Indiana Pacers Breaking Into the Top 10 of the Power Rankings
By Ben Gibson
The Indiana Pacers are starting to break into the top 10 in the power rankings, but a tough schedule ahead could halt their progress.
The Indiana Pacers are winners of seven in a row as they bounced back from a losing streak with the best basketball they’ve played all season.
During that time they’ve had the best defense in the NBA and the 14th best offense, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that they’ve been winning. Sure, they weren’t playing the NBA’s best, but they took care of business both at home and on the road. And while it isn’t accounted for in this week’s roundup, they took care of their first test in their current gauntlet of games by beating the Oklahoma City Thunder.
But it only gets tougher this week.
More from 8 Points, 9 Seconds
- 2 Studs, 1 dud from gut-wrenching Indiana Pacers loss to Charlotte Hornets
- Handing out early-season grades for Pacers’ Bruce Brown, Obi Toppin
- 3 positives, 2 negatives in Pacers In-Season Tournament win vs. Cavaliers
- 2 positives, 3 negatives from first week of Indiana Pacers basketball
- Should Isaiah Jackson’s days with Indiana Pacers be numbered?
Tonight the Indiana Pacers host the Cleveland Cavaliers, then hit the road to play the Washington Wizards before returning home to take on the Milwaukee Bucks this weekend. If the Pacers win two of those games, they move up into everyone’s top 10 in the power rankings.
But more importantly than the rankings, Indiana is only a half-game behind the Atlanta Hawks and a full game behind the Wizards. It won’t be easy to overtake either, as both have winning records in their last 10 games. Washington, in particular, is proving themselves a worthy challenger to anyone in the NBA, much less the Eastern Conference.
If the Pacers can win this week, the Pacers are moving up in more than just the power rankings.
@Jeremy_Woo. Sports Illustrated. JEREMY WOO. 10. Indiana has ripped off six straight wins and is 12–4 in the 2017 calendar year, ranking in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency over that span. Indy has also posted the best true shooting percentage (58.8%) of any team that isn’t Golden State. The Pacers are debuting in the top third of these rankings, and that probably doesn’t give them enough credit. (Last Week: 12th) — <a href=
10. Tough to get attention in the East at the minute with Boston and Washington flying … and with Cleveland and Chicago engulfed by drama. But under the radar is working nicely for the Pacers, who swept their three games last week against sub-.500 outfits in the conference (road wins at Orlando and Brooklyn to go with a home triumph over Detroit) to quietly stretch their winning streak to six games. Glenn Robinson III, meanwhile, made some news with his invite to the league’s annual slam dunk contest. It’s only a four-man field and features no shortage of mystery with Robinson having thrown down only 34 career dunks in the NBA as of Thursday’s announcement of the participants. Compare that to DeAndre Jordan’s 1,507 career regular-season dunks. Or Aaron Gordon’s 138. Or the zero dunks, for that matter, that we’ve seen in real games from the Suns’ Derrick Jones Jr., who has spent the bulk of his rookie season in the D-League. (Last Week: 11th) — <a href=. @ESPNSteinLine. ESPN. MARC STEIN
11. The Pacers have had a great run. They have proven they’re capable of being a really good team. I hope that’s enough because their schedule from now until March 6 is a flaming death gauntlet born from the nightmares of demons. They play the Wizards twice, the Spurs twice and the Cavs. The weakest team they face is Miami, which has won 10 straight. They are about to plummet down the standings. (Last Week: 15th) — <a href=. @MattMooreCBS. CBS Sports. MATT MOORE
11. A six-game winning streak has the Pacers within a game in the loss column out of a top-four seed. It’s been their best defensive stretch of the season, as they’ve held four of their last five opponents to 17 points or less in at least one quarter (and the Pistons to just 26 in the second half on Saturday). Over the streak, they’ve allowed just 92.3 points per 100 possessions with Myles Turner on the floor. But their schedule is about to get a lot tougher, with 10 of their next 12 games against teams with winning records (and one of the other two on the road against the red-hot Heat). They’ve played a league-low 13 games (and are 6-7) against that group thus far. (Last Week: 12th) — <a href=. @johnschuhmann. NBA. JOHN SCHUHMANN
9. You’ll be excused for not getting overly excited over Glenn Robinson III participating in this year’s Slam Dunk Contest, but the Indiana Pacers have quietly been one of the hottest teams in the East, winning their last seven games.<br />Sure, those wins came against Minnesota, Sacramento, Houston, Orlando, Brooklyn, Detroit and an OKC team missing Enes Kanter, but at the very least, Indiana’s annoying habit of losing to lesser teams is starting to look like a thing of the past. (Last Week: 11th) — <a href=. @GeraldBourguet. Hoops Habit. GERALD BOURGUET
Next: Miller Time Podcast Episode #174: Seventh Heaven
It won’t be easy, but it isn’t impossible when the Pacers have Jeff Teague playing like an All-Star again and Paul George closing out games with both his scoring and his defense.