As the NBA regular season finally hits the home stretch before what promises to be a highly entertaining two months of playoff basketball, a few of the leagues elite teams find themselves riding the struggle bus.
The two-time defending champion Miami Heat needed a strong finish against Portland on Monday just to avoid a sub .500 March. Bad losses to Boston, New Orleans and Denver were all contributors to this stretch of underwhelming play.
The Pacers have hit a whole new level of low. Since February 1st they rank as the third worst offensive team in league, ahead of just Orlando and Philadelphia.
The severity of Indy’s offensive swoon is obviously a major factor in their ordinary 11-8 record since the All-Star break and 7-7 month of March.
This stat does not bode well for the Heat and Pacers, although I have a hard time seeing both Miami and Indy taken down in the East..
Since 1970, only 4 NBA teams went .500 or worse in March and won title. Heat and Pacers are both 7-7 this month.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 25, 2014
Although the fiery Chicago Bulls, resurgent Brooklyn Nets and the surprise of the East, the suddenly viable Toronto Raptors pose second round speed bumps to the Heat and Pacers, the safe money is on these two clashing in the conference finals once again. Despite the severe incompetence on the offensive end by the Pacers and the inconsistent effort brought on a nightly basis by the Heat, I would chalk this up to boredom more than anything. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst has his own diagnosis:
The losses themselves are just a symptom, albeit a painful one, of a team that is struggling to deal with its new place in league’s ecosystem. The transition from upstart to underdog was enjoyable for the Pacers over the last few seasons and especially early this season when they were the darlings of the NBA after a fantastic start.
But life as the hunted has not agreed with them. It shows all over their faces and all over their games.
“We started off this season so great and we were excited for the end,” Pacers star Paul George said. “But we forgot about the middle and the middle is the toughest part.”
As this season has matured, the Pacers’ environment has come under assault from opponents they can both see and can’t see, from both inside and outside of their organization. Most of this is part of the process — many teams before them have tasted the same set of developing challenges they didn’t always see coming.
Windhorst makes reference to a recent week where the Pacers struggled against the Bucks, Jazz and Celtics. Three of the worst teams in the league that they likely would have rolled through early in the season. Sure, they won all three games, but they were much closer than they should’ve been considering the Pacers self-advertised dominance. If nothing else, it was a warning sign. The Pacers proceeded to lose their next four.
The assault is not just coming from other teams around the league, but from the tabloids as well. Star forward Paul George was recently the subject of a “catfish” story, which he publicly set the record straight on earlier this week.
These are new obstacles for the Pacers, who flew mostly under the radar during the regular season last year. Windhorst explains what may have changed:
Last season, Roy Hibbert mocked media members for not paying attention when he barely showed up on the Defensive Player of the Year ballots despite his dominance. This year, Hibbert is a strong candidate to win the award but he his poor games don’t go unnoticed as they once did.
Saturday he was outplayed by Marc Gasol in a loss in Memphis when he had four points and no rebounds. Monday he was outplayed by Joakim Noah, who almost had another triple-double while Hibbert had three points and just five rebounds.
Now, when he gets fouls the opposing crowds cheer. When he got his fourth foul and had to leave the game Monday, Noah when on one of his clapping and stomping routines because he was proud the Bulls had forced Hibbert from the floor. That wasn’t happening in the recent past.
Is this all a late season mirage, the wear and tear of the constant grind that the NBA regular season is?
While a four point and zero rebound performance is worthy of a double take, it should be remembered that Hibbert and George both went through long periods of mediocre play last season, only to turn it up once the playoffs began.
Let’s not forget that the Pacers lost five of their last six games a season ago before pummeling the Knicks and taking the Heat to Game 7 in the conference finals. While Indy’s play now is certainly discouraging, all of the goals they set at the beginning of the season are still more than obtainable.
They still hold a two game lead on the Heat, who they host on Wednesday with a chance to extend that lead to three games with just 10 more to go. That would be the first step for the Pacers in accomplishing their ultimate goal of dethroning the Heat, making the Finals and taking home the Larry O’Brien trophy.
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