The Indiana Pacers vs the undefeated Golden State Warriors marks one weeknight in the regular season when everybody will be watching this team
There was a time — a not so long time ago in a galaxy not even that far away — when the Indiana Pacers garnered national attention. Around this time two years ago, they were on top of the Eastern Conference and looking like title favorites.
Miami was still there and the Spurs are always there, but the Pacers had taken the Heat to the brink, in a Eastern Conference Finals Game 7, the previous year and were playing historically great defense. They looked great and despite a still tough-to-stomach offense, Paul George had ascended to new heights.
Indiana was the team that the basketball diehard was beginning to fall for.
Then they fell apart, for a still-unexplainable reason, and then Paul George broke his leg and then they lost all their starting big men.
There was a future that looked bright, but it was supposed to be far away. Like that other galaxy from the movie.
Instead, the Indiana Pacers have come out of the gates (well, minus that initial 0-3 stumble) setting the world on fire and looking like arguably the second-best team in the East. I sincerely doubt that even the pie-in-the-sky, ever-optimistic mental stylings of Frank Vogel thought this team would have been capable of going 11-2 in November.
The current road trip hasn’t been ideal.
The Pacers got smoked by the Trail Blazers and then gave up a trillion points to the Jazz while proving themselves incapable of getting any stops late.
That doesn’t matter though. Nobody actually watches Pacers games, so nobody really knows that just happened. They just know that Paul George is Katniss Everdeen-level on fire right now and that the Pacers are a small-ball wonder that is barnstorming the league (forget the fact that this is only half true) and that a lot of people say that he may be able to give the unsinkable Golden State Warriors their first loss tonight.
In a somewhat rare instance, people in Indiana want to pay to go to an NBA game.
Tonight's #Pacers-Warriors is a sellout, even the Standing Room Only section. I'm told this is greatest demand since Eastern Conf Finals '14
— Candace Buckner (@CandaceDBuckner) December 8, 2015
Then there is the national media, which is ready to talk about the Pacers again for the first time since Paul George shattered his leg on TV and Lance Stephenson was offending onlookers by blowing into another man’s ear.
One of the Mikes of Mike and Mike said into a mic that the Pacers will win tonight. Despite my overwhelming suspicion that the two Mikes of this show have probably not seen a combined two Pacers games this season, this is news.
Sorry @Pacers, @espngreeny just gave you the #KOD. https://t.co/COP6KTlgPH
— UNSPORTSMANLIKE Radio (@UnSportsESPN) December 8, 2015
Look, I don’t meant to disparage Mike here. It’s really not his job to watch the Pacers play basketball. He has way too many other things, namely football-related things, I imagine, to follow and give semi-informed analysis about. That’s what they pay him for.
But it just goes to show (a) how big of a deal the Warriors are right now, to be garnering such major attention for the NBA before Christmas, and (b) how surprisingly good the Pacers have been since they are actually making some people think they could potentially beat one of the best basketball teams anyone has ever seen.
Most likely outcome? Indiana loses by a bunch. It’s the Warriors, after all, and there is absolutely no shame in losing by 20 to this team. They are that good.
People are excited though. And the Pacers are playing good enough at time right now (like that time recently when they hit a franchise record 19 triples) and Paul George is playing great enough all the time now (like those times when he scored 48 or 40 or 39 or 36 or 34 or 33 or 32 or 31) that it isn’t lunacy to suggest the Warriors might leave the state of Indiana with a loss.
Regardless, everyone is tuning in. It’s not a game to be missed.