The Indiana Pacers are in the playoff race, but they are both a few games away from the fourth seed and being out of the race entirely.
Welcome to our second edition of 8 Points, 9 Seconds Live, where Ben Gibson and Jacky Neal (aka, Jay Nilla) try to figure out what, if anything, the Indiana Pacers can do in the playoffs.
That’s assuming they make it, of course. Even with last night’s win over the Miami Heat, the Pacers are just a game and a half out of the eighth-seeded Milwaukee Bucks, but only four games away from the Toronto Raptors in fourth.
If our answers were any indication, Indiana is an inconsistent team. At their best, they could beat the Washington Wizards and match up against them well. But if the less successful version of the Pacers shows up, it could be a five game series.
Again, apologies for the audio issues on the front end, but skip ahead to the five-minute mark to get both sides of our conversation.
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?
The show was recorded before Sunday’s game, making our hopes that Myles Turner would get out of his slump — he had 15 points, 8 rebounds — seem prophetic. As well as the notion that Al Jefferson wasn’t going to see many minutes when in fact he saw none against Miami.
Our next show will be next Sunday — unless some important news breaks before then — but we want you the fans to be involved. If you have questions or a topic you want us to talk about, let us know on our Facebook page or by using the hashtag #8pts9SecsLive on Twitter. Don’t be afraid to ask up anything. Get weird, Indiana. We want you to form what this show is and what it becomes. We’ll do our best to answer whatever you throw our way.
Next: Keep an Eye Out for These Players in the Big Dance
Hopefully, we can continue to talk about Indiana’s success if they can take advantage of their upcoming schedule, but we’ve seen all season how difficult that has been for Indiana.