The Indiana Pacers are up 2-1 against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The situation feels eerily similar to the 2012 series against him and the Miami Heat.
The Indiana Pacers are up 2-1 in a playoff series against LeBron James. They are feeling confident right now, ready to shock the world. A win in Game 4 tonight puts the Cleveland Cavaliers on the ropes.
And that’s how it felt against the Miami Heat in 2012.
Indiana has been here before. LeBron has been here before. Unfortunately, we know how that turned out last time.
That was actually when I started venturing into basketblogging. Fresh out of college, too much time on my hands, but what I wrote back then feels similar to the situation the Pacers are in now with LeBron James: It feels like it is the Pacers series to lose.
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Now, when I wrote that, LeBron wasn’t three-time NBA champion LeBron. He was the one that lost to the Dallas Mavericks in a historic collapse the year before. It wasn’t so clear that he was capable of rallying back against an up-and-coming Pacers team. We’d seem weakness before, and Indiana was ready to pounce.
Or at least that’s what I felt in 2012.
Maybe I spent too much time at Panera Bread writing and not enough time watching basketball, but hey you got to start somewhere. For what it’s worth, that blog led to the Dorkballer blog, which eventually led me to 8 Points, 9Seconds when I caught Jared Wade’s attention.
But anyway, back to now, and back to the Pacers. They have LeBron down 2-1. While a missing Chris Bosh was the reason for the Heat’s struggles and not just a team that isn’t playing well — and may not actually be good — the Cavaliers have LeBron. And since 2012, that’s meant doom for the Pacers.
But these Pacers are different
I’m not ready to say the Pacers have this series in their grasp. While some things are the same — LeBron needs to average 30 or more points for his team to win, Indiana doesn’t believe they’re underdogs, Darren Collison and Lance Stephenson are Pacers, and the team is on the rise — plenty of things are different.
For starters, LeBron is at the end or already out of his prime. That doesn’t mean he lost the title of best player on the planet, but at 33 years old, there are things his body don’t do as well anymore. He is physical, but the pure athleticism is slowing becoming old man strength.
He can still shoot, he can still power through the lane and get buckets, but it isn’t happening with the same ferocity as it did then.
He is still LeBron, but he hitting the peak of his powers in the early 2010s.
The team around him this time isn’t nearly as good as that Heat team was. Other than himself and Kevin Love, it is debating you’d switch out any of Pacers for one of the Cavaliers. This isn’t the same Cavaliers team that won a title. They were stripped down and rebuilt at the trade deadline in hopes of making a better team. They may be better than the Cavaliers team that started this season, but they aren’t winning a title.
But the biggest difference is this Pacers team can beat LeBron. I was foolish to think the not quite ready for prime time Pacers were going to upset LeBron and the Heat in 2012. I didn’t understand basketball in the same way as I do now.
But you can see something different in this team. They’re more well-rounded than the 2012 team. Back then it was defense or nothing for Indiana. This team can stop you in your tracks, but they can also drop 30 points in a quarter on a fairly regular basis.
Maybe Victor Oladipo’s the right difference maker in this particular series with his speed and gun-slinging attitude. We saw what Bojan Bogdanovic can do on a given night to push Indiana to a win. This team is special, we know that.
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I don’t know if this team is going to win the series, but this team isn’t losing the next three games. That’s what happened in 2012, but it won’t happen to the Pacers in 2018. If the first three games were any indication, we’re set for another wild ride in Game 4.