Pacers Could Prove Dangerous Eight-Seed

At 25-34 through three quarters of the season, most teams would have long since given up on any shot at the playoffs. And given the year that the Indiana Pacers have had, fighting off injuries to nearly every player of consequence on the roster, they’d be the furthest thing from what one would consider a postseason contender in any other season.

This, of course, isn’t any other season, particularly not in the Eastern Conference, where six below-.500 teams are within 3.5 games of the seventh seed. If the season ended immediately, the Pacers would be the eight-seed in the conference despite their dismal record. But unlike some of the other bummer East teams sneaking into the playoff picture, the Pacers are a squad that could actually do some damage when they got there.

For one, the core of this team has made two consecutive Conference Finals, an advantage that some Pacers players think will give them a boost in the race for a playoff spot.

“We’re one of the more experienced teams, especially having played deep into the playoffs the last couple of years,” said guard C.J. Watson.

“We obviously know that in the playoffs we have experience and that we’ve been able to advance,” added forward David West. “Right now we’ve got a bunch of home games the last two months of the season. We’re going to try to take advantage of that and compete at a high level and inch out wins.”

That’s exactly what they’ve been doing over their last 10 games, winning eight over that span, including two against the Cleveland Cavaliers and another against the Golden State Warriors. Wins like those have Indiana playing their best basketball all year.

“It brings a lot of confidence,” said C.J. Miles. “You can see it on the floor. Everybody’s trusting each other, everybody is communicating, and when we see breakdowns, you don’t see heads down. You see clapping and us trying to find our way out of it. That’s what has changed a lot about certain chances we’ve had to get out of holes in games earlier in the year. You’re seeing something different now.”

Pacers center Roy Hibbert has noticed the change, too.

“I think we’re coming together a lot more, and the chemistry is getting a lot stronger. The air in this locker room is really starting to feel a lot different,” Hibbert said. “We have real opportunities to win and make a push right here.”

Perhaps the biggest part of the recent cohesion has been the fact that most of the players on the team are finally healthy. So many guys on that roster have missed many games, but getting the core group back has made a massive difference.

“We knew once we got healthy we’d be more competitive,” said Miles. “We thought we had enough to keep ourselves in reach, and now that we’re healthy we’re able to make a push. Everybody is sliding into their roles and playing the right way. It’s really starting to click.”

The only missing piece is Paul George, who is practicing in full and looks like he’ll make it back onto the court before the end of the regular season. To have the team streaking, getting healthy and returning their best player all in the month before the playoffs would make Indiana one of the scariest lower seeds of recent memory.

In short, this is a locker room that’s really excited to have their superstar back.

“That would not hurt at all. I couldn’t see any angle to it where I could say it hurt,” Miles said of getting George back. “Even on half of his leg we’d find something for him to do. He’d still help us. He’s working hard, and if he gets there he does, but if not he’ll be right there cheering for us the same way we’ve been cheering for him.”

With a favorable schedule down the stretch, the Pacers are ready to compete, and they really do believe they’ll be in the postseason when all the dust settles.

“Our intent has always been to get everybody healthy, and then ultimately try to make a push and get into one of those spots and deal with whatever happens when we get there,” said West.

With George and the rest of the Pacers healthy and getting hot at the right time, no top seed in the Eastern Conference is going to want anything to do with them in the first round of the playoffs.

Indiana has been down all season, but one thing has become clear over the course of the last 10 games: they are most assuredly not out.