, just like it was unfair to expect PG to sustain his 25-27ppg production from early in the season. They're not the 96 Bulls. They may not be a team we remember 20-30 years from now, but they're still championship contenders, struggling or not.

This is good though, if teams must peak and must slump, this is a good time to slump. They have time to work through this and come out an even stronger team.

[UK2K]

Said it all season, they'd be the #6 seed in the west.

There's 5 teams in the west who, if playing indy's schedule, would have a better record.

[davehos]

4 straight loses now. I know the Heat have lost 3 straight, but 2 of those loses were very close. Indian's last 3 loses have been by double figures. :confusedshrug:

Nope. The East is still theirs to lose.

[JohnFreeman]

Heat and Spurs end the season with HCA

[DMAVS41]

They should be worried. They looked horrible tonight. Mavs beat them by 11 and the Pacers actually got lucky that Dirk was way off. They didn't even defend him very well...he missed like 5 or 6 wide open shots.

The Pacers offense looked dreadful much of the game as well and actually made the Mavs defense look good for a change.

I don't know what is going on, but I've seen 3 of their losses lately and they look pretty bad.

[Bibby4Three]

Why do all my posts and replies about the Overrated Pacers and PG get deleted?

:coleman:

[All Net]

No they will still be in the ECF.

[Fire Colangelo]

They should look for better ways to adjust Evan Turner into the lineup. The guy played 25 minutes and did absoutely nothing on the court today.

They shouldn't be panicking as in blowing the team up, but they should be panicking when they're getting beaten by double digits by a Mavs team with Dirk having an off night.

[UK2K]

No they will still be in the ECF.
So?

So would 10 other teams in the west.

[Eric Cartman]

To be fair he hasn't been much of a difference from a production standpoint from what granger gave them (jackshit)

Also stephenson costing himself some money with his play lately.

[J Shuttlesworth]

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1125986/chokin.gif

[All Net]

So?

So would 10 other teams in the west.

Point is they have no need to panic. At worse all that happens is they won't have HCA.

[BoutPractice]

Not panic, but worry a bit, yeah.

3 games is still manageable, but any team that loses 4 in a row... or indeed has shown it can lose 4 games out of 7, should feel a little bit of danger if they're supposedly contenders. After all, what makes a champion a champion almost by definition is that when it matters, they won't lose 4 games out of 7 no matter who the opponent is and what kind of game they bring against you. (That applies to Miami as well)

There's also the fact that they're relatively comfortable losses... the fact that playoff winners are often going to be heating up right around this time... lack of offense, and inexperienced leadership. There are real question marks. Certainly those who act like the Pacers going to the Finals is a certainty should reevaluate and see the conference as open to surprises. They still very well may win it all, but they'll have to show something in the next stretch.

[Real Men Wear Green]

What would be the value in panicking?

[Clyde]

No thing to Panic about, can't win them all

[BoutPractice]

I mean, the question is not obviously if the Pacers should literally panic, more if they're more vulnerable in the playoffs than we thought they were.

[Dro]

I'm baffled like all of us here in Indiana. I assume either they are bored/ready for the playoffs, even though they're still trying for the #1 seed, they are not playing as inspired out the gate as they were at first. The Granger trade probably messed up some chemistry and they just need to get it back. Continue to work Turner into the rotation. They have like 20 games or something before the playoffs right? I'm confident they can fix it before then. Also, the playoffs are just a different animal. You're asking teams to beat the Pacers defense 4 times in a series and I just don't see that from anyone but Miami this year. The Pacers offense struggles and they have struggled as a team against the OKC but they blew out the Spurs and those are the 2 main Western teams I'm worried about. In a 7 game series, I think defense>>>>>>>>>>>>offense usually so I'm still don't think OKC can beat us in a 7 game series unless somebody other than Westbrook or Durant goes off and the defense is too good imo to allow those 2 to go off every game. We would make some adjustments. I still fear Miami more than anybody as honestly in my heart, they are the only team this year that I feel can beat this team in a 7 game series. They share the ball, have great shooting, chemistry, experience and the best player on the planet who plays unselfish ball which is how you beat the Pacers. Thats why I don't think OKC would win in a series against us this year. The style that Durant and Westbrook play just does not consistently beat the Pacers. They're defense is too good and we would force someone else to beat us. IMO of course. The Pacers are built for the playoffs, not the regular season. They have depth, defense, rebounding, chemistry and they have plenty of scorers despite the fact that the team struggles as a whole on offense. I still think its Vogel's system because they have more than enough scorers. They just had a different fire at the beginning of the season for many reasons and now I think everybody is ready for the playoffs.

I also think Copeland should get more playing time. Not counting on Bynum so I have no opinion on his role really.

I'm baffled how they are getting down so big in the 1st quarter of these games. Thats a sure sign of fatigue, not being motivated, or being old and they aren't old. West is but nobody else is. But other than that, I'm still confident in the team. They seem to get down a lot in the first half even when they were winning so I don't know what to make of that really. I know they'll turn up the defense in the playoffs and thats all I'm worried about for now.

I do know that I am 33 years old and for as long as I have rooted for this team, this his honestly the best team we've had here and the best shot at a title. I feel they are better than the 98 or 2000 team as far as potential goes.