8p9s Roundtable: The Indiana Pacers’ Long December

What has to happen for the Indiana Pacers to beat the Golden State Warriors back in Indiana?

Barth: Curry has to go cold for at least a few quarters and C.J. Miles will need to shoot very well from long range to complement PG, ala his performance against the Wizards. Curry is playing out of his mind right now and the numbers suggest he’ll come back down to earth eventually right? This should be the game a lot of NBA analysts circle on their calendars as a possible L for Golden State, because it’s a long trip from San Fran to Indy and their point differentials are shrinking a bit. Here’s hoping the East Coast Splash Brothers can make some noise.

Hughes: Play their game. They match up really well, an obvious goal of Larry’s. If they hit shots like they did against Washington, something they might have to do to beat Golden State, they’ll win. To beat the Warriors, though, everything has to go right.

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Furr: They’ll need a lot of things to break in their favor. PG13 and C.J. Miles need to have another hot shooting night. Ian has to be able to at least stay in the vicinity of Draymond Green. But, by far the biggest thing, George Hill (and probably Paul George for stretches) need to not get killed by Stephen Curry. He’s gonna get points, but Hill and George are both premier perimeter defenders – they need to show that. I wouldn’t be surprised if Vogel made sure one of them was on the floor whenever Steph was, even if normal rotations dictated otherwise.

Washburn: Paul George has to be PAUL GEORGE. George Hill has to knock down every corner three and probably tomahawk one or two fast break dunks. CJ Miles needs to hit at least five threes. Mahinmi needs to stay on the floor and continue to catch the ball around the rim and finish. Either Ellis, Stuckey, Budinger, or any combination of the three needs to get into the high teens. And even then, it still might be enough. Unless Vogel unveils to the world the defensive key to a Curry pick and roll, it’s likely that the Warriors will have to play poorly to lose.

Gibson: Like the responses above, it will be a mix of a cold night from Golden State and a 5-man effort from the Pacers. I think there are certain things they can do to push things in their favor, such as playing the disciplined defense we’ve seen from them in November, and continuing to keep their high pace offense going. But the biggest thing would be getting big nights out of not only C.J. Miles and Paul George, but Monta Ellis and George Hill as well. As good as the offense has been, we haven’t seen all of them hitting their strides at the same time. Part of this is due to injury and still sorting themselves out, but to defeat the defending champs, they’ll need the starters and the bench to play their best game of the year unless the Warriors just roll over.