Indiana Pacers: Here is how season would have finished according to NBA 2K

The NBA season is suspended, but if it continued as expected, how might the year have wrapped for the Indiana Pacers according to NBA 2K?

With the NBA season finished, Indiana Pacers fans might turn to NBA 2K to get their basketball fix in. In fact, the NBA as a league is pushing a players-only 2K tournament that Domantas Sabonis will be included in, to be aired on ESPN starting Friday over the course of 10 days.

I was anxious to see how the season would turn out for the Pacers myself, even if just through a simulation. The team seemed to be on the up-and-up when the season went on hold by surprise and there’s reason to believe a late-season surge up the standings would be possible.

Especially with Victor Oladipo finally getting his groove back, I like to think things would have ended well for Indy heading into the playoffs.

Well, wonder no more. We simulated the remainder of the season via NBA 2K’s “from today” feature to see how things would end up.

Here’s how it played out.

The season would have been a rough finish for the Indiana Pacers according to NBA 2K

When the season suspended, the Indiana Pacers had 17 games remaining. According to NBA 2K, here’s how those games would have played out:

• 76ers: L, 114-100
• Warriors: W, 108-106
• Heat: W, 91-89
• Cavs: W, 116-114
• Suns: W, 105-78
• Magic: L, 108-107
• Rockets: W, 130-94
• Kings: L, 122-109
• Clippers: L, 127-103
• Lakers: L, 128-99
• Nets: L, 121-112
• Wizards: W, 101-93
• Heat: L, 125-113
• Celtics: L, 124-110
• Magic: W, 123-102
• Spurs: W, 120-112
• Wizards: L, 108-93

The Pacers reel off a four-game streak of wins but later drop four in a row. Injuries continue to be an issue, as we’ll detail on the following slide.

They were impressively mediocre in this 2K simulation to close the season. Parsing the games, though, nothing here feels that far-fetched. You would like to think the Pacers can pull out a win over Sacramento, but it being on the road justifies the loss (but not really a 36-point blowout).

The huge losses here are the biggest concern, but some of that can be chalked up to the 2K machine doing its thing.

8-9 in the final 17 is not a good look for a team that looking to improve their postseason standing and surge with Victor Oladipo growing more comfortable with his role after returning in late January.

This would place the Pacers in the 6th seed in the East dropping one spot from fifth where they sit now, the Sixers jumping them for that fifth spot.

The East would lay out like this:

1. Milwaukee Bucks
2. Toronto Raptors
3. Boston Celtics
4. Miami Heat
5. Philadelphia 76ers
6. Indiana Pacers
7. Brooklyn Nets
8. Orlando Magic

Philly making a late push might seem far-fetched, but they have trended toward surging in the latter parts of the regular season over the last few years, so it’s possible the playoffs may have fallen like this exactly.