Will the Indiana Pacers exceed their preseason win prediction?

Indiana Pacers (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)
Indiana Pacers (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)

Are the Indiana Pacers going to exceed their over/under win total? It looks like they are going to do it.

We are right at the end of the NBA regular season, which means that we are about to find out if the Indiana Pacers (and all other NBA teams) are going to exceed their preseason win total prediction from Vegas.

Over/Under’s are the most fun thing to bet on, to me. Predicting how good every squad will be before the season starts is really fun. It allows you to guess and feel smart. It’s a good way to take stock of the league before the season starts, too.

It’s shocking how good Vegas is at pinpointing these over/under win totals. Most of them are within 2 or 3 games of the team’s actual record at this point in time. In the Eastern Conference, in fact, 3 teams still have yet to settle their over/under; the Toronto Raptors, the Miami Heat, and the Indiana Pacers. That’s crazy, given how far into the season we are.

More from 8 Points, 9 Seconds

The Pacers were pegged with a win total of 47.5 wins, essentially right in line with the record they had last season. Most predicted that the Pacers couldn’t get much better from 2017-18 when a bunch of former role players showed how good they can be.

But the team showed once again how talented this group is. Even with Victor Oladipo having a season-ending injury and missing over half the games, the squad couldn’t be slowed down. They currently have 47 wins with 3 games to go, meaning they could still get to 50.

That also means just 1 win gets them over the predicted win total for the second season in a row. There over/under was 31.5 last year. They smashed that. With raised expectations, the team was still able to hit the over, which is impressive.

In the final season of the Paul George era, the Pacers over/under was 43.5. They didn’t quite hit that number, finishing with 42 wins. Once they traded PG away, the team was written off. To (likely) hit the over in 2 straight seasons is a sweet accomplishment.

I hope you bet the over this year. And given how the team has performed the last two seasons, I hope you bet the over next year, too.