3. Pacers fans need to root for good health for the rest of the year
What's one thing that all playoff teams hope for at the end of the year? It's good health. The Pacers have already been dealt a couple of tough blows in that department over the course of the year. Mathurin is already out for the year with his shoulder injury. We know what Haliburton has dealt with on the hamstring front.
Another injury would truly be devastating for the Pacers. While they are a deep team, they need to have a deep team to win in the playoffs. Aaron Nesmith missed a few games and the defense was much worse. An injury to the wrong player could sink the Pacers.
The Pacers could survive an injury from one of the bench players. They couldn't from one of the starters, especially Haliburton or Pascal Siakam. Those two are the most important players on the roster. With fewer than ten games left, those are they guys who run the offense.
There is nothing that the Pacers can do to necessarily prevent a fluke injury. To be honest, that's what Haliburton's was. He slipped on a new floor that the Pacers put in against the Celtics for the "City Edition" uniforms. That's not likely to ever happen again.
Now that we have talked about what Pacers fans should root for, let's talk about the two main things they should root against.