Since 82 doesn’t break down into even quarters, the Indiana Pacers technically zoomed past the season’s quarter pole at halftime of Tuesday’s game in Phoenix. It’s been an interesting, if imperfect, first quarter of the year. Here are six things to either like or dislike so far.
We’ve made it. It took 21 games but we made it, a quarter of the Indiana Pacers 2018-19 season has been completed. The first quarter of games went… okay. Epical tomes won’t be written about them, but there was more good than bad.
The Pacers spent most of the first quarter in the East’s upper third. Indiana is one of just six Eastern teams with a winning record, which is embarrassing, not for the Pacers but for the Conference. The 18-19 team is currently a game better (13-8) than the magical 17-18 squad’s start (12-9).
Victor Oladipo, though currently out, proved last year was no fluke. He averaged nearly 24 ppg (while shooting 45% from the field and 34% from three) in games he’s played uninjured. That would be good for 15th best in the league, instead, he’s currently 21st. The Pacers, unlike last year, aren’t hapless in his absence either. Indiana has won more than they lost in the five games Oladipo’s been absent for, a significant improvement on the 0-7 mark Indiana posted last season.
But, Oladipo’s continued journey to stardom doesn’t really qualify as a thrilling revelation, and it definitely doesn’t qualify as a disappointment. Here are six observations from this season’s first quarter that do count as one of those things.
1. The blossoming of Bogdanovic and Sabonis
Bojan Bogdanovic and Domantas Sabonis each showed up to play this season. Both posted career years last season, only to better them this season.
Bogdanovic has spent the first quarter of the season proving he belongs among starting small forwards in the league. At 53%, he’s the league’s best three-point shooter by a mile. He’s shooting 32% better from deep this year than last year when he shot a stellar 40%. But Bogdanovic’s biggest growth has come inside the three-point arc. His ability to attack off the dribble has dramatically improved. His passes are sharper, and he’s been swiftly driving past real-life defenders.
Bogdanovic was good last year, but he was hardly dynamic. That has changed this season.
Likewise, Sabonis continues his meteoric improvement year-after-year. His points and rebounds per game jumped by 97% and 114%, respectively, from his rookie season in Oklahoma City to his debut season in Indiana last year. He’s improved by 24% and 26% again this season. He’s grabbing two full rebounds more per game this year over last and his shooting percentage has rocketed from 51.4% to 66.7% (a 30% bump) that’s good for second in the entire NBA (he still leads the league in true shooting percentage). And he’s doing it all in just 24.7 minutes per game.
Sabonis is at his best when attacking in a crowded area. If the Indiana Pacers let him dribble 3-6 times before shooting (this normally happens when he catches the ball at the top of the key and drives or backing some loser down) he’s making 70.6% on his attempts. Sabonis is also the rare player who puts up his best numbers without space around him. He’s shooting 71.9% with defenders in “very tight” coverage, as opposed to 56.5% when he’s wide open, per NBA Advanced Stats. Those numbers mean that when he attacks the paint, thereby taking it to the defense, Sabonis is flourishing.
Since he’s been driving better, that has only made his passing game more lethal. Sabonis accounts for the sixth highest percentage of his team’s assists (among players at least 6’10”) in the entire league. The five giants who account for a higher percentage? Nikola Jokic (maybe the best passing big man since Domantas’ father Arvydas retired), Ben Simmons (a point guard), Pau Gasol, Blake Griffin, and Giannis Antetokounmpo. The only player of those five with a lower usage rate than Sabonis is Gasol.
The moral of the story is that good things tend to happen when Sabonis touches the ball.