Indiana Pacers Bad Injury Luck Has Reversed Course

It isn’t St. Patrick’s Day yet, but the Indiana Pacers must have found a four-leaf clover. Because the awful injury luck that has plagued them all season has not only disappeared — it has reversed course and is now afflicting their opponents.

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This year’s Pacers have been one of the most injured teams I’ve ever seen. They have been without Paul George since August, as everyone knows, but George Hill has also missed most of the season. David West started the year on the mend missing 15 games, and C.J. Watson, C.J. Miles, and Rodney Stuckey have all been hampered significantly.

They have gotten healthy of late, however.

And now they continue to run into teams missing their key players.

When they faced the San Antonio Spurs, future Hall of Famer Manu Ginobili sat. Against the New Orleans Pelican, MVP candidate Anthony Davis was out. Steph Curry, the MVP candidate most have neck and neck with James Harden atop the leaderboard, missed the Pacers’ win over Golden State Warriors on Sunday night.

Now, with the Indiana Pacers entering the unfriendly confines of Chesapeake Energy Arena to take on the desperate-for-wins Oklahoma City Thunder, four-time scoring champ Kevin Durant will be sidelined after undergoing a minor operation on his foot.

The Pacers have to be happy not to face Durant. But they still have to deal with Russell Westbrook, an MVP candidate in his own right.

The Pacers went 2-1 against the Spurs, Pelicans, and Warriors, and were a late-game collapse away from winning all three games. These wins were invaluable for an Indiana team that had failed to beat good teams before February and will likely need every win to scrape its way into the playoff picture.

The Pacers have to be happy not to face Durant. But they still have to deal with Russell Westbrook, an MVP candidate in his own right.

At least outwardly, the team is not expecting anything to come easy just because KD isn’t playing.

Frank Vogel warned of thinking otherwise in this piece by Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star.

"“You can’t assume that it’s a weaker team; that’s the first thing,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said Monday. “You’ve got to make sure your guys are guarding against that. (The team is) just different.”"

Yes, as Cavin notes, Thunder are just 12-16 without Durant.

But there is an important caveat: 10 of those losses came without Russell Westbrook as well.

And C.J. Miles knows that Westbrook alone — plus all the other quality players on the Thunder — mean this game, in a hostile environment, is still going to be tough.

"“They’re still tough,” Pacers guard C.J. Miles said. “They’ve got shooters out there. They’ve got one of the best shot blockers in the league and a guy at the point guard position playing as good as anybody in the league right now. He’s dangerous [and] he’s shown he can win games … You definitely know that the game plan changes … without those guys out there, but it definitely doesn’t make you go, ‘Oh, we’re going to win now … You’ve still got pros [to play against].”"

In short, there may be no Kevin Durant tonight, and the lack of Anthony Davis and Steph Curry might have helped in the past.

But Russell is still Russell and the Thunder are still the Thunder.

The Indiana Pacers remain the underdog.

Next: Rodney Stuckey Asked to Come off the Bench

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The Pacers Bad Injury Luck Has Reversed Course – Now Their Opponents Are Reeling

By Jared Wade | Feb 24, 2015

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