Is the Motorola patch the reason for the Indiana Pacers’ recent struggles?

Ever since the Indiana Pacers began their jersey sponsorship with Motorola, they’ve lost games. Let’s take a deeper look at what is the real cause.

The Indiana Pacers recently announced their sponsorship agreement with Motorola, joining the many NBA teams that now sport the jersey patches of the corporate partners. Other than the traditionalist’s argument over what should and shouldn’t be on a sports jersey, there wasn’t too much chatter among fans.

Well, except for a few Motorola Razr jokes and comments the company is irrelevant — despite the fact their stock continues an upward trend since 2009 — there is hardly any real controversy about the sponsorship or the jersey patch. Right?

Wrong. Very wrong.

The Pacers are 0-2 since the patch was sewn on, and more tragically, the losses ended an 8-game winning streak for Indiana.

Normally, I wouldn’t entertain such conspiracies. They’re foolishness. But losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers was the wakeup call. Clearly, something was wrong.

Oh sure, you could talk about Indiana not being motivated — F’ing with the game, as Nate McMillan puts it — and that they played down to the level of the hapless Cavs.

But that’s clearly an excuse and what THEY want you to think.

The loss to the Raptors? Even more troubling. Indiana led by nearly double-digits before clamming up near the end of the game. Again, you could blame Victor Oladipo’s tunnel vision or general lack of offensive creativity at the end, but… that’s what THEY want you to think.

It’s the patch. We can’t blame these failures on the Pacers themselves, can we?

No. Perhaps the added weight of the patch throws off their shooting.

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After all, their field goal percentage dropped by 3 percent, and their 3-point percentage took a four-point dive in the previous pair of games as compared to the streak.

NBA players are well-tuned machines, but even a few grams on their chest could cause problems. You wouldn’t throw a piece of metal into a turbine, would you? BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT INDIANA DID BY PUTTING A PATCH ON THE JERSEYS.

Case closed. It’s clear the patch is to blame. Sorry, Motorola, but we may need to talk if this disturbing trend doesn’t change soon. The Pacers can fight their way back to winning.

But THEY want you to believe. THEY want you to think Indiana can play out of this — what they want you to think — self-created rut. Be a good sheep and believe that.

Baa baa baa.

Because sometimes people clearly don’t read sarcasm, here’s your notice that this post is obviously satirical. The Pacers need to quit screwing around and get back to winning.