The Indiana Pacers made a small appearance on NBA TV’s The Starters as they discussed whether that loss for the Spurs was more disappointing than the Cleveland Cavaliers’ loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Indiana Pacers win over the San Antonio Spurs was only their third over them in the past 10 seasons. While it was a solid win for the Pacers, it might have a bigger impact in the long run for the Spurs.
Despite it being only the 10th loss of the season for San Antonio, it dropped them three games back of the Golden State Warriors, possibly sealing their fate as they second seed in the Western Conference, giving the Warriors home-court advantage if they meet in the Western Conference Finals.
The loss also happened on the same night that the Cleveland Cavaliers lost to an injury-depleted Memphis Grizzlies team, prompting NBA TV’s The Starters to discuss which loss was more disappointing.
J.E. Skeets, Leigh Ellis, and Trey Kirby found the Cavs loss to be the more disappointing of the two, but Tas Melas picked San Antonio as the bigger loser, citing the fading chance of home-court advantage as the reason.
Should Indiana Pacers fans take that as a slight?
No, they shouldn’t.
While it would have been nice for the Starters to give the Pacers a little more love, Indiana’s gap between themselves and the Spurs isn’t as big the one between Cleveland and Memphis. If anything, it is sort of a backhanded compliment that 3 out of 4 of them picked the Cavaliers as the bigger loser. Melas’ answer seemed to more about the impact of the loss to the Pacers than the fact they lost to Indiana.
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However, it is annoying that Indiana is more or less a prop here, and they aren’t being talked about in a way that praises them for a solid game against the Spurs. At the same time, I understand how the outside observers look at this team skeptically, unsure if the wins like this one or the victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder are flukes or a sign of how good this Pacers team could be.
Indiana may not have gotten as much credit as they deserved for the win, but if they can string a few more together, they’ll begin demanding more respect.
The Starters also talked about the Pacers on their Monday show as well, discussing the addition of Ty Lawson.
The crew seemed to be optimistic about Lawson and curious to see if he can bring more drives to the hoop to diversify the Pacers offensive attack. We got to see a little bit of that on Monday before he went down with an ankle injury, but in his five minutes on the court, he handed out two beautiful assists.
Next: Indiana Pacers Stay In Top 15 Of the Power Rankings
Thankfully they didn’t make the Weekend Whoopsies.