You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story

[trekfan]

Game Update













Tate's Take:


We got our *ss kicked. From the opening tip nothing went right on defense ... Thibs and Jimmy Butler are well-practiced at torturing the Pacers and we didn't do much to slow them down all night long. KAT was insanely good -- anytime he was on the floor, he was in control. Even when we got him to foul out with under two minutes to go, I didn't think we'd be able to pull it off ... and we didn't.

[georgiafan]

a rare loss for the pacers

[trekfan]

Quote: Originally Posted by georgiafan

a rare loss for the pacers

Just couldn't get stops. Worried that my defense is too soft this year, but it's early in the season and we're a scoring team anyway, so I'm not fretting too terribly ... but if the defense doesn't shape up some, might have to look into grabbing a stopper type to come off the bench.


Glenn Robinson is not defending terribly well and that's a problem.

[trekfan]

Ch. 55

The season was going well. We were second place in the East, with Philly a half-game behind us and Cleveland two games ahead of us. Both conferences had their sets of front runners and it was looking like there were about 5-6 teams that would be likely to win a title — and we were in that group.



So was Philly. Embiid, as usual, was having a great season averaging 22.3 PPG, 8.5 RPG, and 2.1 BPG — he was rocking it. With Covington and Simmons sitting out the game with minor injuries, Philly wasn’t at full strength but they were playing at home and they were chirping.



“Of course we can win the title,” Embiid said before the game. “There’s no doubt in any of our minds that we can make the Finals and win it. We’re good enough, for sure.”





I didn’t doubt that, but I sure as hell wasn’t about to let them walk over us to get to the Finals. No sir. In the first, the game was a tight, tense contest — the game started out with Philly getting the tip and then Fultz drilling a shot right in my face. Fultz was FIRE that night, he and I both just dueled, but when he hit that first shot the crowd got really into it.



No worries though — we might have been guys in our 20s, but none of us were getting carried away. We calmly went down court, set a screen, and I slung a pass to Jabari.







Saric put up token defense (that sure wasn’t going to earn him a contract extension) and Embiid was late getting to the ball. That would be the story for Sixers’ interior defense all night, as they either went up soft or rotated over too late.



In the first, Philly stayed alive and slayed us from deep — triple after triple fell and with each one questions had to be asked. Like “WHAT THE HELL” as Fultz just seemed to feed off the crowd.



In the second, things got chippy. We went inside hard and got fouled increasingly harder. Embiid seemed frustrated at Saric’s soft defense and tried to set the tone. He ended up committing a flagrant one on Harrison.







Harrison sunk both shots, we got the ball back but turned it over. Embiid went galloping down the court, went inside for what he assumed was an easy shot, but instead got blocked from behind by Myles. Embiid couldn’t believe it and we got the ball back, went down the court, and tossed it back inside to Myles … who was promptly fouled by Embiid.



That was three on “The Process” and Brett Brown sat him down for the rest of the quarter. At the half we had a slim lead but we definitely felt we had momentum.







In the third, we carried that momentum out in a devastating fashion, going on a 14-2 run to open the quarter. Our go to shot? The mid-range pull-up. In classic Jordan fashion, we’d set the pick, roll inside, and pull-up for a deuce while the defense sagged back and waited for us to attack the paint. We switched up our strategy and that forced Philly to play us tightly.



That resulted in a our three ball finally going in (Sabonis came alive in the second half, scoring most of his points) and once we got to the fourth, the game was well out of reach. We were up by 20 when I hit a shot that I couldn’t believe went down — it bounced twice on the rim and then sunk.







Philly called a timeout after that shot went in and McHale pulled the starters. “When you start doing *hit like that, it’s time to rest up — we got the Suns tomorrow night.”



McHale put in the Pit Crew, led by Sabonis and JULIO (the whitest Hispanic ever) and JULIO (he also gets his name in all caps because damn was that man fun to watch) had no mercy. He finished up the rest of the game, showing more of his post moves and his fearlessness in just launching triples. We loved watching the pit crew.



We won going away.

[georgiafan]

glad to see you back on the on the winning track the 76ers look like they could use another player to be a real threat

[trekfan]

Quote: Originally Posted by georgiafan

glad to see you back on the on the winning track the 76ers look like they could use another player to be a real threat

Maybe. With the amount of money they're going to need to pay Simmons and Fultz in the next two seasons, it's going to be hard to find a star to bring there (at least one in their prime anyway). Saric is also going to be expensive and he's likely to be moved in the offseason in a sign and trade -- Philly can't afford him, Simmons, and Fultz without locking themselves into serious cap trouble for a core that might not be good enough to get out of the East.

[trekfan]

Ch. 56

We finished the first third of the 2019-20 season in 1st place out East. Only a few days before Christmas (where we were facing the league worse Heat — tanking like nothing else), and there were clear trends developing:

A. We were good. Our team chemistry was in good shape, guys were loose, and every game we went into it feeling like we could win.

B. We weren’t the only good team.

C. Teams were tanking HARD for the loaded 2020 draft and injuries were helping them do it.

Out East, we were in 1st but we had little breathing room. LeBron and company were right on our heels and behind them were Philly and Detroit. Boston and Brooklyn were competitive and we were working their way up the standings, but the last two spots — 7th and 8th — were a four team race between the Raptors, the Magic, the Hawks, and the Bulls (of all teams). The playoff seeding was going to be interesting that year.

At the bottom of the East were the Heat — the god-awful Heat. Miami was just done it seemed and it looked like they got the worst end of the Winslow/Ruffin trade. The team just wasn’t gelling with Middleton and Vucevic leading the way and it looked like Spolestra was going to get pink slipped at the end of the season. The Hornets were little better — Kemba had come back and then Batum had gone down with an injury — again — and Charlotte had broken off all contract talks with him … Batum was likely to be a free agent. New York, despite moving on from George Hill, continued to struggle and the losing was beginning to wear on Porzingis; rumor was that Porzingis was finally open to moving his buddy, Willy Hermangomez, who was a solid double-double machine but didn’t seem to help the team win much.

Out West, the top squad were the Warriors but the Lakers were right on their heels and so were the Thunder. The West, like every year, was a bloodbath and the Sonics were solidly in the 5th spot thanks to Durant and a revival year from Jeff Teague (who was scoring 14.4 PPG with 8.1 APG, vast improvements over the year before). The Spurs, Blazers, ad Jazz were all battling it out for the rest of the playoff seeds, but right behind them were the Mavericks and Nuggets — the last three seeds out West would be a battle all season it looked like.

At the bottom of the conference were — once again — the Suns. Phoenix was once more suffering, sadly too — the Suns defense was atrocious and their youth was to blame. Chriss — angling for a contract extension (an expensive one too) was not performing much better than he had the year before and Phoenix was likely to move him at the deadline. Right above them were the Pelicans, surprisingly having a terrible year despite running it all back — Boogie and the Brow were both having down years and, after two straight seasons of improvements, the Pelicans were sinking back. The Clippers, of course, were sucking it up without Blake or Jordan, and doctors were telling the team that there was little chance either would be injury free by the time the deadline rolled around, so no trades for LAC.

[trekfan]

Ch. 57


December 23rd, 2019 -- "The Seattle Shootout" as it went down in Pacers' lore. We were the top team in the East (barely) and we were traveling out to the West Coast to face the newly revived Sonics. Seattle had been screwed over by David Stern, Clay Bennett, and the NBA as a whole back in 2008 – it was a wakeup call for all teams that, not matter what, if you got an owner with money and that owned wanted to move, it didn't matter how entrenched the team was – that team was likely to move.


I was just a kid when it happened, nearing my tenth birthday, but damn if it didn't scare me. If it could happen to Seattle – a team that had won a *ucking NBA title and had battled Michael Jordan in the Finals – it could happen to the Pacers, too.


Gramps, even then, saw the danger of a bad owner. “It's not about the size of a man's bank account, but the size of a man's heart,” he remarked when Bennett moved the Sonics. “Bennett doesn't really give a damn about the fans or the people … he just cares about money; owners like that can put a league out of business.”


Getting to play Seattle – with Durant back and the town buzzing – was an experience. The Sonics crowd was INSANELY loud and Durant fed on them early.


He lit us up for 25 points in the first quarter.




25 *ucking points and he was loving every second of it. We were getting run out of the building and when we got into the second McHale gave us one simple objective.


“Slow Durant,” he stated emphatically. “I don't care if you have to foul him hard, just slow him down or we're done.”


McHale wasn't joking around. He threw in a few more choice words and in the second we went out with a new mindset.


We had to *uck some people up.


We threw our weight around and I took control of the offense – if Durant was going to score 25 in one quarter, I sure as hell wasn't about to let him walk all over us in the box score. I ran play after play inside, hustled for balls, and made sure the Sonics felt like they were on their heels.


We didn't want to let them have any confidence at the half. I feel like we did a pretty good job of deflating them some.



After the thrashing we took in quarter one, we came roaring back in the second. McHale was pleased that we had managed to tie the game and told us, basically, we had a new game to play starting the third.


“It's nothing to nothing and we're setting the tone,” he said. “Let's make sure we don't let them get control of this game back.”


We came out ready to drive home the point that we – not the Sonics – were the defending champs and that we – not Durant or Jordan Bell, former Warriors both – knew how to win no matter what.


In the third, we came out and shut down Durant. It was a group effort, led by Harrison Barnes, who offensively, wasn't doing a lot but on defense? Harrison was kicking KD's ***. He was glued to him around screen, corner curls, and just about every horns play. Harrison was giving it all on D and that left the scoring up to me.


I gladly took the challenge – guys in the league like Westbrook and Curry were averaging over 30 a game, but I knew I could do that too … it just didn't make sense to me to go after that when I could pass the ball and keep defenses guessing.


The third quarter was rough for both teams and really it was Lance who kept us in the game. He came off the bench in the third and did what he always does … he gave us a boost and some sway. Lance was huge for us as we struggled to put the Sonics away.


Entering the fourth we were down by two. McHale put me in early. “Knock 'em out,” he told me. Part command, part request, part encouragement … I had missed every shot I took in the third.


I didn't miss a single one in the fourth. I went inside and faced down the trees. Joey Valanciunas was eating us alive on the low block (it was impressive to see him work the post despite him kicking our *ss) and Durant had disappeared – much like in the Finals some games, Harrison had gotten to him and shut him down.


The game was tight up until the last four minutes and then we finally broke away – Valanciunas started missing shots, Durant was ice cold, and Victor had stepped up to help me close out Sonics on offense.







We walked away with a win that we probably shouldn't have, but it was good to know we could come back. Down by a dozen at the end of one, we battled back and won despite Seattle having Durant go supernova.