Indiana Pacers Week One preview: Many challenges await

The Indiana Pacers tip-off their season this week, and each game of Week 1 presents a unique challenge.

Indiana Pacers basketball? It’s back in two days, baby.

The Cers’ kick off the 2018-19 campaign on Wednesday with a battle against the Memphis Grizzlies in Bankers Life Fieldhouse. After that, they travel to Milwaukee to take on Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday, and then it’s back to BLF for a back-to-back against the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday. Each game presents its own unique challenge.

Game 1: Memphis Grizzlies

If you’ll recall, the Indiana Pacers were defeated by Memphis in the preseason 109-104 in overtime. However, the only starter for either team that played in that game was Garrett Temple, so I would argue that result is pretty meaningless in projecting what may happen on Wednesday.

Last season, these two teams faced off twice, with the Pacers winning both. However, two things should be noted. The first is that the combined margin of victory across both games was only seven points – they were both battles from start to finish. The second is that Mike Conely Jr. didn’t play in either game, and he will be playing on Wednesday. This Grizzlies team is better.

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Memphis had no trouble with Victor Oladipo last season, holding him to just 13/32 shooting in the two matchups. Schematically, the way they threw defenders at Vic on the strong side was hard for him to handle.

Thankfully, that same scheme opened things up for other Pacers’. Darren Collison melted Memphis in their first game last year for 30 points and had 16 in the second meeting. Conley being back should slow DC down, but not entirely.

A big swing in this matchup that benefits the Indiana Pacers: Tyreke Evans has switched teams. He is going to help the Pacers second unit be much better than the ones that played against Memphis last year (Joe Young got burn in one of the games). That will be huge.

Overall, this re-tooled Memphis team is better than the ones the Pacers barely got past last season. But the Pacers are better now too and have home court advantage. Most teams play their best on opening night (remember when Indiana scored 140 last year?) so Indiana should be the superior team.

Prediction: Pacers over Grizzlies 109-103

Game 2: Milwaukee Bucks

In a league driven by stars, the Bucks fit the bill of a team that should be solid every year. They have a top-5 MVP candidate in Giannis Antetokounmpo and have some tightly fitting surrounding talent.

Their biggest problem last season was Head Coach Jason Kidd, who made questionable decisions in just about every facet of coaching. He has since been replaced with Mike Budenholzer, who is in the best handful of NBA coaches in the world. That should help the Bucks even if none of their players get better.

Also, Giannis is hitting pull-up threes now, which makes him even more of a problem. Check this out from the preseason:

Compared to most other players, Thaddeus Young actually did a pretty good job guarding the Greek Freak last year. In the Bucks one win over the Pacers last year, Giannis went off for 31. In the other three games, all Pacer wins, Giannis averaged under 20 points per game, largely thanks to great D from Young.

That will be a key in this game, but stopping Giannis is a tall task. Now, the Bucks have added Brook Lopez to space the floor and give him more room, which will only make him more dangerous as it will pull Myles Turner away from the rim on defense.

The Pacers had a different star in every game against Milwaukee last year: Domantas Sabonis in the first one, Thad Young in the second, Victor Oladipo in the third, and Bojan Bogdanovic in the final game.

It will take a team effort to beat Milwaukee on the road in this one. They are ready to go with a new coach and some new additions that fit well around their star. This one will be tough for Indiana without someone stepping up big time.

Prediction: Bucks over Pacers 105-99

Game 3: Brooklyn Nets

Back to Bankers Life for the first back-to-back of the season. Ugh.

As an aside from the author: I hate back-to-backs. They produce uglier basketball, they increase the chance of injury, and they make it more likely that an undeserving team gets a victory. They are awful.

On the bright side for the Pacers, the Nets are also on a back-to-back, so each team is, in theory, equally disadvantaged, though the Pacers are changing time zones and the Nets are not.

Last year the Nets were nothing more than a slight inconvenience to the Pacers. Indiana went 4-0 against the lowly squad from Brooklyn and put up 108 or more in every game including the 140 point masterpiece on opening night.

The Nets are counting on internal improvement to be their guide this season. The key additions for Brooklyn don’t figure to play much, so they are mostly looking at a similar rotation to previous seasons outside of the departure of Jeremy Lin… who only played in one game.

However, Kenny Atkinson is a great coach for this Brooklyn team, and they could be sneaky good. They have a plethora of solid three-point shooters and two solid, young ball-handling guards in Spencer Dinwiddie and D’Angelo Russell.

This Nets defense will still not be very good, though, and they will be playing on tired legs. Victor Oladipo averaged 27.8 points per game against the Nets last season, and he will have a chance to put up big numbers again in this one. He should be able to lead the team to a high flying offense on Saturday.

Myles Turner also thrived against Nets bigs last year (17.8 points and 10 rebounds per game), and they have given the keys to Jarrett Allen as the starter this season. Allen is good, but he is in his first year as the full-time starter. Turner should be able to put up nice numbers again.

All in all, I think the Nets will be better this year. But not so much better that they become a threat to beat Indiana in BLF. This one should be the easiest game of the week.

Prediction: Pacers over Nets 112-104

If all goes as I have predicted, the Indiana Pacers will be 2-1 at the opening week’s end. That is a solid start to a season with hightened expectations. Let’s do this thing.