The Good, The Bad, and What’s Next: The Pacers are so feathery

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.

Coming into the second week with Victor Oladipo back from injury and the team surging, I predicted the Pacers would go 3-1 with games against two playoff teams and two rebuilding teams. I was correct, however, I assumed that loss would come against Cleveland and LeBron James.

However, it was the pesky Miami Heat who would provide the Pacers their only loss of the week.

Indiana kicked the week off against the Miami Heat and unfortunately got down early, as they’ve been known to do this season. While they tried to fight back and sneak out a win, they, unfortunately, were not able to do so, mostly due to having their worst 3-point shooting night of the season, shooting a nearly impossible 5.6% (1-18).

You’d think the Pacers would’ve learned their lesson about what happens when you get down early, but that wasn’t the case.

The Cavs got out to a 22 point lead only to see that evaporate in the second half behind extremely strong play from Darren Collison, Domantas Sabonis, and possibly my second favorite NBA player of all-time, Lance Stephenson. (Does anyone troll LeBron better?)

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?

The game came down to the final seconds, where the Pacers would ultimately pull out their third victory over the Cavaliers on the season after LeBron James was ruled out of bounds (very controversially) after the side of his size 15 shoe graced the edge of the baseline out of bounds line.

Still, with no Myles Turner, the Pacers headed out West for the beginning of a five-game road trip. They got it going early against Phoenix, jumping out to 30-16 first quarter lead behind strong play from Victor Oladipo (11 points and two steals) and never looked back.

Next was the Utah Jazz, who have been really struggling as of late without their star big man Rudy Gobert. The Pacers once again got out a great first quarter, getting up by as many as 10 , only to see the Jazz go on a 14-0 run behind likely rookie of the year Donovan Mitchell in the second quarter.

The Jazz wouldn’t have an answer (Mitchell tried his darnedest) for Victor Oladipo in the second half who finished the game with 28 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals as the Pacers grabbed their third straight victory, winning 109-94.

Let’s take a look back at the week that was.

Star of the week: Victor Oladipo

Surprise of the Week: Pacers win three in a row, making it five out of their last seven

The best thing of the week: Lance Stephenson trolling LeBron James, again…

The most disappointing thing of the week: Myles Turner has now missed four straight games, with no return in sight.

Last weeks Indiana Pacers schedule & results

Friday: Cleveland Cavaliers – W 97 – 95

Sunday: Phoenix Suns – W 120 – 97

Monday: Utah Jazz – W 109 – 94

The Good – The Pacers come back from 22 down to defeat the Cavaliers

I said it last week, and I’ll say it again.. What a week it was to be an Indiana Pacer!

In my opinion they’ve been one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference over the last two weeks, after picking up five victories in seven games. From the second half of the Cavaliers game on, the Pacers were absolutely dominant.

They came back from 22 points against Cleveland, a team that is expected to be in the NBA Finals come summer of 2018. Then went out west and blew out the Suns and Jazz on back-to-back nights which is never easy to do.

The Miami loss was tough, as the Heat were on the second night of a back-to-back after traveling from out of the country into Indy, and not to mention they were playing with a short bench. The Pacers got down early, made a big comeback, but unfortunately was not able to pull off the victory.

The good thing about that loss against the Heat is it prepared them to deal with the adversity of getting down big again, but instead of losing control late in the game, this time they were able to close it out against the best player on the planet and the Cavaliers.

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?

How fun was it to watch Lance irritate LeBron? It’s been three years since that glorious moment when Lance Stephenson blew in the ear of LeBron James, which is crazy to think, but thankfully for us we got to see Lance get under the skin of The King.

While Darren Collison was the best player on the floor for the Pacers on Friday night, shooting an incredible 81% and going for 22 points, it was Born Ready who spurred the Pacers on late in the game. Whether he was waving off teammates and knocking down stepback 3-pointers (that’s so Lance), making great passes, crashing the boards, or forcing LeBron James into technicals, it was Stephenson who’s energy and crazy-good defense that helped push the Pacers to 97-95 victory.

This game would go on to spark a three-game winning streak, but to me, it showed that the Pacers may actually have a chance to make noise in the playoffs. Against the current top five seeds in the Eastern Conference, the Pacers have a combined record of 4-4.

That’s certainly not great by any means, that includes a 2-0 record against the Cleveland Cavaliers, and a 1-1 record against the Toronto Raptors & Miami Heat.

I fully expect the Pacers to finish the season in the top six seeds in the Eastern Conference, which likely means that they get a first round match-up against Toronto, Cleveland, Washington, or Miami. Not one of those teams scares me, not one bit.

Myles Turner is out indefinitely

Myles Turner still has no return date in sight. Seems his elbow injury may be more serious than we first thought

The Pacers have played extremely well over the last four games, but don’t let that fool you. This team misses its up-and-coming center Myles Turner.

The Pacers announced via their Twitter account this week that Myles Turner had been diagnosed with a ligament sprain and muscle strain in his right elbow but would not require any surgery. However, he would miss the entire Western Conference road trip and then would be listed as “week-to-week,” from there on out.

Now I don’t know about you but when I saw that I may or may not have said “Oh S@%t” that’s bad.

I am typically a pretty positive person and take people at their word, but to me something smells fishy here. Let me take you back here for a second and layout the timeline.

Monday, January 8th – Indiana faces off against the Milwaukee Bucks. Myles Turner goes on a one-man fast break, slams it down and seems fine. Then throughout the rest of the game Turner could be seen grimacing and holding his elbow. No announcement or statement is made regarding an injury post-game, and everything goes on as per usual.

Tuesday, January 9th  – Per the Twitter account of Jeremiah Johnson, the Pacers announced that Myles Turner elbow was “sore” and that he was officially listed as questionable. However, no one from the Pacers mentioned anything. Instead it was Turner who told reporters that he hurt it on a dunk against the Bucks.

Wednesday, January 10th – This is when it gets interesting. The Pacers finally release an announcement saying quote “Center Myles Turner sustained a right elbow injury Monday night’s game against Milwaukee. Turner is being evaluated and an update will be provided when available. Turner will miss tonight’s game against Miami and Friday’s game against Cleveland.

That same night against the Miami Heat was the first time we all got a peek at Myles Turner, who showed up to the game sporting a dope trench coat. But it wasn’t his street clothes that caught everyone by surprise. Instead, it was the bionic, transformer-like brace/contraption that was on that injured arm.

Saturday, January 13th – The Pacers announce that Myles Turner would miss his third straight game as the team traveled to Phoenix in its first of five games on the west coast.

Monday, January 15th – Exactly one week after the injury took place against the Bucks, we finally got an “official” update on what exactly was going on with Turner. The Pacers announced that Turner would be out for the remainder of the Western Conference road trip with what was being called a “ligament sprain and muscle strain.”

I don’t want to be a Debbie-downer here, but I really am not sure what to think? Do I take the Pacers word? Is it really just a strain? Why is he wearing a transformer on his arm? Why did he rip his pants?

Let’s hope that this is just a minor injury and that Turner can return when the Pacers come home on Wednesday night to take on the Suns.

The Pacers have won three straight, but we’ve seen them get beat every night but one in points in the paint as well as be out-rebounded twice. They allowed Hassan Whiteside to have his best game since coming back from injury, even coming off a game the night before in Toronto, and they let Donovan Mitchell own the inside, and get just about whatever he wanted.

Don’t get me wrong Domantas Sabonis and Al Jefferson both played very well over the last four games, but neither is going to move the needle defensively. Bottom line Myles Turner needs to get ASAP!

What’s Next?

The West Coast road trip continues with three winnable games and a battle with the Kawhi-less Spurs

The Week Ahead

Thursday: Portland Trail Blazers

Friday: Los Angeles Lakers

Sunday: San Antonio Spurs

Wednesday: Phoenix Suns

The Pacers are currently sitting at 24-20 after three straight wins against the Cavs, Suns, and Jazz. The first two games of the Western Conference road trip have been extremely impressive, with the Pacers winning by a combined 38 points.

Tonight the Pacers get a mediocre Blazers team that has struggled mightily throughout the season to get anything from players not named Damian Lilliard & C.J. McCollum, tomorrow night they get a bad Lakers team, and next Wednesday they get a rematch with the Suns, who they just beat by 23 points this past week.

The only game that makes you a tad bit uncomfortable is the match-up with the Spurs, even with them losing star forward Kawhi Leonard and coming back-to-back bad performances against two of the NBA’s worst teams, the Hawks & Nets.

If the Pacers are able to go 4-0, or even 3-1 over the next week, that’ll put them at either 27-21, or 28-20, which should be good enough to move them up at least one spot into the fifth seed behind the Miami Heat.

If I’m the Pacers I want to avoid two teams come playoff time.. The Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Anyone else, and I feel like there is a legit shot to advance to the second round, which would be the biggest accomplishment since the Pacers went to the Eastern Conference Finals two years in a row.

Next: Oladipo vs DeRozan: Who deserved to start in the ASG?

See ya next week folks.