The Indiana Pacers schedule is here. Let’s look at three things you should know about it.
The 2018-2019 NBA schedule is released! It’s a time Indiana Pacers fans have been waiting for, and a good opportunity for us to take a zoomed out view of what the blue and gold will be looking at this year. To start, we’re going to look at 3 important stretches of the Pacers season, starting with their first 5 games.
Rough Launch
The Pacers will start off at home against the Grizzlies. Memphis finished only 22-60 last year but played the year mostly without Mike Conley as he recovered from surgery in his heel. They also were without Chandler Parsons as he battled through various issues. Memphis projects to be a potential playoff team as long as Mike Conley and Marc Gasol are playing, and won’t be a pushover when all are healthy to start the year. The opening night won’t be easy.
Game 2 will feature the Indiana Pacers in Milwaukee. The Bucks added Brook Lopez’s shooting and soft touch to a 44-38 team that finished 7th in the East. The Bucks also fought through a coaching change and endured below average coaching throughout the 2017-18 campaign, and added a well-respected coach in Mike Budenholzer to try to squeeze more out of an underperforming core. They feature length at every position and a likely future MVP in Giannis Antetokoumpo. The Bucks project to be in the East playoff hunt, and likely a tough matchup for the Pacers in game two.
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Game three brings the Brooklyn Nets to Indianapolis. The Nets were 28-54 during the 17-18 season and figure to be marginally improved. They’re not out of their rebuild yet and still lack the top end talent to compete night-to-night. Despite the Nets being hungry for success by all appearances, the Pacers should be the superior squad in this matchup.
The fourth game sees the Pacers travel to Minnesota to face off with the 47 win Timberwolves. The Wolves are returning their young core of Karl Anthony-Towns and Andrew Wiggins, and Jimmy Butler will be playing in a contract year. If Tom Thibodeau can help Wiggins and KAT figure out the defensive end, these wolves will be very difficult to beat. As is, playing them in Minnesota will present a real challenge for the Pacers.
The fifth game will have the Pacers in San Antonio, facing a 47 win Spurs team that essentially added DeMar DeRozan and Jakob Poetl for nothing (compared to last seasons roster). Losing Kawhi Leonard certainly crushes the championship potential of the Spurs, but they’re primed to be a 50 win team behind DeRozan, LaMarcus Aldridge, and the fantastic coaching of the ageless Gregg Popovich. The Pacers needed a Victor Oladipo step-back buzzer-beating three-pointer to beat the Spurs last year in October, and they would likely be in for a dogfight again this year.
Given all this, the Pacers face tough sledding to start the year. They’ll be facing off against four potentially very good teams in their first five games and will have to start the season well to avoid being in the hole immediately.
It does get better
On the bright side, the Pacers play 12 home games in a 17 game stretch from January 15th to February 22nd, including a 5 and 6 game home stand. Their home opponents approach the season with quite a bit of variability (Phoenix, Philadelphia, Dallas, Charlotte, Toronto, Golden State, L.A. Lakers, L.A. Clippers, Cleveland, Charlotte, Milwaukee, and New Orleans). Out of those, only Philly, Toronto (if Kawhi Leonard is still a Raptor), and Golden State project to be solidly better than the Pacers. This presents a great opportunity for the Pacers to make up some ground in the standings, or separate themselves from what is likely to be a hotly contested competition heading into the All-Star break.
… for a bit
This pre-all-star break respite gets even more important when you realize that most of March looks like a gauntlet awaiting this Pacers team. They play 11 games between March seventh and March 29th. Ten of those games are against teams with likely playoff aspirations (at Milwaukee, at Philadelphia, vs Oklahoma City, at Denver, at Portland, at L.A. Clippers, at Golden State, vs Denver, at Oklahoma City, at Boston). 8 of the 11 total games are on the road, and all 8 are against playoff competition. The only game in the entire stretch against a likely non playoff team is March 12th vs the Knicks at home.
Overall
A schedule is a schedule. The Pacers will play 41 home games and 41 road games. They’ll play roughly the same teams as everyone else in their division, and will have good and bad stretches. Looking at the schedule is fun, and helpful for understanding when to avoid getting too high or too low. This year’s Pacers have a chance to be a 50 win team. We’ve explored some of the likely highs and lows that the season will bring; all we can do now is kick back and get ready for another year of Pacers basketball.