The Pacers Defense Has Become Awful

There were a lot of ways this Indiana Pacers season could have gone. In training camp, I had a relatively optimistic view, presuming that the team would be far from a contender but comfortably reach the postseason. I figured C.J. Miles and Rodney Stuckey, while entirely pedestrian compared to Paul George and Lance Stephenson, were solid pros who would buy into the system and help this squad reach 40 wins.

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Then David West sprained his ankle and missed a month. Then George Hill’s injury was determined to be much more severe than expected and he was out until almost Christmas. Then alllllllll the other injuries befell the Pacers.

At this point, it seemed like Indiana would struggle to make the playoffs but would remain competitive. And that’s what we saw, with the likes of Donald Sloan and A.J. Price and Lavoy Allen playing major minutes for a team that fought every night and played fine defense but were outclassed talent-wise in nearly every fourth quarter.

The trajectory looked locked in — Indiana wouldn’t get a top lottery pick and they would miss out on the postseason.

Then the improbable happened.

The Pacers caught some schedule breaks and turned into an offensive juggernaut for a month and a half, using All-Star-level play from George Hill and Rodney Stuckey (what?) to stack up 13 wins in 15 games.

Man alive. This was nuts. And it looked like not only were the Indiana Pacers a lock for the playoffs but that they might just continue climbing the standings into sixth place — where they would avoid the Hawks and Cavaliers in the playoffs to have an outside shot at the second round.

Somehow, this season ending on a positive note started to seem not only plausible but likely. I really wasted expecting that while watching the terrible, awful, ugly games the Pacers were playing throughout December.

Now, something even less probably has happened: The team that was the best defensive squad in the NBA for the previous two seasons and that had been difficult to score against even this year with all the injuries turned into a complete sieve that can’t keep an opponent from scoring less than 100 points in a game.

Of all the ways this season could have gone, this is the last thing I ever would have suspected.

The offensive boom was strange, but we’ve seen this team play good offensive basketball for small stretches in recent years. But with the possible exception of the late-season Struggle last year, I can’t remember them being this easy to score on for five straight games.

Here is the ugliness by the numbers.

Four of their past five opponents have scored at least 100 points and three have scored 110 or more.

Five of five have put up 105.8 points per 100 possessions or better against a Pacers team that had allowed 100.0 per 100 this season before this five-game skid. Three put up 114.3 or better.

Four of five have made 9 or more 3-pointers against a team that had only allowed 7.1 makes from deep per game. And it wasn’t volume shooting: Those opponents hit 54.2%, 50.0%, 41.7%, and 52.2%, respectively, against a team that had allowed the opposition to make just 33.7% previously.

Four of five have shot 28 or more free-throw attempts (37, 31, 28, and 33, respectively) against a team that normally only allows 23.0 per game.

What in the world is going on?

Before these past five games, the Pacers were the seventh best defensive team in the league, allowing just 100.0 points per 100 possessions. From February 1 to March 15, they were even better: ranking second in the NBA over that 16-game stretch while allowing an insanely low 96.8 points per 100.

But over these five games, they have allowed 114.4 points per 100 while fouling constantly and letting opponents bomb away from deep.

This tendencies are completely out of the ordinary for this teams, and Roy Hibbert tried to explain what was going on to Candace Buckner, as recently published in the Indianapolis Star.

"“I’m going to give you a real answer, not a (B.S.) answer,” Roy Hibbert said, before offering his opinion on what has been ailing the defense. “I think that sometimes we take the easy way out.“In the years past, we’ve been able to earn no calls and get stops,” Hibbert continued, “and I think the easier way out has been to foul, myself included. I haven’t done a good job guarding my own man and sometimes my help rotation is not as good as it has been. Sometimes we foul and that’s what’s leading the guys to shoot a lot of free throws.”"

There were a lot of ways this Indiana Pacers season could have gone.

But them completely forgetting how to play defense at the most critical juncture of the season and torpedoing their playoff chances is not something I saw coming. And considering how devastating they were on both ends from February 1 to March 15, I’m not sure anybody could have foreseen this.

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