Bernucca: Have Pacers Lost Belief in Themselves?

THE END OF CIVILIZATION AS WE KNOW IT: A year before openly gay Jason Collins took up residence at the Barclays Center, members of the Houston Rockets allegedly hurled homophobic slurs at a locker room caterer, who is suing the team and his former employer.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Charlotte Bobcats center Al Jefferson, responding to teammate Jannero Pargo’s assertion that he doesn’t pass the ball once he gets it in the post:

“Well if I pass it to you, I’ll get a turnover, because you’ll be on the bench.”

TANKAPALOOZA!: The Bucks already have clinched the worst record in franchise history. If they do not put together wins in their remaining five games, they will join the 1986-87 Clippers and the 2004-05 Hawks as the only teams without consecutive victories in an 82-game season. It’s also somewhat of a bad luck charm. The Clippers finished 12-70 – 12 games worse than any other team – but picked fourth in the draft. The Hawks were 13-69 – five games clear of the next-worst squad – but selected second.

LINE OF THE WEEK: Brandan Wright, Dallas at LA Lakers, April 4: 27 minutes, 10-10 FGs, 3-3 FTs, five rebounds, one assist, two blocks, one steal, one turnover, 23 points in a 107-95 win. Did others have bigger games this week? Sure. But none of them were perfect.

LINE OF THE WEAK: Carmelo Anthony, New York vs. Washington, April 4: 37 minutes, 5-14 FGs, 0-4 3-pointers, 0-0 FTs, eight rebounds, five assists, four steals, three fouls, nine turnovers, 10 points in a 90-89 loss. On a night when Anthony received a plaque to commemorate his franchise-record and career-high 62 points earlier this season, he did not attempt a free throw for the first time this season, had a season low in points and a season high in turnovers.

TRILLION WATCH: The 2 trillions posted by Raptors forward Landry Fields at Miami on Monday, Timberwolves rookie Robbie Hummel vs. Memphis on Wednesday, Kings guard Jared Cunningham vs. the LA Lakers on Wednesday and Grizzlies forward James Johnson vs. Denver on Friday paled in comparison to Bulls center Nazr Mohammed, who on Wednesday vs. Boston became the 20th player this season – and the third Chicago player, joining rookies Erik Murphy and Tony Snell – to post at least a 5 trillion.

GAME OF THE WEEK: Phoenix at Dallas, April 12. There are plenty of big games this week – Thunder-Clippers on Wednesday and Pacers-Heat on Friday, just to name two. But those games involve teams jockeying for seeding, not playing for their postseason lives. The Suns-Mavs showdown starts a triangle that also sees both teams play Memphis once more before the season ends as the three teams battle for the final two playoff spots in the West.

GAME OF THE WEAK: Cleveland at Milwaukee, April 11. And you lucky Cavaliers fans get a visit from Boston the very next night.

TWO MINUTES: Since signing a four-year, $44 million extension last summer, Bucks center Larry Sanders has (a) broken his thumb in a bar fight, which cost him 25 games; (b) gotten into a shouting match with a teammate in front of the media; (c) gotten injured again, costing him the final 32 games of the season; (d) tested positive for pot, costing himself about $170,000; and (e) told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel “I believe in marijuana.” While we don’t disagree with Sanders’ stance on pot, he has become another walking narrative that allows the brainless and bigots to blindly bad-mouth the NBA. More on Sanders in Andy Kamenetzky’s latest Power Rankings … Pistons big Andre Drummond surpassed 400 offensive rebounds over the weekend, making him the first to reach the plateau in one season since Jayson Williams and Dennis Rodman did it in 1997-98. … The Raptors are 0-14 vs. the Heat since Chris Bosh left Toronto for Miami. … The Nets are the first team since the 1985-86 Sacramento Kings to make the playoffs after sitting at least 10 games under .500 on Jan. 1, according to Elias. Joe Johnson admitted that he wasn’t sure they were going to get there. “Honestly, I couldn’t even see it,” he said. “I kept saying to myself, ‘Eventually this is going to turn around, things are going to turn for us.'” Here are a couple things to consider as the Nets enter the playoffs: Among Eastern Conference teams, only Miami has a better mark against the West than Brooklyn (18-12). And the Nets’ current 15-game home winning streak is the longest in the NBA this season. … Unless the Lakers win four of their last five games, they will finish with their worst record since moving to Los Angeles in 1960. That doesn’t exactly sound like a prime free agent destination. … In December, D.J. Augustin’s career was at a crossroads. He was coming off a 2012-13 campaign with Indiana in which he proved to be an inadequate backup point guard to George Hill. He was signed as a free agent by Toronto but shot less than 30 percent from the field in November and dropped to third string behind unheralded rookie Dwight Buycks before being waived despite having a guaranteed contract. The Bulls already had lost Derrick Rose and were using unproven Marquis Teague to back up Kirk Hinrich, so they took a flyer on Augustin, who has responded with the best ball of his six-year career, averaging 14.6 points and 5.1 assists. “He has saved our season,” said Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, whose team is 36-16 since a 9-16 start. … The Spurs are 0-7 vs. the Thunder and Rockets and 60-10 against everyone else. … Rockets coach Kevin McHale wasn’t exactly enthralled with his team’s ball movement in Tuesday’s loss at Brooklyn. “I don’t know how (long) you have to play with somebody to throw the ball to the open man,” McHale said. “What, you’ve got to know him personally?” … Before Mavericks fans start whining about the goaltending call the NBA admitted was missed at the end of Tuesday’s home overtime loss to the Warriors, allow us to remind you of two games earlier this season in which Dallas benefited from admitted missed calls: a 100-98 win at Minnesota on Dec. 30 in which Shawn Marion got away with a shooting foul on Kevin Love in the final seconds, and a 110-107 home win over New Orleans in which Monta Ellis got away with a foul on Austin Rivers while he was shooting a 3-pointer. … Magic coach Jacque Vaughn was asked by the Orlando Sentinel about the importance of cultivating role players. “We all want to be Beyonce,” he said, “but some of us have to sing in church.”

Trivia Answer: Ray Allen at .894. … Happy 68th Birthday, Zaid Abdul-Aziz, aka Don Smith, the pride of John Jay High in Brooklyn. … To those of you holding Sixers futures tickets at 16 1/2 wins, you can finally cash in. Here are the futures odds with over/under win totals from a post by Evan Abrams back in October.

Chris Bernucca is the managing editor of SheridanHoops.com. His columns appear Monday during the season. You
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