The Indiana Pacers half-assed their way to a loss against the Brooklyn Nets, locking themselves in the 5th seed.
There’s nothing nice to say about the loss on Sunday. The Indiana Pacers didn’t show up for the game against the Brooklyn Nets in anything other than in physical form. On top of that, Myles Turner rolled his ankle. Indiana should have listened to me and rested their players.
Annoyances with non-resting aside, the game looked like it was being played by one team that had already punched their playoff ticket and one that needed a win to seal the deal. There are no excuses for coming out as flat as the Pacers did, even if the result was an understandable collision of priorities between the two teams.
The Pacers half-assed it, to quote Indiana assistant coach Dan Burke.
The Pacers fell behind by 10+ points in the first half as the Nets were much more eager to chase down rebounds and 50/50 balls. A 37-17 disparity in rebounds at halftime was evidence of that. A 52-44 deficit in the score backs that up, too.
Myles Turner is fine, thankfully
While I’m not for overanalyzing things to the point of believing the Butterfly Effect, I wasn’t exactly thrilled to see Indiana’s starters playing as much as they did, especially when the effort wasn’t there.
It’s a bit much to blame coach Nate McMillan directly for Turner’s injury, but I do wish he would rest players more when appropriate. Momentum isn’t real and the Pacers issues are very tangible, not mental, so I hope Turner and some of the other starters sit out the last game and rest up for playoffs.
Free Bojan Bogdanovic
The team’s whole effort was in question so I’m not overly worried about Bojan Bogdanovic’s performance on Sunday, but I am a little worried about the playoffs.
Teams have been playing him differently as of late and limiting his effectiveness. His scoring is under 20 points a game over the last 10 games, a potential sign of trouble.
If the Pacers can’t free him up with screens or force defenses to more honestly cover other players, Indiana is looking at a very short series.
The Pacers finish the regular season against the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday at 8 p.m.