It’s time for the Indiana Pacers to shock the world

The Indiana Pacers were only supposed to win 31 games. They’re now the 5th seeded team in the East and face a familiar foe: LeBron James.

The Indiana Pacers already shocked a few people this season by even being good. They weren’t supposed to be.  They were in the hunt for the third seed in the Eastern Conference until the last few games and only a handful of games from getting home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

What this Pacers team already did was special and will make them one of the more beloved Indiana squads when fans look back in a few years.

But now they face a familiar foe once again in the playoffs: LeBron James.

Despite being a four-five matchup, opinion is in the Cleveland Cavaliers favor by a large margin. The Pacers won the season series 3-1, but everyone knows Playoff LeBron is a different player.

So is this a worst-case scenario for the Pacers?

Far from it. It’s just time for them to shock the world.

This Pacers season is all about defying expectations on a team and personal level. Guys like Bojan Bogdanovic and Darren Collison weren’t supposed to be this good. Domantas Sabonis was just a “throw in” on the Victor Oladipo trade. Lance Stephenson was bound to fall off after his 10-game stint with the Pacers last season.

Indiana wasn’t supposed to win 48 games, but here we are.

Again, beating LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers is no easy task. But the Cavaliers aren’t the same team that played in three straight NBA Finals. They had to retool in the middle of the season just to get back on track. LeBron is LeBron, but the team around him isn’t the sure thing that they were the last three seasons.

And that’s why the Pacers should be hopeful.

An upset of Cleveland shouldn’t shock the world, but it will if the Pacers pull it off. Most people don’t realize Indiana has a slightly better net rating than Cleveland does on the season. While Cleveland has the better one from the All-Star break on, they aren’t miles better than the Pacers on paper.

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They have LeBron and Kevin Love, but you can argue Indiana has advantages in several matchups. George Hill scores less and turns the ball over more than Collison. Jeff Green may score more than Thaddeus Young, but he can’t defend as well. Bojan is more accurate than Rodney Hood even if they score the same amount of points. And Victor Oladipo is pretty damn good, by the way.

Again, LeBron is a huge advantage to have, but unlike last season, the Pacers aren’t clearly the lesser team. Cleveland will rightly be the favorite, but the gap between the two isn’t as wide as more casual fans might think.

Will the Pacers beat the Cavaliers? That’s hard to say. Can the Pacers beat the Cavaliers? They certainly can. That’s something that couldn’t realistically be said a season ago, or even if they would have matched up two years ago.

Times have changed, and so have the Pacers.

When the season began, things appeared hopeless. It was supposedly a rebuilding season. Maybe it still is, but what a way to set a foundation than by making it to the second round of the playoffs this season? Or further.

Next: The Pacers key to success? Working hard in the summer

It’s time to shock the world.