The Good, The Bad, and What’s Next: Guess who’s back, back again, Dipo’s Back, tell a friend

The Good – Victor Oladipo is back and the Pacers suddenly look like themselves again 

What a week it was for the Indiana Pacers. Coming off last week where the team looked discombobulated, overwhelmed, and overmatched in every game, especially those without Victor Oladipo, this week was a complete 180. The Pacers went 2-2 and dominated two opponents who had knocked them off previously, the Chicago Bulls and the Milwaukee Bucks.

The week started out rough when the aforementioned Bucks put on a dunk clinic, en route to picking up a 122-101 win on their home court. They were led by the Greek Freak, Giannis Antetokounmpo, who put up 31 points and 9 rebounds in just 29 minutes of play.

The Pacers experienced struggles all over the place, just as they had in their previous 4 losses. The starting frontcourt combined for just 26 points and 11 rebounds and got an abysmal performance from Thaddeus Young (-22) and Myles Turner (-17) which had become the norm during the losing streak.

Everything changed on Saturday when the Pacers announced that star guard Victor Oladipo would be available to play against Chicago after missing four straight with a knee injury. When the Pacers took the floor against the Bulls, an unbelievable transformation took place right in front of everyone’s eyes.

It didn’t take long for Dipo to make his presence felt. On the first play of the game, the soon to be All-Star guard grabbed a Thaddeus Young missed layup and slammed it home, causing the roof to nearly explode off of Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

Oladipo didn’t stop there, he finished the first quarter with 9 points and a whopping 5 steals, and would go on to score 23 points and register a season-high 9 assists.

His presence on the floor helped the Pacers play at a level that we haven’t seen all season. It wasn’t just Dipo who balled out against Chicago, it was nearly everyone on the roster. Seven players finished in double figures including rookie T.J Leaf who got his first chance at extended playing time and made the most of it putting up a perfect stat line, going 6-6 for 15 points.

Veteran journeyman Damien Wilkins put up a season-high 11 points in what would be his Pacers swan song. Reserve guard Joe Young continued to play well scoring 11 points in 21 minutes of action, and Domantas Sabonis who was the star of the week finished with 22 points.

After putting a whooping on Chicago, the Pacers moved on to another opponent who had recently knocked them off, the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Pacers once again were energized by having Victor Oladipo in the starting lineup getting out to huge first quarter, where they hung 37 while holding the Bucks to just 16 points.

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The ball movement was crisp, the rebounding was solid, the shots were falling and even after a late collapse by the bench in the 4th quarter the Pacers put the game away, 109-96.

For the second straight game, the Pacers got solid performances from nearly everyone, having seven players in double figures, and getting points from all 10 players who entered the game. What was even more impressive in my opinion, was the ability to hold Giannis Antetokompo to just 7 points, and one field goal in the first half while finishing the game at -19. Damn!

The week, unfortunately, ended with some rough news and a bad ending thanks in part to the Miami Heat.

First, the Pacers announced that starting center Myles Turner would miss at least the next two games with an elbow injury (don’t worry, we’ll touch on that more in a bit).

Then the team would go on to drop a tough game at home to the Heat, a squad playing with just 8 players, on the second night of a back-to-back.

The Pacers got behind early again thanks to hot shooting from Miami and the inability to protect the rim without Myles Turner. Even with the Pacers only making one three in the game (1/18), which is nearly impossible to do in today’s NBA, and the Heat squandering a late lead, the Pacers weren’t able to make it happen, dropping their 20th game of the season 114-106.

Even though it came in a loss, there were plenty of bright spots for the Pacers in the weeks final game.

• Domantas Sabonis continued his strong play in his first start since November, posting 18 points and 7 rebounds
• Thaddeus Young seems to be healing from the calf injury that’s hampered him over the last few weeks, posting double digits for the second straight game – 12 points and 9 rebounds (he did struggle with guarding the Heat’s big front line)
• Lance Stephenson did Lance Stephenson things, having another great game off the bench (15 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists)
• Victor Oladipo looked more and more comfortable out on the floor and continues to show why he deserves to be named an All-Star