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

Each Thursday we’ll take a look back at the week that was for the Indiana Pacers and give you what was good, what was bad, and what’s coming up next.

There couldn’t have been a better time for the Indiana Pacers to get back their soon to be All-Star guard Victor Oladipo from injury. After seeing Dipo miss four straight games while being in the midst of a five-game losing streak, the Pacers were desperate for something good to happen.

Oladipo coming back transformed the teams play basically overnight, on the way to two blow out wins and one very close loss. It was a great feeling to be a Pacers fan this week (except Wednesday night).

One week ago you were scratching your head, slamming your fists and demanding everyone be traded, and this week you were giving out high fives left and right, screaming to the heavens that the Pacers were headed to the NBA Finals.

While a loss to the short-handed Miami Heat hurt, you have to take into consideration that they are one of the hottest teams in the NBA, winning six games in a row and eight of their last 10. The Pacers looked much improved over the course of the last seven days, and I fully expect that to continue as they get Myles Turner back from injury.

Let’s take a look back at the week.

Star(s) of the week: Domantas Sabonis & Victor Oladipo 

Surprise of the Week: T.J. Leaf emerges from the depths of the bench to go 6-6 for 15 points while looking like a possible future all-star.

The most disappointing thing of the week: Resident old man Damien Wilkins waived on the eve of all non-guaranteed contracts becoming guaranteed, after starting in his first and only game as a Pacer and putting up 11 points in 22 minutes of play.

Last weeks Indiana Pacers schedule & results

Wednesday: Milwaukee Bucks – L 101 – 122

Saturday: Chicago Bulls – W 125 – 86

Monday: Milwaukee Bucks – W 109 – 96

Wednesday: Miami Heat – L 114 – 106

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.

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 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

The Bad – Pacers lose Myles Turner for at least two games

Murphy’s law says “things will go wrong in any given situation, if you give them a chance,” or more commonly known as, “whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.” After looking like a completely different player during the Pacers five-game losing streak, Myles Turner got it going again over the last two games.

Turner was averaging a measly 9.8 points and 4.4 rebounds and had a hard time guarding the likes of Karl-Anthony Towns, John Henson and Robin Lopez during that stretch of games in which the Pacers were dominated nearly every night out, but over the last two, he’s bounced back quite nicely.

Turner put up 13 and 5 in the win against the Bulls on Saturday and followed that up with a 15 and 6 performance against Milwaukee on Monday night, including a nasty big man slam.

Unfortunately for both Turner and the Pacers, the aforementioned dunk has since been determined as the play that caused the injury that will keep Turner out for the next two games (at least.)

More from Pacers News

• 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?

Turner’s strong rim protecting was greatly missed during the Pacers 114-106 loss on Wednesday night, as the Heat big men combined for 42 points and 20 rebounds and the entire team combined for 40 points in the paint.

While Turner’s play has been up-and-down over the last few weeks, his ability to protect the rim and intimidate opposing offenses is undeniable.

As for the matchup with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Turner would’ve presented a matchup problem for stretch four Kevin Love who has started at center for most of the season, and Tristan Thompson who struggles to guard a big man who stretches the defense out of the post.

The Pacers will need more big performances from backup bigs Domantas Sabonis and T.J. Leaf in the absence of Myles Turner. Also expect to see veteran Al Jefferson, and/or second-round pick Ike Anigbogu get extending playing time while Turner is out.

What’s Next: The King comes to town and the Western road trip begins

Things don’t get any easier for the Pacers as they get a matchup with the King himself LeBron James and the struggling Cleveland Cavaliers.  The team will also begin a four-game western road trip to close the week, as they face two streaky teams in the Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz.

It’ll be interesting to see what team shows up for the Pacers, the team we saw last week that struggled to guard anybody and were constantly outmatched, or the team that we saw against Chicago & Milwaukee that looked unstoppable (aside from the fourth quarter against MIL).

Going 2-1 this week would be considered a huge success, and 3-0 would be the cherry on top to what has been a fun few days.

Next: More minutes mean more buckets for Joe Young

Oh yeah… if you haven’t already, go vote for Victor Oladipo.