The Indiana Pacers may have had struggles due to injury but all signs point to many of the players having a strong stretch.
Injuries and missed games are inevitable in today’s NBA and the Indiana Pacers have the first-hand experience.
The Pacers have only two players that have played in every game so far this season — Doug McDermott and Justin Holiday.
The team has been fairly riddled with injuries early on, however, the injury report was completely clear for the first time versus the New York Knicks this past Saturday.
However, that wouldn’t last long
T.J. Warren is his first missed game of the season on February 3rd against the Mavericks and would also miss the last contest against the Toronto Raptors.
Luckily, the Pacers have consistently adjusted to the injury woes.
T.J. McConnell has missed just two games while Domantas Sabonis and Aaron Holiday have missed three and four games respectively.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, Victor Oladipo missed 47 games to start the season. Malcolm Brogdon has missed 14 games with various ailments. Then, Jeremy Lamb and Myles Turner have both missed 11 games.
Despite all the slew of injuries, Indiana is now trying to get back in a grove with some different rotation combinations.
While Oladipo is back, he is still working back into his two-time all-star form. There is still rust needing to be worked off.
Much of the durability on this roster could have been predicted. After playing in 75 games as a rookie, Brogdon appeared in 48 and 64 games in the last two seasons.
Lamb has only missed less than 10 games three times over his seven years in the league before becoming a Pacer.
Turner has avoided major ailments but still manages to miss several games annually as well.
On the other hand, Sabonis has never missed more than eight games in a season. In fact, he has only sat in 20 of the 296 regular-season games he has been available.
McDermott has never played a complete season but has two separate seasons with 81 games plus 77 appearances last season.
McConnell has also played in 81 games twice. He has had durability similar to Sabonis, missing just 16 of his possible 378 games in his career.
Topping them slightly, Justin Holiday has played in all 82 games twice, including last season.
Then there is Warren, who has been a pleasant surprise this season. Coming into this year, he had never played in more than 66 games in a season.
Unfortunately, he has found the worst possible time to suffer a concussion as Oladipo is attempting to get integrated back into the rotation.
Regardless, Indiana has been fairly healthy outside of Oladipo and the first month of the season. This has allowed for a level of consistency that has allowed them to perform to the level they have. Getting Warren back and keeping other pillars in the rotation is key to the squad moving forward. Based on past seasons, expect more of what we have seen so far.