Pacers top Bucks in OT, extend win streak to 7
The Indiana Pacers’ season to date has been defined largely by the absence and potential return of All-Star Paul George, out since suffering a horrendous broken leg during a Team USA exhibition this summer. While George may be back on the court sooner than imagined, though, the Pacers are proving that they’re plenty capable without the best player on the roster. In fact, the team’s play of late suggests that they can pose problems for higher-seeded squads in the postseason even if George remains on the sidelines.
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The Pacers continued an excellent run of form Thursday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse with a 109-103 overtime win over the Milwaukee Bucks, their seventh victory in a row and 13th in their last 15 contests. Over that stretch, Indiana has moved from near-certain lottery team to the head of a crowded pack seeking the last two playoff spots, a single game ahead of the Miami Heat for seventh place and now just 3 1/2 behind Milwaukee for sixth.
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This latest win exemplified many of the team’s strengths during this remarkable run. Playing without starting center Roy Hibbert as he sat to rest his knee, the Pacers still held the Bucks to 38.5 percent shooting from the field, including a very poor 6-of-21 night from the previously red-hot Khris Middleton. At the other end, Indiana’s bench followed up a season-high 73 points in Tuesday’s blowout over the Orlando Magic with 52 on Thursday, riding Rodney Stuckey (25 points on 8-of-17 shooting) and Luis Scola (17 points and 15 boards) to success. Here’s a look at two of Stuckey’s best moments:
Despite those positives, this game easily could have ended up as a loss for the Pacers. They failed to score in the final 2:45 of regulation, losing a 96-91 lead and giving Middleton an open look at a potential 18-foot winner at the buzzer. The fact that the Pacers controlled the extra period is a testament to their ability to work through adversity and maintain their composure.
It’s unclear how long the Pacers’ winning streak can last, but they certainly have an opportunity to get it to double digits with upcoming games against the Boston Celtics (Saturday), struggling Toronto Raptors (Monday), and injury-riddled Chicago Bulls (Wednesday). At the very least, though, the Pacers have found success in several areas that should continue for the foreseeable future. Stuckey has been a revelation since moving from the starting lineup to the bench in the team’s last game before the All-Star break, averaging better than 20 points and 50 percent shooting from both the field and three-point range in his last 10 games. The Pacers are also in the top 10 in points per possession allowed and appear to have recaptured a decent portion of the defensive acumen that made them so fearsome in the first half of 2013-14.
It would be wrong to depend on George to lift the Pacers to another level of playoff readiness, but the return of such a talented player would make this team considerably more fearsome as a low seed. It’s difficult to assign any likelihood to a comeback — George is not going to hit his self-created, hoped-for date of March 15 and head coach Frank Vogel has said that the team is not counting on him to make an impact.
Nevertheless, the mere fact that people are talking about George possibly shifting the course of the postseason indicates the strides that the Pacers have made. This is not the team that sat at 10-19 on December 20. With several high-ranking East squads seeing late-season troubles, it’s easy to imagine the Pacers pulling off an upset this spring, with or without George.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
