This is probably it. The Indiana Pacers are 9-19 right now, and on the brink of no return. Twenty-three more loses will kill any hopes of a .500 season — the natural dividing line between a team being any good or mostly bad.
With a 9-19 record, they must go 32-22 the rest of the way to finish 41-41. They are in the terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad Eastern Conference, so .500 will certainly get them into the playoffs. Maybe as a six and seven seed. Even 38 wins should get them in. While 38 wins — and even 41 wins — won’t light up most Pacers fans with glee, the team’s stated goal this season is to make the playoffs. So we may as well measure “success” using the same standard they’re using to measure themselves.
Fortunately, the upcoming stretch of schedule should give the Pacers a leg up on crawling their way back towards .500. It is lightyears ahead of the brutal schedule the team has played since David West and C.J. Watson returned.
The Pacers got their first reprieve into this easier part of the year when the played the Timberwolves in Minnesota on Saturday. The Wolves are truly terrible, but that game was still the second night of a road/road back-to-back, and the lack of energy showed in the second half as Indiana nearly relinquished a win after leading by 19.
But now the good times really begin — and just as George Hill makes his return.
Here are the next 18 games for the Pacers (with the opponent’s current record:
vs New Orleans (14-13)
at Detroit (5-23)
at Brooklyn (11-15)
vs Chicago (18-9)
vs Miami (13-15)
at Milwaukee (14-14)
at Los Angeles Lakers (8-19)
at Utah (9-20)
at Golden State (23-3)
vs Boston (10-15)
at Philadelphia (3-23)
vs Minnesota (5-21)
vs Detroit (5-23)
at Charlotte (9-19)
The Golden State Warriors and Chicago Bulls are the only two top-tier teams the Indiana Pacers will face in their next 14 games. The New Orleans Pelicans and Milwaukee Bucks are fine teams, both hovering at .500. The Miami Heat are O.K., but they aren’t scaring anyone while Chris Bosh remains injured.
But the other 10 games are against teams that are somewhere between bad and sewage-on-fire, with 7 of these contest coming against the worst seven teams in the NBA.
When we wrote about the previous, brutal schedule, I said that we would know a lot about this team by today.
Well, we do. We know that they aren’t very good, and that the early 5-7 record was like lipstick on a pig. We know they need to get much, much better — and soon — if they want to have any hope at getting to .500. We know that the Pacers could lose to any of the bad teams they will face between now and January 17.
But David West and C.J. Watson are now back and George Hill will make his debut tonight. So they have a chance to turn things around.
And if they can manage to go 9-5 or 10-4 during this stretch, they may be able salvage this ugly season and set themselves up nicely to make a legit run at the playoffs.