The Indiana Pacers come into the weekend winners of six of their last seven games. They have three games left to play in the regular season and can be no worse than the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
As the Pacers surge towards the postseason, the same could be said for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Philadelphia 76ers. The Cavs have won nine of their last ten games and the Sixers have won twelve-straight games. Even though the Pacers have been playing great, they have barely kept up with them. They still have a shot at the third or fourth seed if either team loses the next two or three of their remaining games.
Sportsbooks currently have the Pacers odds of winning the Eastern Conference at 50 to 1 and even longer odds of 175 to 1 of winning their first NBA Championship.
Both of those odds would exceed the loftiest of expectations, so what should we expect of the Pacers this postseason?
There’s one thing we know about the Pacers this season, they struggle in the paint against big men. Nikola Jokic, Anthony Davis and Andre Drummond have made mince meat of Indiana this season. Indiana loves to play with a smaller, more athletic lineup, but those guys can’t do anything with a true center.
Indiana’s first round opponent will either be the Cleveland Cavaliers, Philadelphia 76ers or the Miami Heat. Out of those teams, the Heat would be the worst-case scenario. Hassan Whiteside cleaned up the boards this season against the Pacers. Domantas Sabonis did help to erase some of Whiteside’s advantage, but the Pacers have had the most success since starting Bojan Bogdanovic and Thaddeus Young as a stretch-four. Starting Sabonis would leave the bench without much help when Myles Turner is out of the game.
The Sixers would be also be a tough match-up for the Pacers. Philly has a lot of length and now that it looks like Joel Embiid could be ready at the start of the postseason, they will be at full strength. One advantage that the Pacers could exploit against the Sixers would be Victor Oladipo’s defense against the young Philly backcourt. The Pacers did win the season series 2-1, but Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid have had huge games. I don’t like the Pacers prospects in a playoff series against the 76ers.
I believe the best-case scenario would be against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Am I really hoping the Pacers face LeBron James in the playoffs? Absolutely. The Pacers won the season series against the Cavs 3-1 and they match-up well against them. LeBron’s supporting cast isn’t as stacked as past squads. He will no doubt carry his team in the playoffs and Indiana could unleash Lance Stephenson on him. He has had success defending him in the past and have a lot of history with each other. The Cavs won’t have a size advantage other than LeBron himself. It would be a competitive series that the Pacers would have the best odds of advancing.
No matter which team Indiana will face in the first round of the 2018 NBA Playoffs, it will be a difficult series. The Pacers have had a surprising season and they could have one last surprise for us.
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About the Author…
Bobby Roberts (otherwise known as Sweetbob) is the creator of ‘America’s White Boy’ and contributor at Project Shanks. His writing has been featured on ESPN’s ‘SportsNation’, Sports Illustrated’s Hot Clicks, Guyspeed, and various other sites. You can follow him on Twitter at @Sweetbob.